Mancini brings cool head to the City chaos
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Roberto Mancini says his targets are a top-four place this season and the Premier League title the next. Photograph: Jon Super/AP
Whatever else happens in the unpredictable environment of Manchester City Roberto Mancini will surely remain imperturbable. The club was recommended to him by a previous manager, Sven-Goran Eriksson, who had a similar imperviousness to mayhem that might erupt around him. They both have, of course, the conditioning that comes to those once immersed in Serie A.
"If you have stayed at Inter Milan," the laconic Mancini said, "pressure is no problem. I stayed at Inter for four years. It is a record." The dry humour might endear him to a City support who will not have been charmed by the manner in which his predecessor Mark Hughes was removed.
Mancini appreciates more than most that a real bond with the crowd and his employers can only be established with success. He is slick, too, referring to seven trophies at Internazionale while omitting to mention that two of them were Italian Super Cup victories. Evidently, Mancini has an entirely practical approach to public relations.
That should be of benefit to him at a club where dangers lurk. "Next year we want to win the Premier League," he said wisely, although qualification for the Champions League with a fourth-place finish is the immediate priority. Mancini appreciates the expectations and never made the mistake of adopting a low-key tone.
Mancini was droll rather than dull. "It's the same as Milan except for the weather," he observed while reflecting on local rivalry. "In Manchester there is City and United. Sir Alex Ferguson is a big manager who has won a lot of trophies, but we want to beat him."
The newcomer is bold and experienced enough to believe he can do so. There was also a diversion into sentimentality in an allusion to his years as a forward at Sampdoria in which the Cup-Winners' Cup was won in 1990, with the Serie A title coming a year later. Mancini was clear that he wants to recreate such a breakthrough at City as a manager.
The 45-year-old has a talent for playing to the gallery. There were moments when his projection of absolute confidence led the Italian astray. In an attempt to emphasise the cultural contrast ahead, Mancini was asked what he thought about the long throw-ins to which Stoke City's Rory Delap will subject his defence during his first game in charge.
The manager wanted to make light of that and observed that Shay Given could come out and catch them. In a training session with the new squad he had apparently missed the fact that the goalkeeper lacks height. All the same, no one can pillory a newcomer and Mancini can count on good will from a crowd that yearns for him to thrive.
The Italian is scarcely a naif, all the same. His first Scudetto at Inter came courtesy of the match-fixing scandal that saw Juventus relegated but the two that followed were secured on the field. A parting of the ways ensued because he made little impression in the Champions League.
The supposed offence that led to his dismissal was his reaction to being eliminated from that competition by Liverpool in 2008, when he already assumed that José Mourinho would replace him.
The episode confirmed at least that extreme expectations will not take him by surprise. Manicini does not seem to shun the demands imposed on him and envisages converting the so-far ineffectual record signing into a legend. "Robinho can make history at Manchester City," said the newcomer.
There is an underlying shrewdness to the declarations. The means of the people behind the club leave no scope for understatement. Mancini aligned himself with the grand ambitions but he had time, too, to let his mind turn back to a spell on Leicester City's books. It was not a place for affection and he remembered that his friend the midfielder Robbie Savage had little taste for pasta.
The reminiscences appeal but the challenges to come are harsh. It was easy to appreciate rumours that state, for example, that a bid will be made for Juventus's Giorgio Chiellini, who can play at centre‑half or left-back, but deals will be hard to pull off next month regardless of the means at his disposal.
He could be obliged to get far more out of men such as Joleon Lescott and Kolo Touré, bought at considerable expense by Hughes in the summer, who have utterly failed so far to enhance the back four. He rightly applauded Craig Bellamy's efforts but it would be inconceivable to speak of another striker, Emmanuel Adebayor, in similar terms.
That Stoke fixture is, luckily for Mancini, at home but it will still subject City to a direct assault that does not suit them. Hughes has been removed primarily for that lack of resilience. Mancini was very likable in his appearance before the cameras, but a dash of harsh practicality will be essential from now on.