Manchester City Knows What It Wants to Be: Barcelona
LONDON
— The huge banner bearing the face of Manuel Pellegrini and the words
“This Charming Man” sagged in the stadium as Manchester City said
goodbye to its departing coach.
Fewer
than a quarter of the 54,000 fans at City’s last game at home this
season stayed to hear him say, “These have been three unforgettable,
wonderful years; thanks for all. I will never forget you.”
Most quickly forgot him.
City
supporters, who through thick and mostly thin used to regard themselves
as the “real” fans in Manchester, had turned their backs. They vacated
the stadium after Sunday’s 2-2 tie against Arsenal left their club in
fourth place in the Premier League.
Maybe City followers have morphed into Manchester United fans, gorged on the expectation that money buys everything.
And
perhaps many of the club’s supporters have started to believe the
critics who have won nothing in their lives, yet write Pellegrini off as
a loser and a charmless man.
What
has charm to do with winning? Real Madrid once fired Vicente del Bosque
because his face looked “tired,” according to the club president. Del
Bosque went on to coach Spain to World Cup and European titles.
Liverpool
won everything it could for almost two decades as Bob Paisley and Joe
Fagan quietly and determinedly carried the mantle that Bill Shankly left
as manager.
Shankly,
for sure, was an inspirational man as the coach in the ’60s through the
first half of the ’70s. But Paisley and Fagan not only succeeded him,
they surpassed his achievements in terms of trophies and medals.
Leicester,
let it be said one more time, outfoxed the high and mighty in the
English league this season. But City, United, Arsenal, Chelsea and
Liverpool let it happen. The collective failings of the wealthy clubs
allowed Leicester to romp to the league title, and Claudio Ranieri, the
Italian coach once mocked as an
eternal loser, is now being hailed as
the new Caesar at Leicester City.
What
the critics of Pellegrini fail to emphasize is that he was a lame-duck
manager from the start of this season. It was an open secret that City
wanted Pep Guardiola in charge and had been talking to the Bayern Munich
coach for at least a year.
Indeed, what City really wants, and is prepared to pay for, is to turn itself into the F.C. Barcelona of Manchester.
Shortly
after City’s chairman, Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan, began
spending his Abu Dhabi millions on the club, he hired Ferran Soriano as
chief executive, who then hired Txiki Begiristain as director of
football. The two held top roles at Barcelona when Guardiola became the
head coach there.
The
orders may have been: Give me Barça, give me Total Football, give me
tiki-taka. And why not? It is heavenly soccer played on earth.
Of
course, you need Lionel Messi, Xavi Hernández and Andrés Iniesta at the
top of their form to play like that. And there’s the rub. Messi is
still extraordinary, but Xavi has gone into semiretirement in the
desert, while Iniesta is sated with fame, fortune and the wear and tear
of being a Spanish saint for the past seven years.
City
could buy some of the best of the rest. Sheikh Mansour’s
money-is-no-object approach bought a fine spine for City, with Vincent
Kompany commanding the defense, Yaya Touré’s huge size so powerful in
midfield, David Silva a little magician and Sergio Agüero scoring the
goals.
When
a former City coach, Roberto Mancini, ruffled the feathers of the stars
by trying to impose his own ego upon them, the club simply paid off
Mancini and brought in Pellegrini.
He
had enough charm then. He soothed the stars and embedded in them the
buccaneering soccer he had instilled at Villarreal in Spain. And, yes,
he charmed both the board and the media.
City
won the Premier League in Pellegrini’s first season, scoring an
unprecedented 156 goals in all competitions that year. But even then,
louder than a whisper, was the undercurrent that City would ditch him to
take Guardiola, if it could.
Guardiola
was committed to trying to win the Champions League for Bayern Munich.
He has easily won the Bundesliga title in his three seasons there but
has lost in the semifinals of the Champions League every year, failing
to measure up to what his predecessor, Jupp Heynckes, did — win the
European title.
Guardiola
rose up through Barcelona, both as a player and as a coach. As manager,
he took a Barça team that already was a power to an even greater
height.
At Bayern, he inherited a team whose setup has been dominant in Germany for many years.
In
Manchester, it will be different. He has to rebuild a team that in some
parts is agonizing to watch and in other parts is not up to standard.
The core players like Kompany, Silva and Agüero undoubtedly have talent,
but they also are prone to injuries.
The
fourth major influence on City’s team, Touré, turns 33 this week and
was sold to Manchester when Guardiola was coach at Barcelona. Critics
have thought Touré is too laid back to use his skills to the fullest,
and of all the players that Pellegrini has trusted, he would have to be
the most disheartened to hear that Guardiola was coming.
Pellegrini,
ever the gentleman, said a month ago that he always felt that City
would go for Guardiola. He held no grudges, made no excuses that his
authority was being usurped.
Guardiola
told reporters in February that he could multitask and manage dealing
with both his current and future clubs. The reality is that City, for
some time, has planned to rebuild its team for Guardiola — and that both
City and Bayern missed their prime target this season, losing in the
Champions League semifinals.
Blaming the personality of Pellegrini for City’s failure is misguided at best, mischievous at worst.
