Phil Thompson says Manchester City are in a "meltdown" and that chief executive Ferran Soriano and director of football Txiki Begiristain are the main reasons for their current crisis.
The champions' manager Manuel Pellegrini is under-fire yet again following yesterday's humbling 4-2 defeat by local rivals Manchester United.
City's latest loss, having gone 1-0 up early on before being overwhelmed, leaves them even further out of contention to retain their title, and in danger of falling out of the Top 4.
ON AIR: @Phil_Thompson4 says Ivan bottled it not coming into work this morning, just like City at Old Trafford yesterday
— Newstalk Breakfast (@BreakfastNT) April 13, 2015
"They're into a bit of meltdown," Phil told Shane Coleman on Newstalk's Breakfast this morning.
"You have to look deeper at what's gone on at Manchester City. It's not just the players on the pitch, the manager with his tactics.
"You have to look at the two people [Soriano and Begiristain] who are in charge. They've all been culpable because this is a team ... [that] has been left to grow old.
"Ivan [Yates] said my club [Liverpool] would be a selling club, well this is a grandfather club. I don't know where this is going to end."
The Sky Sports pundit continued: "You have to doubt [Soriano and Begiristain's] vision for the football club. The owners have a great vision and it's taken place [before] our eyes - the whole thing for the community that goes on.
"But on the football terms, Soriano and Begiristain - they're not doing their job, they need a blend. You can have a pop at my club [Liverpool], [but] at least there's a vision.
"You look at the players and the ones you think you'd rely upon; [Vincent] Kompany, Yaya Toure, [Sergio] Aguero's still there ... and [David] Silva, Silva's still a good player and Aguero. After having such a good start yesterday, you know what was lacking? A leader."
A gracious Phil, who was sick that City fan Ivan Yates wasn't presenting Breakfast today, added: "We should mention how well Manchester United did - after getting turned over in the first 20 minutes all of a sudden to turn that around and play as they did was quite exceptional."
Having seen table-toppers Chelsea extend their lead earlier yesterday, he admitted: "I was watching that game thinking [Chelsea] look average, these look tired. But what do they do? They grind out a result. That's why they're going to be League champions."
Was it little bit difficult seeing Cesc Fabregas score Chelsea's winner at QPR? No. I did not see the incident.
— Wenger Knows Best (@wengerknowsbest) April 12, 2015
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