posted May 15, 2007

It's all well and good you supporters of other teams weighing in with your comments about City's plight and the need for stability and all that, but if you had shelled out your hard-earned money to watch the purile, uninspiring, unentertaining football that we have been subjected to this past season at Eastlands, you would understand why Stuart had to go.

It's all well and good talking about success, results and trophies, but realistically this is only going to happen for a handful of increasingly wealthy clubs in this country now. Therefore, the supporters of clubs like City and Newcastle etc. are more reliant on being entertained and getting our money's worth and hoping against hope that we can find a level of consistency that may one day enable us to experience a small piece of glory again.

For all his tactical naivety, Kevin Keegan brought some highly enjoyable, entertaining football to Manchester City, with players such as Ali Bernabia, Eyal Berkovic and Shaun Wright-Phillips who had you off your seat all game. Sadly, Stuart Pearce was unable to produce players like that, albeit on a tight budget, and I'm afraid the only time most fans rose from their seats last season was to leave the ground early and put an end to the day's misery.

Manchester City fans like myself have been brought up on a staple diet of entertainment. When I was a young lad it was Bell, Lee, Summerbee, Rodney Marsh, Dennis Tueart, Peter Barnes - they just kept coming. Whoever takes over at the City of Manchester Stadium next has to get the team back playing to those traditions, win the fans back and justify the high cost of watching top level football. It's a long road back.

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posted May 15, 2007

It's a shame to see SP go, and seeing how he is a very honest guy it's a shame that he might not be managing in the Premiership for a while.

But let's get things straight: Pearce was never pure class. During his tenure, Man City have had a very "hard as nuts" mentality, but what Pearce hasn't provided is the tactics needed to pull off real success.

Maybe in about 7 years from now, Pearce can be an excellent manager in his own right, but right now the only thing his reign will be remembered for is for mediocre performances.

Maybe if he had been given some more faith he could have excelled and built a better team, but with some possible new investors and a fairly pushy chairman, all of the signs were pointing to the door.

Which is a shame, because how many other managers do you know with the sheer humanity of SP?

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posted May 15, 2007

I think it was possibly unwise to sack SP just now. The club seem to be going through a real dark era in recent seasons and I think they may well find it difficult to attract the kind of manager that is needed to stop the rot.

I am a red, but would still like to see City doing well in the premier league - just can't help thinking the club should have given SP one more season and some decent finacial backing.

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posted May 15, 2007

SP is right, he had what? 10m to spend all season and what good players can you buy with that? samaras and corradi were bad signings i'll admit but isaksons been in relatively good form but the premiership aint his area, he needs to down size his ego and drop to a lower league hes not good enuff for top flight, selling off players like wright-phillips (both) and james were bad decisions and non of that money was put back into the transfer kitty, if SP had 50m like keegon then he'd of been able to buy some better players to carry the standard of city's crest instead of dodgy lower league players. he was doing what he thought was right and we cant expect anymore, and truth be told in the england job he wont have to worry about transfers and money so he should do better thinking about tactics and nominations for the england squad, i think i speak for every blue in the world when i say; good luck mate, you tried your best and we respect you fior it...

who's gonan be the new manager then?

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posted May 15, 2007

Good article.

As for the future, all I can say is good luck, because you and your new manager are going to need it in order to effect a turnaround from this season's dire level of play. You must be glad you managed to stay up what with your woeful lack of scoring.

I was interested to read that the club is looking to Europe for a manager. Do City fans really think you can attract a top-class manager? Presumably there will have to be huge changes in the boardroom to loosen the purse strings.

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posted May 15, 2007

While not entirely related to the article I did find this comment by the BBC reporter to be a very damning statement.

"Pearce was given the news of his dismissal in a brief telephone call from chief executive Alistair Mackintosh"

Now I am no chief executive, but to fire someone over the phone is poor man managment to say the least. If you cannot even be bothered to say something of this nature to the other person in the flesh then what are you doing in the position you are in? Do you even value or respect your employee? To me that was an insult.

I think that says it all really.

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posted May 16, 2007

A bit of light relief that I mentioned on another thread yesterday.

The mention of Louis van Gaal reminds me of the time when big spender Malcolm Allison was the City boss and wanted to sign Salford Van Hire thinking it was a Dutch midfielder.

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posted May 16, 2007

On another matter, now SP has gone does anyone know who is making decisions like that of releasing eight players from the senior squad ?

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posted May 16, 2007

As a Blackburn and football fan I think Stuart Pearce did a good job at City with no money to spend.The close season tells you everything you need to know about the season to come,signings of young quality players are an essential ingrediant to success the following season.I knew City would struggle a bit when they signed Dikov from us because realistically he is not a top striker,he gives 120% but would never get the required goal tally.The hard fact is we all need billionaires to compete even a massive club like City who in my eyes are up there with Man U and Liverpool because I have seen them when they had Colin Bell and francis lee and always know that they have the foundations to knock clubs like Chelsea back where they belong.i just wish we had the same support as City but it is all down to the size of the City/Town we live in.

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posted Jun 1, 2007

If he'd have been given a good striker or two he'd be celebrated as a hero right now.

Well done Stuart. Keep your chin up.

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