Has Mancini Scored A Bit Of An Own Goal?

Firstly I should point out that I am a fan of Roberto Mancini and I have always given him the benefit of the doubt, I do feel he has made some mistakes, but who doesn't?  He has made less mistakes than many of our previous managers so we shouldn't complain, that doesn't take away from the fact that I think he has just made a bit of an error of judgement.


I suppose the expected thing would be for me to write about our new awesome, yet gaudy aircraft, or the new name for our stadium which everyone will continue to call Eastlands no matter how much is spent to make us call it otherwise.  On reflection, that statement makes it sound as if I am against a stadium name change, which I definitely am not.


It is however our managers decision to sideline some members of our squad that is bothering me, I think the impact it could have potentially could be pretty difficult to deal with.  The MEN has a bit of a none story this evening, it merely confirms what we already know and that is that some of our players will not be allowed to train or travel with the rest of the squad, and I am not sure that is a great idea.


The sidelined players are Craig Bellamy, Emmanuel Adebayor, Wayne Bridge and Nedum Onuoha (they also list RSC, but fail to mention his absence is down to him playing in the Copa America, top quality journalism), now clearly the majority of those players aren't good enough for our team, but surely taking them to America and getting them fitter makes them more salable assets.  Unless there are moves in the offing for all of those players that can take place before the players return from their USA tour, it serves no purpose to not take them.


I suppose the counter argument could be that they could instill some negativity in the camp, but they have all been away from the team for so long I am unsure as to how destructive they could actually be.  Clearly the papers were full this morning of negative words from both Bellamy and Adebayor, but I think a lot of the motivation behind those quotes was probably because they were sidelined by the clubs coaching staff.

The other issue is that I still believe a couple of those players could offer us something.  If Tevez is to leave, Emmanuel Adebayor could have his uses unless we replace the Argentine quickly, and even though I wrote recently that I felt Onuoha wasn't necessarily good enough for Manchester City I still felt he could offer some decent backup if he impressed over pre-season.


Clearly the thinking behind the 'ban' is to keep morale up, but part of me worries that by taking these actions we are not only taking the players out of the shop window, but that we might also inadvertently damage morale.  Let's not forget there are no stories about Jo being banned, but Adebayor, oh yeah, it makes sense to keep him away from the team....