Gone in 180 minutes…

Hands up all those who are 100 per cent certain Roberto Mancini will still be Manchester City manager one week today? Hello? Anybody?

The truth is the Italian is very much living on borrowed time and he knows, like the rest of us, that he is going to have to pull off a spectacular week’s football to hold on to his job.

Make no mistake; fingers are hovering over the button that operates the managerial ejector seat at Man City. And one or two of those fingers will be extremely itchy.

Three straight defeats in a row, rumours of dressing room unrest and, most worrying of all, deafening silence from the powers-that-be at Eastlands.

The simple truth is you don’t get to spend the equivalent of a small country’s GDP on players without having massive and possibly unrealistic expectations heaped on you.

And, right now, Mancini is a long way from living up to those expectations.

Losing to Arsenal was damaging, but the early sending off for Man City was at least slightly mitigating. The subsequent defeats to Wolverhampton Wanderers and then Lech Poznan – a team that fired its manager midweek – were far less forgivable.

The idea that all is not happy in the dressing room will also not be sitting well with the club’s owners. When you invest hundreds of millions in a team, you don’t want to hear about rifts and factions among your squad. Fractious teams rarely win trophies.

We saw from the way Mark Hughes was treated by the club that the billionaire owners have no moral dilemmas about firing people. And they don’t let emotions, diplomacy, sensitivity or even common decency get in the way of the process either.

In my opinion, Mancini has 180 minutes of football to save his job, starting off with a tricky visit to West Bromwich Albion today.

At the start of the season you would have had that down as an away banker. But with the way West Brom are playing and Man City’s current slump, it is now anything but.

However, if the West Brom match is big, then Wednesday night’s match is gigantic. Manchester derbies are always crucial but more so now as United and City fight it out for the title of England’s biggest club.

Win that game and Mancini may just have bought himself a stay of execution, at least until the new year. Lose and he can pack up his scarves, clear out his desk and head back to Italy to count his compensation package.

Interestingly, rumour has it that another Italian may be in line to take over. A man with a wealth of experience at winning trophies and who is used to dealing with unrealistic expectations. A certain Fabio Capello.

Now that would make for some interesting headlines wouldn’t it?

Woods needs to play a round

Last week Tiger Woods finally lost his place at the top of golf’s standings after a remarkable run of 281 weeks as world number one.

The American, who has endured a rather torrid time both on and off the golf course over the past year, was replaced by England’s Lee Westwood.

And that has got all the holier-than-thou fanatics saying that this is what happens when you have affairs, cheat on your wife and lead a double life.

However, without sounding like I am advocating infidelity, I have to disagree. Because surely the evidence suggests that this is what happens when you stop doing those things.

Woods had been world number one and the most feared golfer on the planet since 2005. And now we know – thanks to the man himself saying as much – that at numerous times during that five-year period of sporting dominance, he was sowing his wild oats.

Yet despite his extra marital shenanigans, his golf never suffered. He kept on winning, he kept on earning and he kept himself at the top of the rankings month after month, year after year.

The second the affairs stopped – simply because his divorce meant they no longer needed to be affairs – is the second his form went out of the window.

Coincidence? Probably. But there is the outside chance that Woods is one of that increasingly common breed of sportsmen that needs added adrenalin to perform at their best.

Some of them get their rush from drugs, some from booze, some from gambling and some, like Woods, from having their trousers round their ankles.

So if Woods wants to get back his place at the top the solution is simple. He needs to find himself a nice lady, set up home and settle down into a life of domesticated bliss.

Then he needs to have an affair.

Mind over Mattie

Remember that Mattie Burrows goal I told you about last Sunday? The remarkable jumping backheel volley that has turned into a Youtube hit?

Well, it isn’t just me and four million internet surfers who think it is a bit special: Fifa have also jumped on the bandwagon by shortlisting it for their Goal of the Year award.

It was confirmed last week that Burrows’ match-winning, 92nd minute strike will be up for the Ballon d’Or Puskas Award, along with nine other of the year’s greatest goals. And you can bet there will be a few household names on that list.

Young Burrows himself is doing with the publicity exactly what he did with the ball – taking it in his stride and playing down his moment of genius.

“The whole thing is unreal and it is only just sinking in. I could maybe try to do that 100 times and it would only come off once – I just hit it perfectly,” he said.

That you did, son.

If you love football and know how to appreciate a goal of true beauty then you simply have to check it out.

And then if you love the underdog, you need to vote for it on Fifa’s website: www.fifa.com/classicfootball/awards/gala/news/newsid=1145424.html#vote+your+goal+year.

Your say

“I would like to draw your attention to last Sunday’s issue in which a photo of England 1966 team was shown.

“Contrary to what was written underneath it, this was not England’s winning team because in the picture there are three very important players missing – namely Gordon Banks, the goalkeeper, Martin Peters, who scored England’s second goal in the final, and the legendary Bobby Charlton, whose two goals against Portugal in the semi-final put England in the final.

“I fully agree with you that today’s players are overpaid and have become football mercenaries with no loyalty to the club, and they are manipulated by their greedy agents. Wayne Rooney’s latest saga is a clear example of the shameless greed of certain players and their agents.

“In my opinion, Manchester United acted irresponsibly when they surrendered to Rooney’s blackmail. No player should think he’s bigger than the club.

“Other players in the past who thought otherwise, such as George Best, Eric Cantona, Roy Keane and Jaap Stam left Manchester United but the club still survived without them. United should have placed Rooney on the transfer market.

“Fewer young players are coming through clubs’ reserves and youth teams because, in my opinion, the Football Association is allowing clubs to loan players for periods of up to a year. In the lower divisions, clubs can have up to six players on loan.

“In the past, young players got opportunities to demonstrate their talents when clubs were hit with a number of injuries – certain clubs even used outfield players as goalkeepers or used youth players for this reason.

“Rooney got his chance because Everton were hard pressed by injuries. But now, when clubs are faced with injuries they just loan players from other clubs.

“Many promising young players are being denied an opportunity. This rule should be urgently amended and should be limited to two players.” Lino Vella Clark, e-mail.

sportscolumnist@timesofmalta.com