4 Moments That Cost Roberto Mancini His Job with Manchester City

Manchester City's 2012-13 campaign has finally come to an end. A loss in the FA Cup final denied City their best chance at a major trophy this season—Community Shield aside—and cost Roberto Mancini his job as manager.

The Italian joined the club in 2009 after a long tenure at Inter, and led the club to its first major trophy in 35 years as he won the FA Cup in 2011. Just last season, he led City to its first league title since 1968, though it took Sergio Aguero's last-gasp stunner to seal the deal.

This season, as mentioned before, fell far short of all expectations. This included the club's own expectations, cited as the primary reason behind the sacking in a club statement. The timing was odd, with the club not even waiting another week for the season to be over.

Indeed, even Sir Alex Ferguson criticized the move, noting Mancini's positive work with the "noisy neighbors" and expressing surprise. But all the glory aside, there are definitely some key moments that led to Mancini's downfall.

What follows is an overview of a few of these moments.

The Carlos Tevez Saga

The first big-time negative incident in the Mancini era arose during the group stage of the 2011-12 UEFA Champions League. During a match between City and eventual runners-up Bayern Munich, striker Carlos Tevez reportedly refused to come off the bench.

The Argentine's impact might very well have made a difference, as City slumped to a 2-0 defeat at the Allianz Arena. The biggest focus after the match was not City's listless performance on the pitch, but the repercussions of what transpired in the dugout.

After the match Mancini put Tevez on blast, stating that the striker's time with the club, at least under his watch, was "finished." Tevez then decided to take an extended trip back to his homeland, where he improved his finishing on the green rather than in the penalty area.

Eventually, he was brought back into the fold as all parties involved sought to make amends for all that had transpired. Tevez aired his grievances about the situation, but stated that he wanted to get back into a positive favor with the disgruntled fan base.

A hat-trick against Norwich City in April proved a big stepping stone in City's quest for a turnaround in the title chase. City would win the title, and Tevez would proudly stand for his club with the anti-United poster he displayed in the celebrations.

All's well that ends well, but what came before the ending was certainly nothing anyone wanted to see. The way the situation unfolded left a bit of a black mark on a great season for Mancini.

Ending the Champions League Winless

This season's edition of the Champions League saw more negatives arise for Mancini, but this time it was not one isolated incident. Rather, it was six—as in the six group stage games City played without recording a single win.

Sure, they were thrust into a ridiculously tough group that featured semifinalist Real Madrid, finalist Borussia Dortmund and the always-threatening Dutch giants Ajax. But to come away from it all as Premier League winners with just three points, picked up in three home draws, is nigh on unacceptable.

City's exploits in this group featured a little bit of everything. From blowing a lead late on at the Santiago Bernabeu to questionable tactics in the away match with Ajax and confronting the referee in the reverse fixture, Mancini just couldn't get things right.

Of course, this was yet another notch in the lackluster belt of European performances in Mancini's time as a manager. A UEFA Cup semifinal appearance while leading Lazio a decade ago is the only time he's reached that stage of a European competition.

He's not made it past the Round of 16 since a Champions League quarterfinal exit in 2006 while at Inter, and dropped out of the group stage in both of his appearances in the competition with City. At least he took City to within a Rui Patricio fingertip of a Europa League quarterfinal last season.

But following that up with three points from a Champions League group stage? Especially after being rather unlucky finishing third on 10 points the season before, this was an unmitigated disaster for Mancini.

Fight with Mario Balotelli

The new calendar year offered new hope for City, with no European interference in their quest to make up lost ground in the Premier League. A disheartening loss to Manchester United—which featured Samir Nasri's disappearing act and unruly fans—struck a blow in City's title defense.

That was the side's first league defeat of the season, but six draws from the 15 matches beforehand left them lagging behind. A loss to Sunderland not three weeks later hurt them again, but solid wins over Norwich and Stoke looked to put things back on track.

Shortly after the Stoke win, however, things took a quick turn for the worse at City's training ground. After a late, unnecessary tackle on teammate Scott Sinclair, Mario Balotelli was ordered off the pitch by Mancini. The young striker refused, and his manager had to get physical.

A series of pushes and pulls photographed by the Daily Mail saw things spun negatively in a hurry, with Balotelli's future at the club put into question. The 22-year-old would be granted his exit as he was sold to AC Milan shortly before the January transfer deadline.

Balotelli's tenure at City was an interesting one, to say the least. From setting his own house on fire and throwing darts at youth players to "Why Always Me?" and scoring goals with his shoulder, there was always something to talk about with the former Inter man.

Unfortunately, one bad tackle and a manager who wasn't having any of it might've cut the tenure short. Despite his poor form before his sale, Balotelli caught fire in Milan to leave many wondering what could have been. Mancini's training ground intervention might've ended any hope of a title defense.

Losing the FA Cup Final

The nail in the coffin. Losing a cup final in any case is going to be leave negative mark on any season; but considering City's limp title defense, one-and-done show in the League Cup and calamitous display in the Champions League, the FA Cup final was supposed to be one final salvo.

Going up against a Wigan side on the brink of the drop zone that eventually caught them, City were expected to stroll to a second triumph in three years. Instead, they produced a quite poor performance, losing Pablo Zabaleta to a red card before allowing a stoppage-time winner in the 1-0 defeat.

The official announcement of the sack came just two days later. It had been coming, really, with the aforementioned failures piling up fast on Mancini's back. Losing to a financially small club, especially one about to drop to the Championship, was more than he could handle.

At the very least, the derby win over United in April gave the club a brief spurt of positive energy. But they were never going to mount the miraculous comeback they did last season, not with United remaining ruthless at the top.

Wins over the likes of Chelsea, Wigan and West Brom before the Cup final put on a bit of positive momentum despite a loss to Tottenham. But that momentum barely lasted a few minutes at Wembley as they slumped to a runner-up finish.

And so, on the one year anniversary of THAT goal, Roberto Mancini's time at Manchester City was ended. But City fans continued to chant his name in the last two matches of the season, reflective of just how impactful the Italian was at Eastlands.

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