Ask most Manchester United fans what sound will haunt them forever, and Martin Tyler screaming Sergio Agüero’s name as the Argentine scored Manchester City’s third against QPR in the dying minutes of the 2011-12 season will probably be high on their list.
The goal clinched the club’s first ever Premier League (as we now know it) title, as the team led by Roberto Mancini overcame an eight point gap in the final six games to lift the trophy.
The Italian was then sacked the following year after failing to retain the title (Sir Alex Ferguson and Manchester United got their revenge), but that win is something the now Italy national team manager will cherish forever, as he explained in an interview with Il Giornale.
Asked if he had great memories as a club manager, he said: “I had beautiful experiences abroad: you have to adapt to the mentality, know all kinds of players. I started at Lazio, and that was satisfying: it’s what I wanted after playing there. I won the first scudetto at Inter, but the title with Manchester City, after 44 years of waiting, was beautiful.”
Mancini was then pressed to give them the one unforgettable memory of his career so far, and you can guess what it was.
He said: “Winning the Premier League in the last second stays with you. It gives you the chills. You are losing, and in two minutes you make it 3-2 and turn it around. Not only that: we went to win at United 6-1 that year. The Manchester (United) fans who mocked the City ones were silenced: we changed the course of history.”
After leaving Manchester City in 2013, where he was replaced by Manuel Pellegrini, Roberto Mancini went on to manage Galatasaray for a season before returning to Inter for two.
He then took over at Zenit Saint-Petersburg for a season before replacing Gian Piero Ventura as Italy’s national team manager in May of 2018.
