Manchester City will need the mother of all comebacks to revive their Champions League ambitions this season -- a miracle to eclipse Chelsea's efforts last term.

Frankly, I don't think they're playing well enough to achieve it. If their disappointing first season in Europe's premier competition was understandable as they readjusted to a superior tournament, there is no excuse for the poor showing this time.

Yes, they have had a tough draw for two consecutive years -- how they would have craved the 'gimme' of Manchester United's group -- but City have only themselves to blame for not stepping up a level having won the Premier League.

None of their summer signings has had any impact, the system is changing from one week to the next, to the point where the players look confused, and here we are again talking about Mario Balotelli spitting his dummy out after being substituted at West Ham. How can these issues have failed to be addressed last summer?

Losing to Real Madrid in the final stages at the Bernabeu was avoidable; they should have been hammered at home by Borussia Dortmund despite sneaking a draw, and the loss to Ajax was nothing short of a capitulation.

For a side still unbeaten in the Premier League, it is frightening how short of quality City have looked in Europe, bereft of confidence and the necessary expertise to pose a threat to the elite sides. It should not be like this at the Etihad Stadium.

The time for learning should be long gone and the place should still be buzzing after the first title in 48 years, the winning goal by Sergio Aguero the platform for a generation of dominance at home and abroad.

I understand the argument about such circumstances not developing overnight, but there is no reason for City not to be more competitive in Europe.

They already had the spine of their team in place and the resources to improve it, so to have wasted money on players who don't make the first choice line-up is inexplicable. Last summer already has the look of a missed opportunity, and that failure in the transfer market has been exposed much more in Europe.

Instead of riding the crest of a wave of positivity, everything you hear coming out of the club is negative, and it begins with the manager.

The next time Mancini (below) hears a rival club are interested in his services, he should pause for thought and ask himself if he will ever have a better job than he has right now. I'd suggest there is no football job in the world more attractive than being manager of Manchester City.

The suggestion he spent the summer talking to any clubs -- the idea of leaving City for Monaco is bewildering -- sends a horrific message to players and supporters.

Difficult

It's extremely difficult for a manager to make his players believe in him and his methods if they see him as someone who was willing to walk away a few weeks after their greatest triumph.

In the four or five weeks after Aguero's winner against QPR, Mancini should have been strategically planning how to add players of the calibre of Vincent Kompany and Yaya Toure. Instead, if the reports are to be believed, he was talking to another club.

There are still doubts about Mancini, particularly in Europe. His former club, Inter Milan, only won the Champions League after he left, despite his domestic dominance in Italy.

If he left City tomorrow, he would undoubtedly do so as big a legend as he was at the San Siro, the man who brought a championship drought to an end. Regardless of the circumstances, he deserves credit for that and his place in City folklore is secure.

But whether he has signed a long-term contract or not, Mancini must prove he has the ability to make progress quickly in Europe or I suspect City will start looking for someone they believe can. (© Daily Telegraph, London)

- Alan Hansen

Roberto Mancini believes Virgin Mary may have answered his prayers as title swung Blues’ way on religious feast day

Stuart Brennan

November 15, 2012

http://www.bluemoon-mcfc.co.uk/Blog/index.php/2011/09/13/the-house-roberto-built/mancini/" rel="nofollow"> And now it’s a full blown crisis. Manchester City, Champions of England, top of the Premier League, the only unbeaten professional side in the country, the best defensive record in the league have been knocked out of arguably the trickiest ever Champions League ‘Group of Death’.

In this morning’s papers, on the radio and on Sky Sports News, journalists who really should know better are pondering and probing as to whether the other Roberto will follow Di Matteo in the managerial sack race. Even Jose Mourinho, the man who had the audacity to refer to Arsene Wenger as a voyeur yet simply cannot resist poking his unwanted nose into other clubs’ business, has hinted that he believes Mancini should be given the bullet. Fortunately for everyone associated with Manchester City Football Club, the man who came from Italy is fully aware that in the eyes of the supporters, he is still the man to drive this club forwards after a huge show of support whilst Mourinho stalked up and down the touchline wondering why he isn’t shown the same level of love in Madrid.

In all honesty, it is a disappointment that City haven’t progressed beyond the group stage for a second consecutive year. That the club will probably finish without a win from this campaign and therefore will have the lowest points haul from any English side in Champions League history will hurt but let’s look at the positives and the ways in which City can improve the next time the Champions League rolls around and try to make it third time lucky.

In the two seasons so far, City will have played a dozen matches after the meaningless trip to Dortmund next month. In that time, City have only played Spanish, Italian, German and Dutch opposition. We’ve never been drawn against an FC Cluj, a BATE Borisov nor a Dynamo Zagreb. Should we complete Group D without a win, we’ll still have won a quarter of the twelve matches we have played so far. We’re still unbeaten on home soil. The mistakes that have resulted in dropped points at the Bernabeu, the Amsterdam Arena as well as the Etihad Stadium surely can’t be repeated too many more times. The match officials that have robbed us of crucial desicions against Bayern Munich last season and Ajax this may finally accept that we are amongst the European elite, aren’t going away and begin to treat us as such.

What we need to learn is not to give home sides an early lead in front of partisan crowds. This gives both the home team and the fanatics in attendance an enormous lift and we have often failed to recover once a goal down. City also need to consider the surge in confidence they would recieve from going in front during home matches. Napoli, Villareal, Borussia Dortmund, Ajax and Real Madrid have all benefitted from City’s sluggish starts in Manchester but in each of these games, Mancini’s men have recovered to gain at least a point. Five out of six games at home in other words where the visitors have drawn first blood. These are statistics that need to be changed if we are to enjoy the competition that would rather see two thousand loyal supporters locked out of a stadium each matchday, than trim a few inches from the advetising boards.

The final lesson that City need to take on board is a controversial one. Time and time again last night we saw Madrid players cut the flow of the game up by falling down, thus stopping the quest for a winner in full flow only to spring back to their feet untroubled and carry on with the game. Do City need to go in front and then play clever? Maybe. As the game approached injury time last night, one wisened chap sat a few seats away in the South Stand beautifully noted Pepe rolling around on the floor and announced to anyone who cared to listen – “That’s the one thing we need to learn from this year’s Champions League. Some call it gamesmanship, some call it professionalism, some call it a lack of sportsmanship – I refer to it as f**king cheating but there’s no doubt we have to become good at it.”

Of course City need to learn and move on and a third season of early exits would be a tremendous blow, but if the sky blues can kick on and successfully defend their Premier League crown then all will be well again in Mancini’s garden.