ROBERTO MANCINI has had his eye on a job in the Premier League for some time. “If,” he told this reporter several seasons ago, “I ever get the chance to go and work in England, I’d take it.”
At the time he was coach at Lazio, admired for what he could do on a shoestring. His career stepped steadily upwards to successive Serie A titles with Internazionale but his enthusiasm for a gig in English football remained. He got his wish last night when a City statement announced: “We can confirm the appointment, with immediate effect on a permanent contract, of Roberto Mancini and are also pleased to announce that [technical director at the club’s academy] Brian Kidd, inset, will join Roberto as assistant manager.”
Mancini has been at a loose end since he left Inter in the summer of 2008, fresh from winning the Italian league, and he has made it known over the past two months that he felt ready for the next gig. If he was bound to be on City’s radar anyway, he would not have been shy at placing his name near its centre. His son, Filippo, had a trial at City last year.
Eighteen months off the touchline has not damaged his standing; at 45, he is bracketed among the brightest younger coaches in Europe. He left Inter as champions of Italy and also-rans in Europe; his replacement there, Jose Mourinho, is in charge of an Inter who remain leaders domestically and lacklustre internationally. In other words, only in small details can Mancini be said to have been bettered by his successor. And what Mancini initially achieved at Inter had been a true watershed, delivering to the club their first championships for 18 years. Under Mancini, they were awarded the 2006 scudetto after Juventus had been disqualified from it for their involvement in the calciopoli affair.
They triumphed again in the next two seasons. Before that, Mancini repaired a Lazio regularly obliged to fire-sale the superstars accumulated in the free-spending 1990s. He did likewise as head coach at Fiorentina, with whom he won the Italian Cup. These were demanding assignments and Mancini, 36 when he started coaching, undertook both amid suspicions he was too much of a novice. Fabio Capello took a dim view of the fact Mancini was promoted to a Serie A post without serving his apprenticeship. Mancini and Capello would go on to have a spiky relationship as coaches, respectively, of Lazio and Roma and then as adversaries at Inter and Juventus.
Among others who have enjoyed success in the Italian game, though, he had backing. In Sven-Göran Eriksson, once a Manchester City manager, he has always had a strong ally. Eriksson took Mancini the player, an inside-forward who won 36 caps for Italy, from Sampdoria to Lazio, and made him a confidant and an on-field lieutenant.
Later, as England manager, Eriksson helped arrange for Mancini to have a brief spell in England, at Leicester City, as his 20-year playing career came to a close. That left Mancini with an enthusiasm for the English game. “England seems more fun, both for players and managers,” he told me. “Italy’s the hardest place to be a coach, because it’s always the results that count. It doesn’t matter if you play well — if you don’t get the right result, they crucify you.”
The challenge of breaking up the established hierarchy of any league appeals. As a player, he won his two Serie A titles with upstart clubs, Sampdoria — for whom he played more than 500 games and with whom he won a silver medal in the European Cup — and Lazio, neither of them among the Big Four of Juventus, Milan, Inter or Roma.
As a coach, he returned Inter to a summit dominated by Juve and Milan. He carries himself with self-confidence and his sense of humour is appreciated by his friends, among whom Gianluca Vialli was a close one during their playing days, though his departure from Inter included some falling-outs. He appeared to have resigned in March 2008 after defeat by Liverpool in the Champions League and then apparently changed his mind after talks with the president Massimo Moratti. The team and coach went on to win the league but that marked the end of the four-year relationship. Severance disputes were only resolved at the end of October. Promptly, Mancini started job-seeking in earnest.
Mancini's CV
Roberto Mancini, 45, was capped 36 times for Italy, scoring four goals, in a playing career that spanned 19 years with Bologna, Sampdoria, Lazio and Leicester City. As a player he won two Serie A titles, five Coppa Italias and two Cup Winners' Cups. As manager he won three Serie A titles, four Coppa Italias, two Italian Supercups
Target players
Will have unlimited finances, although that would be made up of money for players leaving the club. Among his targets would be: Fernando Torres (Liverpool forward, £80m), Franck Ribery (Bayern Munich winger, £65m), Sergio Aguero (Atletico Madrid, forward £40m), Angel Di Maria (Benfica winger, £35m), Javier Mascherano (Liverpool midfielder, £20m), Yaya Toure (Barcelona midfielder, £15m*), Matthew Upson (West Ham defender, £12m), Thierry Henry (Barcelona forward, £10m*)
*Possible part-exchange with Robinho
Playing career
1981 Bologna
1982-1997 Sampdoria. Wins one Serie A title, four Coppa Italias and Cup Winner's Cup
1997-2000 Lazio. Wins one Serie A title, Coppa Italia and the Cup Winners' Cup Cup
2001 Plays five games for Leicester City
Coach
2000 Joins Lazio coaching staff as assistant to Sven-Goran Eriksson but quits after the Swede resigns and resumes playing career at Leicester
2001 Becomes coach at Fiorentina. Wins coppa Italia
2002 Resigns as Fioretina coach and joins Lazio. Wins Coppa Italia
2004-08 Inter Milan wins two Coppa Italias and two Italian Supercups. Wins Serie A after Juventus and AC Milan are stripped of points in match-fixing scandal. Successfully defend title in next two seasons.
2008 Sacked as Inter coach and replaced by Jose Mourinho
Dec 19 2009 Appointed manager Man City
Hughes's CV
Mark Hughes, 46, was capped 72 times for Wales, scoring 16 goals, in a 20-year career with Manchester United, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Chelsea, Southampton and Blackburn. As a player he won two Premier Leagues, two FA Cups, two League Cup and two Cup Winners' Cup. He has not won anything as a manager
Major transfers
Spent £244.5m on players such Robinho (32.5m), Carlos Tevez (£25.5m) Emmanuel Adebayor (£25m), Joleon Lescott (£22m), Roque Santa Cruz (£17.5m) and Craig Bellamy £14m)
Player
1978-1985 Signs schoolboy forms with Manchester United. Wins PFA young player of the year award and FA Cup
1985-88 Plays 28 games for Barcelona and is loaned out to Bayern Munich
1988-1994 Re-signs for Man Utd for £1.8m. Wins PFA player of the year, two Premier Leagues, One FA Cup, League Cup and Cup Winners' Cup
1995-1998 Chelsea. Wins FA Cup and Cup Winners' Cup
1998-2000 Southampton
2000-02 Blackburn. Wins League Cup
Manager
1999-2004 Appointed manager of Wales
2004 Blackburn
2008 Man City
Dec 19 2009 Sacked as manager of Man City
No comments:
Post a Comment