Pep Guardiola is being tipped to become the next manager of Manchester City after his “mentor” at Barcelona, Txiki Begiristain, was appointed director of football at the Etihad, as City’s current boss, Roberto Mancini, cuts an increasingly frazzled figure on the touchline.
City overcame Swansea on Saturday but the nature of the win was unimpressive, and with City all-but eliminated from the Champions League already speculation about a change of manager has been rife.
But changes are already afoot behind the scenes at Manchester City. Begiristain was unveiled as the new director of football at the weekend. His arrival follows that of Ferran Soriano, the former Barcelona vice president, who became the club’s chief executive in August.
Reports that City has strongly denied rumours of Mancini’s demise, and the sports website suggests that the Spaniard is more likely to end up at Chelsea.
But how Mancini gets on with Begiristain remains to be seen. The Times points out that the Spaniard has been brought in to replace Brian Marwood, who previously oversaw the club’s transfer policy but had fallen out with Mancini.
“Begiristain’s standing in the game is likely to command more respect from Mancini than Marwood, [but] the manager… wanted to be able to call the shots in transfers,” said the paper. “Mancini’s capacity for confrontation has become a mounting source of frustration behind the scenes but neither Begiristain nor Soriano will be prepared to tolerate the kind of treatment Marwood endured.”
The rest of the contenders are Benitez, who was sacked by rivals Inter in December 2010 after just six months in charge, and Mancini, who has won three Scudetti.
Filippo Inzaghi could also be in contention to replace Allegri. The former Italy international ended his playing career last summer, but has been working with the club’s youth ranks, and would be a popular choice amongst fans.
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Perhaps BS was a bit strong, i dont proesfs to know the ins and outs of Manchesters financial situation, i dont even know the ins and outs of Belfasts, frankly i dont care, if there is hockey on a saturday night ill go watch it if not ill go watch Ulster rugby or go to the pub or something.DC. Perhaps im being a bit precious, but alot of the annomosity from Manchester to the EIHL is along the lines of we busted our arses to get to 2 finals and then get shafted by fixture congestion so we have to play both finals in Belfast and loose them both, but its ok cause the giants paid their team millions, at least in the EPL its an even playing field. I interpreted some of the cryptic clues left on some of the forums from certain Manchester fans as digs at the so called Big Spending Giants. I think people need to realise how many Giants players were on Uni placements last season and how much they are worth to the young players coming over from NA, i think you’d be surprised at the giants actual wage bill compared to some other so called smaller teams.For me, having had a few days to think about it, what is actually annoying me so much is the Manchester fans, or the apparent majority of them anyway, telling us all how bad and corrupt the EIHL is. If the Giants were moving to EPL (impossible i know) id be trying to promote EPL hockey to the people who used to come to Belfast to see their own team play us, in the hope they might still come to belfast to catch a game against a team they dont see every week. There is a good chance ill come to see EPL Pheeeeenix this season because i have a fair few friends there, as i do in most rinks up and down the country, but god help the first person to grumble near me lol