What Mancini really needs to succeed

By Martin Rogers
December 23, 2009


Splashing out hundreds of millions of dollars perhaps gives you the right to get a little impatient. So it was with clinical finality that Manchester City’s Arab ownership group called time on Mark Hughes’ reign on Saturday.

Within hours of Hughes’ dismissal, former Inter Milan chief Roberto Mancini had become the latest man to be handed the keys to unlimited transfer wealth (despite a player protest complaining at the speed with which Hughes had been dumped). Mancini takes over what is either managerial paradise or a poisoned chalice, depending on who you listen to.

A bottomless pit of fiscal resources with which to replenish the squad will be made available the instant the transfer window reopens, and Mancini will arrive in Manchester already armed with a healthy list of targets. Yet there are caveats attached to the lucre, as Hughes found out to his cost.

Mediocrity will not cut it for the owners, who want to see an instant return on their investment, which has so far seen Robinho, Roque Santa Cruz, Kolo Toure, Gareth Barry and a string of other high-profile stars come through the doors. The money is being made available so that City can challenge the Manchester Uniteds and Chelseas of the world, and Mancini will be tasked with forcing his new team into the English Premier League’s top four, by the end of next season at the latest.

The problem is that old traditions sometimes die hard. The new money, while abundant to an extraordinary degree, is not always trusted, and City has not always been able to attract the players it wants, however much it offers.

Yet one reason why Mancini could be the right man for the job is that he will directly target not just the biggest names to install in his squad as a status symbol, but he will also go for performers who can occupy a specific role that fits into his vision.

During his time with Inter, Mancini strayed from the club’s previous policy of targeting huge star names and instead focused on gelling together a tight-knit unit capable of churning out ruthlessly consistent performances. It wasn’t always pretty, and the flair needed to go deep in the Champions League was lacking, but City would certainly take Mancini’s kind of success right now.

His overall contribution to City may depend upon how strong the burden of expectation placed upon him turns out to be. With three cracks at the transfer window between now and the end of the next campaign, it’s realistic to expect the Italian can clinch City a place in the top four and have it become part of the Premiership’s power axis.

But there is still a long way to go before United’s and Chelsea’s stranglehold at the summit can be challenged. Whoever the coach is, and however much money he is given, that’s a reality the Sheiks need to come to terms with.

1. Get him an Advil

Tottenham is putting together a strong bid to break into the EPL’s big four, but these are worrying times for boss Harry Redknapp. British tax authorities are expected to bring charges against Redknapp as part of a long-running investigation into soccer corruption, a story which could overshadow Spurs’ excellent recent run.

2. Get him a beer

Lionel Messi’s spectacular year got even better as the brilliant Argentinean scored an extra-time winner to hand Barcelona the Club World Cup with a 2-1 victory over Estudiantes. That makes it six trophies in 2009 for the Catalan club, thanks in no small part to Messi’s continued excellence.

3. Get him some earplugs

Frank Lampard received his usual dose of verbal abuse from the fans of his former club, West Ham. Still, he held his nerve to score from a penalty that had to be taken three times due to infractions. Lampard, who missed a spot kick for Chelsea against Manchester City earlier this month, was calm and collected as he beat keeper Robert Green on all three occasions on Sunday – even though only one counted.

4. Keep an eye on …

Sir Alex Ferguson. Manchester United’s latest blip, a 3-0 hammering at Fulham on Saturday, sent the irascible Scottish head coach into full-on frustration mode. When that happens, sparks fly. The next few months are going to be fun.

5. Catch a flight to …

London. With most of the European leagues shutting down for Christmas, England is the place to be for soccer action. The pick of the festive games could be Chelsea hosting in-form West London rival Fulham in a crucial clash on Dec. 28.

6. Useless and completely made-up statistic of the week

1.2 – The number of seconds it would take for an official at Major League Soccer HQ to sign the piece of paper needed to finalize Landon Donovan’s loan move to Everton.

7. Fond farewell

Legendary scout Jack Hixon, who launched the professional career of several EPL stars including Alan Shearer, passed away this week at the age of 88.

8. Get ready to say hello to …

Jeremiah White. The former Wake Forest standout has spent the last few seasons with Aarhus in Denmark, but he is strongly linked with a move to MLS new boys Philadelphia Union.

9. Get ready to say goodbye to …

Stuart Holden. The Houston Dynamo and USA midfielder has been offered a $1.4 million, four-year deal to stay in MLS, but Holden can make far more by switching to Europe, with Blackburn Rovers a likely destination.

10. Get excited about …

The UEFA Champions League knockout draw. Last Friday saw some tantalizing matchups for February’s round of 16, with David Beckham set to return to Manchester United (with AC Milan) and Jose Mourinho leading his Inter Milan team into his old stomping ground of Chelsea.

11. Why it’s good to be a soccer player

Take a look at Jelena Karleusa, the Serbian pop star wife of Werder Bremen’s Dusko Tosic.

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Allure of Soccer in Europe May Be Too Strong to Deny

By JEFFREY MARCUS
December 23, 2009


Since the close of the Major League Soccer season, a number of American players have either joined European clubs, are about to join European clubs or are trying to engineer a move across the Atlantic. (Update | 2:00 p.m. | Landon Donovan received approval for a British work permit in advance of his loan to Everton, which is set to begin Jan. 2.)

As players weigh their options overseas, so too does Jeff Carlisle of ESPN. His thorough analysis suggests that a move away from M.L.S. to a European league may not be the best option for American players.

“But the American soccer landscape is littered with players who made the journey across the Atlantic only to find playing time scarce, meaning that staying in M.L.S. might be the better option,” Carlisle cautions.

His colleague Luke Cyphers, who details the injury-plagued tenures of DaMarcus Beasley and Maurice Edu at Rangers in Glasgow, presents a compelling cautionary tale for players considering a foreign sojourn.

“There’s lousy weather, a prying press and a sun that sets by 4 p.m. There are injuries and, in some leagues, such as Scotland’s, a style of play that all but guarantees them,” Cyphers writes. “There are cash-strapped front offices and coaches who don’t care who you were back home.”

He lists a number of struggles for both players, including an incident of alleged racial abuse, and lists American players who, “if it’s any consolation,” Cyphers writes, are mired on the bench or struggling to get a sustained run for their teams in England, Portugal, Italy.

If you read Carlisle and Cyphers, and listen to a number of fans who post on this blog beseeching M.L.S.-ers for abandoning regular playing time in the summer for cold winters on the training pitch in Europe, you wonder: why would anyone want to play professional soccer in Europe?

There are two factors that appear to motivate the soccer players I’ve talked with (not just Americans, but players the world over) to play in Europe: pride and money. Europe is the spiritual and financial heart of soccer. The best players on the most renowned teams compete in the fiercest league and cup competitions for the highest salaries.

But a lack of playing time in Europe leads to poor form and may jeopardize a player’s standing with his national team. That’s probably not a problem for Landon Donovan, who will be going on loan at Everton. He can get match-fit before the World Cup in June when he returns to M.L.S. in March. And would United States Coach Bob Bradley really bench the Americans’ career scoring leader in South Africa?

When I talked to Bradley in August for an article on United States defender Oguchi Onyewu, who had signed a three-year deal with A.C. Milan in Italy’s famed Serie A, I asked him how much playing at the club level factors into his decisions for the national team. Not surprisingly, he said it depends.

“Whenever a player is not playing, the way you assess him when he comes in is a little different,” Bradley said at the time. “We’ve had situations when guys have still kept themselves sharp.”

In regards to Onyewu, he said:

The length of time is important. When you go to a team like Milan, it’s not always going to be right away that things fall into place. Competing every day in training, at a high level, helps. Getting into matches when you can — they’re in a lot of competitions. I think there will be enough there for him. We certainly understand that when you go to a big club, it’s not going to happen right away.

Onyewu — as was the case with Beasley and Edu in Scotland — hasn’t been playing because of an injury. He blew out the patellar tendon in his knee in October against Costa Rica in the Americans’ final World Cup qualifying match. Rehabilitation will be his primary concern to be ready for the World Cup.

Is a player better off practicing with A.C. Milan on a daily basis or playing M.L.S. matches with, say, the Seattle Sounders or last season’s champion, Real Salt Lake?

Injuries are part of the game, and can happen in any league (or on national team duty or in practice or in the bath tub). And all players, regardless of what league or what team they play on, want to be on the field (remember, pride). Overseas, players can earn significantly more than the capped salaries of M.L.S. — limited to around $2.3 million a team, not counting a designated player, next season. And as the injuries sustained by Onyewu, Beasley, Edu and others show, a player’s window for earning big money can be short.

If you look at the rosters of most of the contenders for the World Cup trophy in South Africa, they are populated by players who make their living in Europe. Even Asian and African teams, which often feature a number of domestic-based players, depend on a core of contributors who play in Europe. The three teams that appear to have the fewest number of players playing abroad are North Korea, Algeria and England, where all but one of the likely candidates for Fabio Capello’s squad play in the Premier League.

Additionally, the World Cup is once every four years. But professionals play up to 10 months of the year every year for their club teams. Which is more important? If you were advising the crop of young American players vying for a World Cup spot and considering opportunities in Europe, what would you advise?

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