Premier League results at the weekend have dictated that Newcastle boss Chris Hughton is off the hook – and replaced by his counterpart at Manchester City, Roberto Mancini (City now 10/1 – Premier League Outright).
The Magpies’ 5-1 mauling of fierce rivals Sunderland at St James’ Park on Sunday ended a week which had seen Newcastle hand former Republic of Ireland defender Hughton the dreaded vote of confidence.
Had his side decided his time was up and capitulated against Steve Bruce’s Black Cats then he may well have quickly discovered that the club statement was worth far less than the paper it was scribbled on.
No, Hughton gets a reprieve, at least until Sunday when he takes Newcastle to Arsenal.
Which gets us to Mancini who is, according to a tabloid report, on thin ice following Saturday’s 2-1 defeat at lowly Wolves on Saturday afternoon.
Player power, apparently, has reared its head at Eastlands and the 45-year-old is now facing the prospect of Christman on the dole – or il sussidio di disoccupazione as they might say in Milan.
At least he’ll probably get to keep his blue and white scarf to keep warm.
‘Complete mess’, ‘no one takes any notice’ and ‘team spirit is falling apart’ scream quotes from ’sources’ in The Sun on Monday morning, however Kolo Toure has now reassured long-suffering Blues fans that everything in the garden is smelling of roses and that problems will be resolved “in the dressing room and the training camp”.
So that’s ok then.
But what is certainly not ok is the fact City, for all their millions, went to Molineux at the weekend, took the lead, but then let Mick McCarthy’s men back into the game before slipping to their second Premier League defeat on the bounce.
City are now fourth after starting the weekend in second spot although their early-season performances had hardly inspired talk of global dominance, and they clearly missed the absent Carlos Tevez at Wolves.
Hardly one to keep out of an argument, Yaya Toure’s agent, Dimitri Seluk, has revealed the former Barcelona midfielder’s thinking does not coincide with that of his older brother.
Seluk is quoted: “Yaya thinks there are some players, perhaps mostly those who have been there for a long time, who think that fourth place is already a big position that it is good enough to ‘not lose’ rather than to always win.”
City have now lost three games already this season and are eight points adrift of leaders Chelsea.
Former boss Mark Hughes was dispensed with last term in similar circumstances and it would come as no surprise if player power does win out at City.
However, the fact remains that since Sir Alex Ferguson took over at Manchester United in 1986, City have got through an unlucky 13 permanent bosses and while the game has moved on, clubs seldom prosper by chopping and changing.
Whatever happens, Mancini, whose training methods were criticised last season, says he wants to get to the root of Saturday’s no-show.
“We must know where that performance came from and we must start again because the season is very long,” he admitted.
“Maybe because we played well for the first 15 minutes, we thought it was an easy game.
“Such a thing doesn’t exist in football.”
Easy games, no, the sack, yes.
City are next in action in the Europa League on Thursday night when they make the trip to Lech Poznan looking to seal a place in the knockout stage (Lech 9/2, draw 14/5, City 8/13 – 90 minutes betting).
Newcastle are now 1/9 to stay up this season.
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