Mancini’s New Look City Side

Roberto Mancini has a difficult task ahead at Manchester City. With the continued obsession elements of the British press have with the sacking of Mark Hughes, the spotlight will shine vividly on Eastlands for the remainder of the 2009-10 Premier League Season.

Mancini’s record as a manager is impeccable. In each of his previous three stops as a manager, he has won a major trophy. All three job were however, in Serie A and concerns are abound about the adaptability of Mancini’s tactics to a harsh English winter.

Mancini is used to the traditional continental setup for football and is likely to have less friction with Brian Marwood, the self styled “football administrator,” than did Hughes. Marwood, the former Sheffield Wednesday and Arsenal star who also was capped for England will serve as the defacto director of transfers for City and will seek multiple continental targets.

Under Hughes, City bought only one player who has never played in England previously in the last two transfer windows: Nigel DeJong. It is clear that Marwood and City Chief Executive Garry Cook are interested in dealing in the Spanish and Italian transfer market.

With Mancini in place as manager, Cook and Marwood can safely buy cosmopolitan footballers and integrate them into the club more easily than would have been possible under Hughes. Sven Goran Eriksson, who served as Mancini’s mentor bought several continental based footballers in his Man City tenure, and was able to quickly integrate most of them into the Blues setup.

Mancini has made an initial assessment of the current City squad according to published reports and confirmed by my reporting. Four players whose future at City could be in question are Wayne Bridge, Emmanuel Adebayor and Joleon Lescott.

Lescott, cannot be transferred until the summer but could find himself on the bench. Adebayor will be leaving for the Cup of African Nations and has been deemed as a weak link. He may have a City future, but could be relegated to the bench. Bridge has simply been poor since coming over from Chelsea and is likely to be replaced.

Roque Santa Cruz and Craig Bellamy who were considered Hughes loyalists will be featured under Mancini, per my sources. Martin Petrov, whose pre City career at Wolfsburg and Athletico showed ability tactically adapt to different managers, should also be prominent in the new setup.