Kobayashi Maru 1.0 » bigger than the club itself. Th

The dust settled, the hangovers were finally a distant memory, but the smiles remained. For Manchester City fans the score line was magnificent, a chance for the fans of the blue side of the city to stick it to their red neighbours and preach their triumph. Nothing could be better than that score line, they thought. Or could it? When it was time for reflection this week it turned out there was. The performance. When they won 6-1 against Manchester United two years ago they had played well, but it was against 10 men with three goals scored very late. This time they didnt play well, they played great. Deep down this is what City fans will keep to themselves, for now: The dawn of a new era where their marquee players stepped up for the new man in charge. Citys 4-1 thumping over rivals Manchester United on Sunday was of significant importance for the fans, but it was even bigger for the clubs new manager. When he was hired, Manuel Pellegrini was simply not a household name in England, despite having a very impressive coaching resume in Europe. Yet, here he was put in charge of one of the biggest clubs in the land where anything other than a Premier League trophy would be a disappointment. Following the game the Chilean was his usual charming self to the press, talking about the performance, but then he slipped in this little nugget mid-sentence: "We must continue improving, trying to play another way, change a lot of things, every day we are improving." It was a phrase lost on the interviewer, who wanted to talk how great City were but it will not have been lost on the men in charge of the club. Contrast Pellegrinis comments to what Jose Mourinho is currently doing at Chelsea. Suddenly, the world knows about Mourinhos desperate desire to change the teams style, because Mourinho continues to tell the press about it. Mourinho talks about how he didnt like how Chelsea played before and how the clubs Player of the Year last season, Juan Mata, must watch and learn to adapt to his style. Whether Mourinho is right or not is not the point at the moment. The point is the general consensus throughout the world is that this is Joses team and when/if Chelsea succeed it will be because of him... A manager who wont play one minute in the Premier League this season. Meanwhile, at Manchester City, Pellegrini is quietly going about his business making changes that will bring the best out of his players and allow what happens on the pitch, not in the media room, to dictate the clubs identity. This is one of the main reasons why Pellegrini was hired, Roberto Mancini was fired and why Mourinho was never considered for the City job by Chief Executive Officer Ferran Soriano and Director of Football Txiki Begiristain. Sorianos intellect and business acumen combined with Begiristains football intelligence makes them a dynamic duo not to be ignored inside the landscape of English football. To understand their beliefs and attitudes it is important to know the roles they played at Barcelona and, in this case, specifically in the recruitment of a new manager. At the end of the 2006-07 season Barcelona - a year after winning the Champions League and La Liga - lost their domestic league on goal-difference to Real Madrid. Their manager Frank Rijkaard could not lose his job just 12 months after conquering Europe, but deep down Barcas Director of Football, Begiristain, knew he wasnt the man to take them forward. In Graham Hunters excellent book Barca: The Making of the Greatest Team in the World, it is revealed that he began to search for the Dutchmans replacement as early as October 2007, despite the change not taking place until the summer of 2008. In a discussion about considering Jose Mourinho for the Barcelona job, Soriano tells Hunter: “The first board discussion about Mourinho was in December 2007. Retaining Rijkaard had proved a mistake.” A mistake the pair have clearly learned from and one that helped prompt the sacking of Mancini and the hiring of Pellegrini. It was also a decision most fans were against and most media thought was premature. The rest of the chapter offers a fascinating look at Mourinhos attempts to persuade Barcelona to hire him including Begiristains reasons for not hiring him. After reading this it is clear why the former Spanish international had grown frustrated with Mancini at City. Hunter wrote: Begiristain couldnt imagine Mourinho understanding the club didnt want or need outbursts in the media two or three times a week. Whats more, the Basque felt that the Barca he was trying to build valued respect for the opponent, honour in defeat, dignity and other fragile concepts more highly than Mourinho did at that time, or perhaps ever would. Now Mancini is certainly no Mourinho when it comes to loving the sound of his own voice and Barcelonas players are certainly no choir boys to opponents or referees when things go against them, but the point is how highly Begiristain values these traits. This is a brilliant football mind who thinks about a club from top to bottom, who thinks a clubs branding should start with its name and badge, followed by its players, not what was happening at City last season and currently with Mourinho at Chelsea. More from Hunter on Begiristain: He was 100% sure, and remains to this day, that Barca would have trained well, played decent, if pragmatic, football and won trophies under Mourinho. However, he was equally sure that these would become pyrrhic victories compared with what Mourinho would cost the socios, the board, Barcelonas international brand and a host of other intangible concepts that the club saw intrinsic. Begiristain feared that Mourinho felt he was more than the club. Manchester City on the field simply didnt meet their standards last season (with no wins in the Champions League, an FA Cup final loss to Wigan and not coming close to contending for the title) but it was off the field that revealed even more concerns, with constant negative stories in the press surrounding the likes of Mancini, Mario Balotelli and Carlos Tevez. City needed a new identity with a strong spine coming via a professional manager who wouldnt become bigger than the club itself. They didnt need Mourinho and his current antics at Chelsea will bring smiles inside the Manchester City boardroom. Just like that, there is a new distraction in town. City can go quietly about their business on the field and thanks to Pellegrini, Begiristain and Soriano, its now the players, evolving under a new regime, who will make the headlines… and thats the way it should be. Join Alastair Connolly and myself live on TSN and TSN2 at 9:30am et as we get you set for Aston Villa vs. Manchester City and Manchester United vs. West Bromwich Albion. Eagles Jerseys . Completely. Two days after releasing Peyton Manning, the longtime face of the franchise, the Colts announced they were cutting four fan favourites: running back Joseph Addai, linebacker Gary Brackett, safety Melvin Bullitt and tight end Dallas Clark. Josh Sweat Eagles Jersey . James Jones got his turn Sunday. And the lift he brought, combined with the expected playoff showings from LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, have the Heat off and running in these playoffs. http://www.theeaglesshoponline.com/Youth-Dallas-Goedert-Eagles-Jersey/ . Watching them over the past year - and in some cases, two years - has given us a starting point for this seasons Craigs List. Custom Eagles Jerseys . First reported by FOX Sports Ken Rosenthal, its unknown if the impetus for the deferral proposal came from players or management, but it never left the preliminary stages. Haloti Ngata Eagles Jersey . Tyrell appeared in seven games with the Lightning this year, he had no points in those appearances. The 24-year-old has seven goals and 17 assists in 132 career NHL games, all coming with the Lightning. He was selected in the second round, 47th overall, of the 2007 draft.The NBAs life ban for Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling won swift support in Europe but also produced calls for soccer to show similar resolve against racism. FIFA president Sepp Blatter and UEFA president Michel Platini, via his spokesman, both voiced approval on Wednesday. Blatter tweeted: "Sport says no to racism. I fully support (at)NBAs decision to ban (at)LAClippers owner for life after his racist words." Patrick Vieira, a 1998 World Cup winner with France, also tweeted: "Well done to (at)NBA, another organisation dealing with racism in exactly the right way. I say again - zero tolerance." NBA Commissioner Adam Silver wants Sterling to sell as part of a series of sanctions brought against the leagues longest-tenured owner in response to racist comments in a recorded conversation. Silver banned Sterling for life, fined him $2.5 million, and said he will press the other team owners to support his desire to make Sterling sell. For some in Europe, the NBAs resolve was in stark contrast to soccer leaders failure to eradicate racism that has dogged stadiums and marred matches for decades. Just last weekend, a Villarreal season-ticket holder racially taunted Barcelona defender Dani Alves by throwing a banana at him. Retired British NBA player John Amaechi noted that players, executives and owners in the American league appeared united in their rejection of Sterling. "If they can do that to respond to a hateful private utterance, why the hell cant football do that to respond to repeated instances of hate-mongering?" Amaechi said in a phone interview with The Associated Press. "Its time that we started looking at some of the owners within other parts of sport," outside the NBA, he said.dddddddddddd"Theyre exactly the type of plantation mentality people who dont mind having black people working for them ... But God forbid that they want to come up to the big house." Amaechi said he doesnt expect the NBAs exemplary punishment of Sterling will jolt soccer into meaningful change. And Blatters tweet of support for the NBA was "not enough," he added. "If there was a poster-person for the words impotence and apathy, it would have his face on it," Amaechi said. "You know what theyre going to do? Theyre going to produce another pretty poster with platitudes plastered all over it. Theyre going to produce another campaign that has a black player stood next to a white player," he said. "Nothing substantive." FIFA and UEFA, the European authority, have toughened their sanctions for discrimination in the past year and prosecuted cases more quickly. A turning point in awareness of widespread problems with offensive abuse at matches came in January 2013 when Kevin-Prince Boateng, then playing for AC Milan, led teammates walking off the field to protest racist insults during an exhibition against a fourth-tier Italian side. FIFA and UEFA have ordered national and club teams to play matches in empty or partly closed stadiums as punishment for racial abuse incidents, but no World Cup or Champions League team has yet had points deducted or forfeited a match. Among the most severe judgments, FIFA has banned Croatia defender Josip Simunic for 10 matches -- including the 2014 World Cup -- for leading fans in chanting a Nazi-era nationalist slogan after a playoff victory against Iceland last November. Simunic has appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. ' ' '