mancityblues.com

It's a tall order expecting City to bring in new players and ship out old favourites in the space of a few weeks. It leaves a sour taste to see Bellers and Ireland apparently shown the door with a firm hand on the small of the back, but if it is necessary to reduce the size of the squad, and the rules say it is, then it has to be done with all speed. Bellamy's refusal to say anything but good sounds like City have possibly bought his silence; Mancini gets the squad he wants and we get down to the business of football again. The imminent loan deal for Weiss to go to Rangers is good business all round.

Mancini's task is massive, he must immediately put points on the board, he can't afford even at this stage to drop too many points and let the clubs he wants to challenge get too far ahead. New players have signed at a rate that would take years at most other clubs; they have to be bedded in and playing together very quickly or they will be mauled in our league, as we know all too well. He doesn't lack confidence, evidently, he suggests he will need only 2/3 weeks to get them playing together so they can start challenging for honours. Some on the boards believe he is wrong and we will fail, some take the opposite view, some are on the fence, just as it was under MH.

The pace of these changes are as a result of missing out on the CL, rule changes, Mancini's view of where the team was last season and why they under-performed, and transfer window restrictions. It's apparent that Mancini takes all this in his stride; all of that plus taking training sessions. I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt because he is obviously very keen to win something, his transfer policies seem to be paying off, at least talent-wise, and with the arrival of Milner and Bagatelly perhaps they can concentrate on a first home win of the season against Liverpool, with the minor distraction of the Europa game in between.

I fully understand the arguments about him being too defensive, and agree that if that carries on we will have a job staying up yet I am amazed at the man's single-mindedness. He is certain that we will win something this time, he is certain he's got the right players in, he's sure he knows what he's doing and what is going on. He's only been here five minutes while we've been supporting them for years and we have hardly a clue, so I think he deserves a bit of support now. I'm giving mine, until the wheels fall off the cart anyway.

~Clevblue~