FA Cup success will not be enough to save Mancini's job, says Mills

Former Manchester City defender Danny Mills
believes Roberto Mancini may still face the
managerial axe this summer even if he can
lead the Blues to an FA Cup win on Saturday.
City are heavy favourites going into the final
against Wigan, but a poor attempt to retain the
title and a European campaign which saw them
finish bottom of their group may ultimately
cost the Italian his job.
Mills believes the club must ask
themselves questions about a lack of
progress this season following last
season's title success.
The ex-England right-back told
Goal.com : "It's been a disappointing
season from Manchester City's point of
view, purely in terms of progression.
"The Champions League campaign was
disastrous, they finished well behind
Manchester United.
"The argument would be that finishing
second and winning an FA Cup, for most
clubs is more than enough.
"But Manchester City, where they are at
the moment, the amount of money they
have spent, it's the fact that they have
slipped backwards a little bit this
season."
Mills bemoaned the lack of top-quality
signings made last summer by the club
in their attempts to stay ahead of the
chasing pack, and believes winning the
FA Cup would have no bearing on
Mancini's future.
He claimed: "They haven't just stood
still. All those players that were
exceptional last year haven't been quite as
good this year and the signings brought in last
year simply aren't good enough.
"They weren't good enough to improve the
first XI, so that would worry me if I was the
City board.
"We don't really know who made those
signings, there's a lot of debate about whether
it was Mancini or whether it was the board.
"There's of course now a new director of
football as well, I think it's going to be a fine
line if Manchester City decide to keep Mancini
or whether they don't and I don't think the FA
Cup will make a difference."
With Manchester United losing long-serving
manager Sir Alex Ferguson to retirement this
summer and Chelsea set to replace interim
manager Rafael Benitez with Jose Mourinho, as
exclusively revealed by Goal.com , there is an
argument that maintaining some stability at
Manchester City could aid them next season -
but Mills feels other factors may prove telling.
He continued: "I think it's a difficult one for
City, City fans of course love Mancini for
winning the FA Cup last time around and then
of course taking them on and winning the
Premier League and stealing it in the dying
seconds.
"It's one of the greatest moments in football,
let alone in Manchester City's history, and
Mancini will rightly go down in blue
Manchester history for that.
"But has he done enough to retain his job with
everything that's going on? I'm not so sure that
he has.
"There seems to be a lot of factions within that
camp. At times results have papered over
cracks, it's never really seemed a happy camp.
I think a lot of victories have tended to gloss
over that fact."
Mills admits City will be the team to beat this
weekend and cannot see how a Wigan side
appearing destined for relegation will deal with
the likes of Carlos Tevez and Sergio Aguero in
the final.
One player in particular, however, will be the
man the Latics have to stop if they are to have
any chance, according to Mills.
When quizzed on who would be crucial for
City, he said: "For me, it's Yaya Toure. I was at
the semi-final and he was absolutely awesome.
He's so powerful, he's like Patrick Vieira 10
years on but even better than that.
"The way he picked the ball up and drove
forward, against a good Chelsea side, he just
knocked players out the way. It was almost
man against boys. He was phenomenal.
"I think, on his day, he is one of the most
influential players in a team. When he's fit and
when he's playing at his best, when he's
dynamic, he is a power to be reckoned with
and he's almost unplayable at times."