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When Roberto Mancini took charge of Manchester City for the last time at the 2013 FA Cup Final, they sang his name until the bitter end.

Having delivered the club’s first title in 44 years just 12 months earlier, the brooding Italian remained an idol among supporters.

Yet in the City boardroom, Mancini’s fate had already been sealed. He would have been toast, even if City had beaten Wigan.

And in the dressing-room, they were ready to pop champagne corks, whatever had happened at Wembley.

News of Mancini’s impending departure broke in the papers on Cup Final morning. Post-match, the Italian publicly laughed at the stories. Two days later he was sacked.

(Image: PA)

The manager had retained so few friends inside the club that he was virtually the last to know. Even with a vast pay-off, it was brutal.

Just as it had been for Mark Hughes when the world seemed to know he was making way for Mancini in 2009.

So when they sharpen the old cut-throat for Manuel Pellegrini, the Chilean won’t even hear them coming. There certainly won’t be the white noise of supporter unrest that precedes most managerial sackings.

Usually when we talk of ‘unrealistic expectations’ from the terraces, we mean unrealistically high expectations. At City, they are unrealistically low.

The Blue Moonies are proper fans who followed their club to the third division and back in vast numbers and who spent decades in the shadows of Manchester United.

MORE: 5 things we learned at Anfield

They have seen five major trophies in four seasons and they still own Manchester, despite FFP allowing United to out-spend them again.

So they have every right to feel content and to regard speculation over Pellegrini’s future as fanciful.

It’s not though. Abu Dhabi’s royal family do not remember league matches against Macclesfield at Maine Road nor Jamie Pollock’s relegation-sealing own goal. They demand constant progress and they are seeing none - neither domestically nor in Europe.

As mentioned here before, Pellegrini possesses none of the ruthless decisiveness nor tactical originality of Jose Mourinho.

Mourinho identifies weak links that none of us knew were there. Pellegrini ignores them when they are glaring.

(Image: PA)

This is no less true after last season’s title win, when City had the best squad in the country by several streets and should have won it by double figures.

Would Vincent Kompany still be in City’s starting line-up if Mourinho were manager? Would City’s flair players still be allowed to shirk defensive responsibilities? Would he leave them legs akimbo against Barcelona or at Anfield?

The sheer quality of the goals City did score against Barcelona and Liverpool were testimony to their world-class talent.

Pellegrini was either naïve or pig-headed to send out his team in a 4-4-2 for two key matches which leave City staring at a barren season.

The widely-held view that Pellegrini is playing a psychological blinder by never saying anything interesting in public, would only stand up to argument if there were evidence that the Chilean possessed hidden depths of genius behind his polite exterior.

Manchester City last 10 games (all comps) 4 Wins 2 Draws 4 Defeats

Yet the Sheikhs will not just be assessing Pellegrini, but also the men who recommended him – former Barcelona bigwigs Txiki Begiristain and Ferran Sorriano.

Since their arrival in 2012, City’s player recruitment has been lamentable – a £150million net spend without strengthening the starting line-up one iota.

City were better when they were noisier. Better cabaret for the media, of course. But better at what mattered too. At building a squad.

Former chief executive Garry Cook may have been – and they’ll have to use asterisks because there is simply no better word - a gobs***e. But he left after the signing of Sergio Aguero, City’s last undoubted transfer-market success.

The first eleven which Cook helped to recruit remains largely intact - but even Aguero, Yaya Toure and David Silva were part of a miserable title defence two seasons ago.

(Image: Alex Livesey)

That relentless will to win and win again, a hallmark of Alex Ferguson’s teams and Mourinho’s, does not exist within City’s dressing-room.

This is a squad which has proved it can down tools on a manager when the going gets tough.

And while life may more be more comfortable for them under Pellegrini than Mancini, they are capable of going missing again.

If they do, then Pellegrini won’t hear a thing. Nothing but a deathly hush.