“Its finished at Sunderland, Manchester United have done all they can, That Rooney goal was enough for the three points, Manchester City are still alive here, Balotelli……AGUEROOOOOOOOOOO!! I swear you will never see anything like this again!” 13th f May 2012, Roberto Mancini steers his Man City side to the Premier League title, their first in 44 years. One year on and Mancini is out of the job.

The last 12 months have been filled with disappointments and the lack of silverware has led to his dismissal. It’s clear the club’s Abu Dhabi owners were unhappy at the lack of fight the team displayed when defending the Premier League crown that had worked so hard to win was abysmal. Their shocking performance in the Champions League, in which they won none of their 6 games in a group made up Real Madrid, Borussia Dortmund and Ajax was disappointing to the least. There will be sympathy on the FA Cup front where they lost in in the final to Wigan, but the lacklustre performance by his superstars seemed to be the final straw for the owners. The only target Mancini managed to meet was that of Champions League qualification for next season, but that on its own couldn’t save Mancini’s City career.

Having won the Premier League last season, a Champions League challenge this season seemed the obvious next step in the view of owner Sheikh Mansour and chairman Khaldoon Al-Mubarak. But their horrific group phase, along with Mancini’s unimpressive record in the competition with Inter, suggested to the hierarchy that another manager was needed for the job. Favourite for the job is Malaga’s Manuel Pellegrini, who has denied of any agreement in place for him to takeover the reins at the club. It appears though, that his style of statesmanlike management and his idea of entertaining and attacking football as a must, makes him man the Blues want.

Pellegrini has a good record in the competition. He took Villarreal to the semi-finals of the Champions League back in 2006, where they lost to Arsenal, before the Gunners also knocked them out in the last eight a year later. In his only season in the Champions League with Real Madrid, they reached the quarter finals and he was only denied from taking Malaga to the last four this season by a Dortmund comeback, which saw the German side score twice in stoppage time.

Mancini shouldn’t be surprised with the way he’s been sacked, giving his controversial appointment after the departure of his predecessor Mark Hughes back in 2009. He may now regret criticising the club about the whole Pellegrini affair and the way they’ve handled the situation, but it’s unlikely even without this outburst he would still be in the job. Another factor that needs to be considered is that he has spent close to £300m in 4 years Although the huge spending has undoubtedly brought the club some success, some of the signings he has made have been proved poor especially this season; Mario Balotelli left the club in AC Milan after a string of outrageous incidents, Samir Nasri has never shone during his time at the Etihad and players like Garcia and Nastasic haven’t adapted to the Premier League scene. He will, however, continue to say the lack of summer activity resulted in the loss of the league, with targets such as Robin Van Persie and Daniele De Rossi deciding to stay at their club or move to another side. Instead their replacements were Scott Sinclair, Maicon and Javi Garcia, a considerable difference in ability is clear.

Put all these factors together and the outcome seemed inevitable. It looks like the Malaga boss when, rather than if, he arrives will have high expectations put in front of him. City cannot simply perform like they did this season, he will be expected to challenge for the title, and a decent European campaign is a must if they want to become part of the European elite.