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Author: Lorric
Date: 14-05-2013, 19:08
Edited by: Lorric
at: 14-05-2013, 19:24

Champions League - Roberto Di Matteo - sacked by Chelsea.

Europa League - While this is this year's competition, it potentially completes the list. Rafa Benitez will be released by Chelsea if he wins.

Premier League title - Roberto Mancini sacked by Manchester City.

FA Cup - Roberto Di Matteo again. Sacked by Chelsea.

League Cup - Kenny Dalglish - sacked by Liverpool.

The last one is the only one I agree with as Dalglish showed he's a complete liability in the transfer market. Benitez, his fate had already been decided and the fans hate him anyway so it's unworkable, but from a results standpoint it's dumb, regardless of whether he takes the Europa league title.

Mancini I'm kind of on the fence with, but if I had to be pushed to a decision I'd have given him another season.

EDIT: Scratch that. I have my issues with Manchester City in Europe which is probably skewing my decision. From a business and results standpoint, regular qualification to the CLGS and two trophies, and 2nd in the League and FA Cup this year, it seems wrong to sack him. Address the concerns you have with the man, and give him one more season. The fans were behind him as well, they'd have gone with it, and you have to pay off his big contract. Sacking him, wrong decision imo.

Di Matteo is just about the biggest joke I've ever seen. Win the Champions League AND the FA Cup and it's not good enough?

EDIT 2: Brian McDermott of Reading won last year's Championship. Sacked. Yeah, that really helped Reading, didn't it...

March 11th when he was sacked, they were 4pts off safety. Right now, two months later, they're relegated and 11pts off safety.

Author: mavano
Date: 14-05-2013, 19:45
Edited by: mavano
at: 14-05-2013, 19:51

Sure, Football is all about winning, but there is more to it.

Mancini should've been sacked at halftime last weekend. You spend a gazillion pounds on every star player they knew and then park the bus against Wigan. I mean... wtf... They spend 80 minutes on their own half with 1 striker upfront against a team that's about to go down in the league. As a ManC supporter I'd be ashamed of my club...

Chelsea is the same thing. Sure, Di Matteo won the CL but let's not fool ourselves that it was a sustainable situation. What was he going to do? Park the bus every week in the PL as well. It's not like he was planning to do anything else. Ironically, Benitez doesn't mind doing it either so perhaps they could've just let Di Matteo in charge.

ManC and Chelsea are prime examples of why English football and the PL is in a downward spiral. 1. Buy everything that has ever kicked a ball 10 feet straight 2. Tactics: park the bus as a team 3. hope one of your star players wins you the game on some out of the blue piece of individual skill 4. Repeat until #3 fails and you're fired.

Author: bugylibicska
Date: 14-05-2013, 19:51

Di Matteo - agreed, ridiculous decision by a criminal despot -
Benitez - they knew he`s hated by the fans, so he was hired as interim manager, to buy time, hoping to fetch Mourinho or Guardiola -
Dalglish - to pay 35 miliion for a Carroll, insane -
Mancini - I also hoped they`ll keep him, but for the obvious reason (one more humiliation for Man City, priceless)
``I'm a little disappointed that a fellow United fan appears to have wished for Mancini to be fired (yesterday's Letters). There is a risk that somebody good might take over now. Therefore, please can I use the third wish, on behalf of all United fans, to ensure that Rafael Benítez gets the job?" – Stephen Yoxall.

Author: Lorric
Date: 14-05-2013, 20:07
Edited by: Lorric
at: 14-05-2013, 20:12

@ Mavano. He won the FA Cup as well. He didn't park the bus.

He didn't park the bus when Chelsea dismantled Napoli. And there's nothing wrong with hitting on the counter, Chelsea are good at hitting on the counter. Even if he did park the bus, what's wrong with a winning formula?

But he didn't park the bus. The start of the 2012/13 season Chelsea were putting teams to the sword. The first 8 matches they won 7 and drew 1. They were top of the table. Then they went into a slight run of bad form (2 draws 2 losses) and boom. Sacked. And let's analyse those 4 results. A 2-3 loss at home to the rampant Manchester United. A 1-1 draw away against Swansea who are currently 9th. A 1-1 home draw against Liverpool (7th). And a 2-1 loss at West Brom (8th). Nothing to cry over there. The Champions League of course they were experiencing problems, but the group was a tough one. You'd think they could take the rough with the smooth. They beat Tottenham and Arsenal both away at the start of the season.

EDIT: They also knocked Manchester United out of the League Cup in the 2012/13 season while Di Matteo was in charge. A crazy match, 5-4 in extra time.

Re: Win a trophy in England last year - get sacked.
Author: mjohnson1989 Date: 14-05-2013, 23:33	Manchester clubs since 1986 Manchester United Managers: 1 Trophies: 38 Manchester City Managers: 19 Trophies: 3 I rest my case

Author: mavano
Date: 15-05-2013, 15:29

@Lorric

Maybe I exaggerated a bit, but what I saw from especially ManC and Chelsea this year (Some CL,some EL and some PL) made my eyes hurt. Being dominated by lesser teams for whole parts of matches. Teams that have like 1/10th (if not less) of the budget...

Maybe it's also the difference with how people look at football. Not better or worse, just different. There is nothing wrong with a good counter attack, but to spend the majority of a game on your own half against a relegation team is pathetic imho. I feel like teams in the PL are getting more, well, clueless every year. Do teams have a game plan? What do they do on the training field during the week? Half the time it looks like teams never played together before. Even Arsenal looks lost nowadays.

But maybe I'm raising the bar to high? Sure, Chelsea is the EL final, but the Chelsea of a few years back wouldn't have just scraped through against, with all do respect, Sparta Prague, Steaua Bucharest and Basel. The got outplayed in some of those matches. While it was one of the easiest paths to the EL final in recent memory. Chelsea made them look like a murderers row at times. The champion of Engeland got schooled technically and tactically by a far from special champion of Holland that had trouble winning games in the Eredivisie at the time...

Again, I don't see everything in Engeland and there is a certain perspective that's different for everyone, but my overall impression of English football has gone down the past few years so I can see why managers got sacked...

Author: Lorric
Date: 15-05-2013, 16:10
Edited by: Lorric
at: 15-05-2013, 16:15

I think you're not giving the lesser sides enough credit. The standard at the top may have regressed a little, but I believe the standard through the rest of the league has improved. Look how tight the relegation battle was this year. The other teams aren't getting demolished much by the big guns anymore. Truly anyone can beat anyone.

England has traded in the big 4 for a big 6 with Manchester city and Tottenham now in the mix.

Look at the Europa League this year, 3 English teams in the QF. That includes the struggling Newcastle.

Last year a tier 2 team from England in Birmingham City got into the group stage of the EL and nearly got into the KO stage. A mid-table team in Stoke got out of their group, but unfortunately got Valencia which was just too much. Fulham if they hadn't been screwed against Wisla Krakow would have been another mid-table team to advance, both from their group and through 4 qualifying rounds, with the strong win over the fancied Dnipro in the last qualifying round nothing to sniff at.

Manchester City just aren't that good in Europe. It's a Manchester City thing rather than an England thing. The other teams still perform. Manchester United should have beaten Real Madrid, they were the better team. I'm sure they'd have taken Galatasaray out as well.

You're also underrating the opponents of Chelsea. They all played well against Chelsea. So did Chelsea. The matches were exciting, every team brought the fight to Chelsea and Chelsea brought it right back. Don't let the less than stellar names fool you. They got these teams because other so-called big teams weren't up to the job. Chelsea's first opponent Sparta Prague qualified at the expense of Athletic Bilbao. Steaua knocked out Ajax and won their group ahead of Stuttgart. Rubin Kazan won their group ahead of Inter and knocked out Atletico Madrid and Levante. Basel knocked out Dnipro, Zenit and Tottenham. Also, just because Chelsea didn't demolish these sides doesn't detract from the fact they were still clearly the better side over all the ties.

EDIT: The coefficients say this was England's third best season of the five. Nothing to worry about. Stupid Manchester City. They were the only English team not playing European football after the group stages this year.

Author: Zarastro
Date: 15-05-2013, 18:08

This is just my opinion, but I believe the past European campaigns played a huge part in Mancini's sacking. Sure he won the League last year and finished second this year, but it is obvious that the owner of ManCity have bigger ambitions, they want to see their club competing with the best in Europe, otherwise they would not spend so much money on the transfer market. If you consider the players Mancini had at his disposal, they simply can't be satisfied with finishing at the bottom of their group twice in row. Sure you can lose to Bayern or Real, but to be outclassed by teams who spend far less money is inexcusable. Especially because they excuse their failure with inexperience, because they have unlike Dortmund seasoned and experienced players in their squad. Mancini did not make the impression that he improved his team during this year and after the loss to Wigan, the owners feared another European failure next year. And honestly, can you blame them?

Author: Lorric
Date: 15-05-2013, 20:02

You can also point out that up until this year, Mancini's team performed better each year overall. From 5th to 3rd to 1st. Now 2nd. I will certainly acknowledge the decision as being correct if Manchester City improve under the new boss. And Mancini does have a reputation as being a somewhat ineffective European manager shall we say. That's the reason he got booted out from Inter before he joined City supposedly, despite winning three league titles and two Coppa Italias.

If Manchester City scrape out of a weak group in the CL next season I won't consider it an improvement though. I will certainly be interested in how Manchester City perform next season.

Author: Zarastro
Date: 15-05-2013, 21:17

"You can also point out that up until this year, Mancini's team performed better each year overall. From 5th to 3rd to 1st. Now 2nd."

Yes but considering how much money he was able to spend, this is hardly a big achievement.

"And Mancini does have a reputation as being a somewhat ineffective European manager shall we say. That's the reason he got booted out from Inter before he joined City supposedly, despite winning three league titles and two Coppa Italias."

This is probably another reason. Mancini was deemed as good enough to achieve domestic success which is necessary for any big team with ambition. But he is apparently not up to the task of winning the CL which is the eventual goal of the Sheiks.

Author: Lorric
Date: 16-05-2013, 00:56

@ Zorastro

Well, there are arguments for either side I guess. I don't think Manchester City are idiots or anything for firing him. It would be nice to see a club stick with their manager, 2nd is not terrible by any stretch. Obviously I hope they've made the right choice with regard to Europe, since Manchester City have been poor in the CL. Their representation this year as our champion was a joke.

Meanwhile, Chelsea claim the Europa League title. So the sack list is complete!

Author: vavact2
Date: 17-05-2013, 15:37
Edited by: vavact2
at: 17-05-2013, 16:00

Kenny Dalglish
I don't think I ever saw a coach having such negative impact at a club. He almost destroyed Liverpool with the worst transfer policy of the century and making the team play football from 20 years ago. The board would have had to be imbeciles not to fire him.

Roberto Di Matteo
He was brought for a few months, to salvage what was left of the season. But with some good tactics and amazing luck, he won Chelsea's first CL title. This bought him a contract extension. But for the next season, Abramovich wanted his toy to steer away from bus parking and become a high-pressing, adventurous team. This is clearly indicated by the players they brought and the tactics they used this season. Di Matteo tried his best, but this kind of change cannot happen in half a season. And I don't think Chelsea is even capable of this, giving their slow defenders. Nonetheless, firing Di Matteo was illogical.

Roberto Mancini
He should have been fired years ago. He proved time and time again than he is - at most - a mediocre coach. Just look at how his team plays. I've watched a lot of City games in the last years because they signed some of my favorite players (Aguerro, David Silva, Yaya Toure). There is no playing system, the defense is often unorganized, the midfield doesn't have ideas on how to direct the ball and the forwards wander aimlessly. There is no cohesion in this team and it's his forth season at the club. You may ask how did City ranked so well in the PL. The answer is found in the great quality of the players and the weak opposition (compared to the PL of the past decade; this Man City could never have competed with Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea and Man United when they formed the "top 4").
The biggest mistake the owners made (besides hiring him) was to extend his contract last year. Now his compensation will be huge.

What do you think about the new United coach? It seems to me that they only brought him because he proved he can be a long term manager and the board wants another Ferguson. But there will never be another Ferguson. And giving him a 6 season contract is a questionably decision, as I don't see the evidence that this David Moyes has the quality to successfully manage such a club. My prediction: he'll be fired in two years.

Author: mjohnson1989
Date: 17-05-2013, 18:07

Kenny Dalglish: part of the reason given for his sacking was his handling of the Luis Suarez-Patrice Evra racism row and his general approach with the press. It's also fair to say that his transfer policy was dreadful

Roberto Di Matteo: truly baffling decision, made worse by appointing quite possibly the last person the fans would've wanted. Then again Abramovich could justify it by pointing out they're 3rd in the league, 3 places higher than last year, and won the Europa League

Roberto Mancini: harsh in my opinion but indicative of modern football

As a United fan, I'm pleased with the choice of David Moyes as new manager. He's got a history of youth development, which has always been at the core of United going back to the 1950s, and will stick around long term