Garry Cook once said of AC Milan, 'If you want my personal opinion they bottled it'. This now infamous line was said in relation to Manchester City's audacious proposal to bring Kaka to the City of Manchester Stadium for a word-record £100 million back in 2009. I am going to borrow the first part of former chief executive Cook's statement about the Italian giants for my own purposes. If you want my personal opinion, to 'bottle' something is to crumble in the face of mounting pressure. Three years ago, AC Milan merely did not wish to sell their player to City (Kaka instead went to Real Madrid that summer) and it is unlikely that this constitutes a meltdown - keeping hold of your best player is hardly a dreadful thing. Three years later and substantially more than £100 million spent and it appears City are contriving to do some bottling of their own. Unlike the sour anti-climactic dealings with Milan, this bottling is being done on the football pitch. After Mikel Arteta's wonderful late strike at the Emirates condemned them to a fifth defeat in their last nine away games, City must hardly believe that they find themselves an astonishing eight points behind Manchester United and two goals behind them on goal difference (when at one point it was 17 in their favour). This is a period of crumbling if ever I saw one.
The demise seen at the Etihad in the last few weeks was not beyond prediction. There exist a range of reasons, some small and some striking, for the complete change in attitude from City's players. Apart from the glaring tactical problems (a chronic lack of width together with a lack of adequate cover at the back) most players just haven't performed for their manager and the badge they wear on their shirts. Mancini seemed to be largely behind the scenes when Kaka was sought after once upon a time, and now it appears his lack of man-management skills has lent itself to a poor attitude on the pitch and subsequently poor performances, especially away from home. David Silva is completely out of form. Sergio Aguero has stopped scoring. He has given up on Joker-In-Chief Mario Balotelli (or should that be Joke-In-Chief?) after yet another red card against Arsenal, seventy minutes after he should have walked for a disgraceful lunge on Alex Song. The striker's petulant lack of professionalism has spread like a poison through the dressing room, and it appears Mancini has just about lost patience. 'I can do nothing', he replied post-match when questioned about Balotelli's attitude, which says more about the greying Italian's coach-to-player capabilities than it does about his immature countryman. A second player-related misjudgement has been to allow Carlos Tevez back into the squad. Despite his undoubted talent, it is unlikely that many managers would go back on their word not to play him again, after his antics on the bench in Munich and subsequent five-month departure to Argentina to play golf and sing in karaoke bars. Mancini has failed to see through the potential disruption it can cause, and though not as significant as the Balotelli problem, it raises some issues about the inner workings at the club.
Heading away from the literally and metaphorically muddy dressing room up to the clean and neatly furnished offices and we come to one Patrick Vieira, the 'Football Development Executive' at the club. Apparently, all Vieira can find time to do is to begin the annual title race mind games with Sir Alex Ferguson (or whoever else is in with a shout). After stating that bringing Paul Scholes out of retirement was 'weakness', he proceeded to claim United get preferential treatment from referees. Now United are no angels when it comes to discipline and lucky decisions, but City should also take a look at themselves as well. No examples necessary. Regarding the Scholes situation, Vieira should choose his words more carefully. Scholes scored the second goal against QPR to seal three points and is enjoying a mini-renaissance at the heart of United's midfield, while Vieira himself spent most of his last year as a footballer on City's substitute bench. Perhaps he should get back to his day job, whatever that may entail.
There is no one reason for the swing in fortunes for the Manchester clubs, and though City have not yet lost the league there is more than a sense of inevitability around the fate of the Premier League trophy. At Old Trafford, it is a case of getting the job done with minimal distraction. Ferguson even took his players to St Andrews for a round of golf before the Blackburn match to escape from the hype of the title race. At the Etihad, Roberto Mancini has allowed a sense of self-importance to fester over several months (which may have ironically started with the 6-1 thrashing of their rivals) and is now showing in the dismal displays on the pitch, reports of scuffles between current players, and unnecessary comments from former players. Add that to the usual pressure that comes with being top of the league for so long and an implosion was always in the making. In Manchester City's case, the implosion is the sound of a lot of bottles falling off the summit and smashing into many tiny pieces.
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