Manchester City's 5 Memorable Moments of the Roberto Mancini Era

Roberto Mancini has had an extremely eventful career in the relatively short time he has been boss of Manchester City.

In less than three years he has won two trophies, been involved in two more semifinals of domestic cups, fallen out with players, spent countless millions in the transfer market and shown off more dubious designer wear than you'd expect to see at your average Brooks Brothers fashion show.

Both the highs and the lows have been pivotal moments for the Citizens, the manager and the fans of the club.

Here are five of the most memorable from Mancini's time in charge so far.

Two Big Signings: David Silva and Yaya Toure Arrive

After half a season getting to grips with the English league and guiding his team to a fifth-place finish—Mancini took over from Mark Hughes in December 2009—the Italian boss laid down a marker the next summer by bringing in big name players for huge fees.

Aleksander Kolarov and Jerome Boateng came in for large sums themselves, but it was the two signings from Spain's La Liga which caused the biggest commotion.

In came David Silva from Valencia and Yaya Toure from Barcelona, for both of whom Mancini paid around £24 million each.

The two midfielders have proven excellent value even at such a steep price; the quality and consistency they provide City with has meant that the outlay was well recouped.

Even in their first season in Manchester they proved they were special players and both played pivotal roles in trophy successes.

Winning the FA Cup Final

For 35 years Manchester City fans waited to win another major trophy, and Roberto Mancini was the man who delivered it to them in the end with victory in the 2011 FA Cup final.

After having beaten both Leicester City and Notts County in a replay, then Aston Villa, Reading and Manchester United to actually reach the final, City finally clocked up some silverware as they defeated Stoke City 1-0 in the final at Wembley.

Yaya Toure was the man who scored the winning goal, and City were deserved champions in the end.

The FA Cup may have lost some of its appeal and respectability in some quarters over the years, but there was nothing to suggest that after the blues were able to lift the trophy, having waited so long to do so.

Beating Manchester United 6-1 at Old Trafford

Winning a derby is always special—and that goes doubly for winning in your rival's own backyard.

But thumping them 6-1, their heaviest defeat in well over half a century?

Untold celebrations must have taken place in the victorious half of the city that night, as City ran rampant against United. Mario Balotelli and Edin Dzeko came up with a brace apiece, with Sergio Aguero and David Silva also on target.

Darren Fletcher scored what looked like a consolation for United with nine minutes remaining—but that was pretty much forgotten as City still scored another three times after that point.

Going five points clear at the top of the table as a result was a pretty lavish amount of icing on an already intoxicatingly sweet cake.

Carlos Tevez "Refuses to Play"

It certainly hasn't been all rosy for Roberto though, and the apparent refusal—or the miscommunication, if you prefer—to play as substitute of Carlos Tevez was the biggest indicator of that so far.

The Argentine forward was instructed to get ready to come on against Bayern Munich in the Champions League but ended up not playing any further part in City's season for the next five months instead after a furious falling out with his manager.

He did, of course, come back to play some part in the rest of that particular season which ended up with...

Last-Minute Glory in the Premier League

...The biggest domestic glory of all.

Needing a win on the last day of the season against relegation-threatened QPR, it all looked so simple and straight forward for Manchester City to wrap up their first Premier League title.

Their first top flight championship, in fact, in 44 years.

Instead, City found themselves 2-1 down with around 25 minutes to go—until a double injury-time strike from Dzeko and Aguero completed a miraculous turnaround and contrived to hand the Premiership trophy to the club.

Mancini was instantly cemented in hero-status at the Etihad Stadium, regardless of whatever transpired before or after that event.

That was just five short months ago; as is the norm at Manchester City, much has already gone on since then and perhaps one or two have begun to forget just what City were before the recent influx of silverware.

It's never dull with Mancini around—these were just five of his more memorable moments so far, and you can bet he'll be adding to the list as the season goes on.

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