Manchester divided by success of old and new guard

One Mancunian travelling from their FA Cup win at Wembley on the tube did, though, confess he couldn’t be quite so oblivious to a certain event elsewhere on Saturday. “Bloody typical,” he said. “When we won the league in ’68 United went and won the European Cup the next week and had all the talk, now when we get our first trophy since ’76 this happens.”

The “this” was the Old Trafford side clinching a record-setting 19th title three hours before the monied men from Eastlands prevailed over a thoroughly impoverished Stoke City.

Manchester’s football clubs being joined in triumph on the same afternoon meant there were two narratives at play during the FA Cup final. We were witness to incline and decline – the first of a team, the second of a competition. All the talk by Roberto Mancini and others was of Sheikh Mansour’s largesse having delivered merely the first of many larger-scale successes.

No wonder – he hasn’t simply lavished £350 million on the playing side simply for the glory of a Champions League-earning fourth place in the Premier League and the lifting of a cup that wasn’t even the most notable English trophy being cavorted with on a pitch that day.

Mancini knows the score. “City started [this phase] two years ago. I believe in this project because we have big chance to buy the sort of players United and Chelsea have bought in the past. If we work well, I don’t know if we can win the title next year because this is difficult, but I think we can arrive at this target in one or two years if we work well with the club,” the Italian said.

Meanwhile, for those whose concern is the status of the FA Cup itself rather than the latest winners of it, Saturday was a day to lament. Even in a Press sense, it just didn’t feel right to head out to the stadium from the media room having watched, not the build-up, but Alex Ferguson’s latest remarkable achievement, and to have managers chat about league games to come once the trophy had been handed out.

The reason the Cup Final was played on Saturday was because Uefa rules call for the stadium hosting the Champions League Final to be game-free for at least two weeks. And next year’s FA Cup final will also will also be played on the same day as Premier League games because of Uefa calling for an end to domestic season across Europe four weeks ahead of their Euro 2012 competition.

But surely the downgrading of the FA Cup’s importance on the English football calendar needs to be addressed. Stoke manager Tony Pullis, in one of the few notable interventions from anyone at his club on Saturday, was surely speaking for many when he mourned that possibility. Even as he let slip one reason why it is being allowed to happen when stating one encouraging development in recent years was that unfashionable clubs could win it since some of the bigger teams did not always play their strongest teams in the earlier stages.

“The FA have got to do what they have got to do and they are not going to listen to Tony Pullis but I am a traditionalist and would much, much prefer the FA Cup final to be the last game of the season and have a build-up to it that lasts all week,” he said. “But it is internationals, the Champions League, Premier League and then the FA Cup comes fourth.”

Frankly, the final could be regarded fourth rate. It was so one-sided, yet City couldn’t covert their control into goals, requiring to wait until the 75th minute before Yaya Toure seized on to a rebound from a Mario Balotelli shot and slammed in a low effort from 14 yards.

It was untidy and that was all too true of City’s work in and around the box where they forced Stoke to camp. Thomas Sorensen made a couple of excellent full-length stops to deny curlers from Balotelli and David Silva, while the Spaniard fired a shot into the ground that then ballooned over when it appeared easier for him to score. For all that, City had to be relieved Kenwyne Jones fluffed a one-on-one with Joe Hart on the hour mark.

Mancini noted that City’s inability to translate domination into decisive moments had been their Achilles’ heel in a season wherein their championship challenge withered with the relentless game schedule of February and March. Yet that is precisely what his squad must handle if they want to take the next step and make a major tilt for both Champions League and Premier League, as their city rivals can do.

No-one seems sure if Carlos Tevez will be leading that charge. His actions and body language during the celebrations were read as suggesting the seemingly permanently restless striker has rested long enough with a club managed by a man he’s not wild over, in a locale he’s not wild over for, for a weekly wage he’d like to be wilder over.

“It is better if you ask Carlos,” Mancini said when asked about the intentions of Tevez, who understandably didn’t look his sharpest in his first start for more than a month following a hamstring problem. “For me, he is staying here. I spoke with him two days ago and he told me: ‘Why are you saying I want to leave? I never said that, ever.’ Maybe it was because he was in Italy getting treatment from his Argentina physio. I never said that Carlos wanted to go to Italy. He has a five-year contract with us. At the moment he is our captain. He is an important player for us.”

Pullis, paying tribute to the blue half of Manchester, added: “They are a real threat to the big two [Manchester United and Chelsea].”