The former Wales international has twice had first-hand experience of seeing the immense workload that goes into being one of the big four.
He was on the staff at Chelsea as they began the journey that turned them into a team that collected silverware for fun.
Then he was at Arsenal as Arsene Wenger constructed and inspired his squad of `invincibles' who spent a whole Premier League season without tasting defeat.
So far the attempt to be involved with a third great side has been an up and down journey, but Niedzwiecki is convinced that under Mark Hughes City can become just as potent a force in English and European football as his two former employers.
But he has warned the current crop of players at Eastlands that to emulate the best they will have to be more concerned with cache than cash.
"The best players are the ones who challenge themselves," he said. "You have to be a really hungry fighter and want to get better.
"I was lucky enough to be part of the back-room staff at Arsenal when they went a season unbeaten and I saw the way those players challenged each other to keep going and what they demanded of each other.
"That is the sort of thing we want our players to do here, but it doesn't happen overnight. It is something you have to strive to achieve. A culture that has to be instilled.
"I have worked with Thierry Henry at Arsenal and Ryan Giggs with Wales and they would be two of the best examples of star players who just spent every day working the correct way and trying to get even better.
"I watched Gianluca Vialli spend hour after hour on his own doing shooting practice after training, I saw Gianfranco Zola spend half an hour a day after we had finished work perfecting his free kicks.
"At Arsenal players like Martin Keown would physically intimidate their own team-mates to replicate the situations they would face in a game.
"If a player comes in here with the wrong mentality then they will fall by the wayside. It is our job to either remove them or change them.
"We know that certain players can do better. We know we can do better because we are always questioning ourselves and you have to be honest and open.
"It is important that anyone who comes to City in the future to play is hungry to still do well. We want players to be more interested in the rewards of winning trophies than the cash that might be on offer.
"Players should want to be remembered for what they achieved in the game, what they won and did in the game - championships, cups, and international caps - and not for the cars they drive or the mansions that they live in.
"When you are top of the tree and winning those rewards will come anyway. I know the top players earn vast sums these days, but they must have an edge, the eye of the tiger and that determination in every game they play to be better than they were week before."
Niedzwiecki is adamant the fact the Blues are now tagged the richest club in the world should not be the inspiration for players and that rich or poor, the work ethic has to be the same.
"The challenge hasn't really changed with the money coming into City because the real challenge is simply to be the best that you can be," he said. "When you are a coach or a player if you improve yourself then you will improve the team and when you walk on to the training ground every morning it is your job to be in the best physical state you can be and best mental state you can be and want to improve. Otherwise you have wasted a day of your life.
"The best type of player to work with is one that wants to give 100 percent every day and to improve. You hear Fabio Capello saying it with England now and it has been said many times in the past.
"You cannot afford a `day off' if you want to be top of your profession."
He admits that this season has been too up and down for anyone to be satisfied, but is convinced the togetherness of the staff and the methods they employ will bear fruit quickly.
"As a staff we are a big team of people and we are a tight-knit group," he said. "We all believe in the same things and the manager is very open to debate, ideas and opinions but at the end of the day it is his view that counts.
"Mark Hughes is a terrific listener but he is the one that makes the major decisions that go on in the club and we respect that and are 100 per cent behind him.
"There is no good-cop-bad-cop in our set up, there has to be a balance and we know players blossom more when they have a smile on their face and they are being told how good they are. Of course they have to be told when they are not doing their job properly and they are.
"My job as a coach is to try to help players become better. I don't `make' players and any coach who says they do is talking garbage.
"We just give them our experiences and knowledge that we have gained and then it is up to them to go out and give their best to get better. It is quite simple.
"I can assure all our fans that when we lose there is no worse feeling. Away from home we look over at our travelling supporters who pay a lot of money to follow the team and we feel bad for them and we are determined to put it right.
"A player represents a City fan in the shirt as far as we are concerned. That player is lucky to play for the club and that is why it has to be 100 percent all the time, especially if you want to become the best of the best.
"It takes time for a new culture to evolve in a club.
"Some will like it and embrace and thrive. Some won't and will fall by the wayside.
"The way this club is and the ambitions the owners have, we know that they will not accept mediocrity, but nine months is not enough to develop everything fully.
"Jose Mourinho had world-class players in his club when he arrived at Chelsea and no disrespect to the players here, but there is not that base.
"The club has never finished higher than eighth in the top flight in the last 16-years or so, but all of a sudden the demands have become greater.
"That means the mentality has to change and we are constantly pushing that, but until we win something or get close to winning something and the players taste it and feel it then we are still going to be short. The challenge now for this season is to finish higher than eighth and turn around the Hamburg tie on Thursday night.
"I have been at both Chelsea and Arsenal when teams were being built and there has to be patience in the boardroom and the stands.
"In life we are all impatient and want success today or tomorrow at the latest but, hopefully, we will have time to build and we will be here at City for a long, long time and create something like Arsene Wenger has at Arsenal or Alex Ferguson at United or in the way Rafa Benitez is doing at Liverpool.
"There is continuity at all those clubs as there is at Everton and Villa and all of them are building a culture within the club that helps build foundations from the bottom up and that is what we want. I hope I am at City until I finish in football whether that will be possible I don't know because it is a results based business.
"We put stresses on ourselves because we want to be up there not as survivors but as winners. In Mark Hughes we have a manager who has that great attribute that he has tasted winning and he knows what it is like to be successful.
"He doesn't suffer defeats or fools gladly and that is why he puts the demands that he does on his players and his staff. He wants the best.
"Mark never goes shouting about what he won as a player. Not once have I heard him do that. Class is when someone else talks about your achievements and never, ever have I heard him say `when I did this' or `when I did that' in front of the players.
"I see the same qualities and way of thinking Mark as I did in Arsene Wenger, but the important thing is getting that first trophy." Tweet
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OH, I FEEL A LOT BETTER AFTER READING THAT. !
Talk talk talk, blah blah blah............... please can everyone else just keep quiet and let the fans do the talking when we win something or indeed look like we want to win something. thank you.
As a City fan, what hurts isnt the failure to win trophies. Its the fact that we are continually made into laughing stocks as a club. That should NEVER be allowed to happen when you have spent £100M+. In the time we have had Mark Hughes as manager we have been continually held up to ridicule. No-one has respect for the club. It obviously doesnt help when you get turned over at home by a distincly average side, nor when you get easily beaten at home by lower league opposition. Stop this sort of stupidity and youll be part way there. Unfortunately under Mark Hughes I see no sign of a change.
Hm.
There are two sides to this.
One could say that spending (near?) £100m AND having 9 months should be enough to have a team and its players "being the best you can be" week in week out.
The other is that no matter how much you spend it will take time to gel a group of players as a unit and instil your work ethic.
One thing Eddie is correct in saying (and millions of others have said a thousand times over) is that it is a results based business.
I think he has got till the end of the season to be honest no matter what the chairman said to MH is their last meeting.
If we don't qualify for Europe one way or the other I think he will get the boot.
That I think we should keep hold of him rather than start over yet again.
Because one thing is for certain, although a new mananger can come in and have immediate success results wise, there will be a dip where the club and players old and new adapt to each other. We've seen this enough times at City alone - the last two managers for starters. The top 4, Everton and Villa, have all shown that to susuccceed consistently you need to stick to your guns and let a manager have 3-4 seasons.
Is it me or is supporting City a bit like living in a communist state at the moment. Its grey, miserable and essentially pants, but those in charge keep up on telling you it is in fact a land of milk and honey and will be even better in the future. The reality doesn't match the propaganda. I wish they would stop coming out with stupid comments like this. Yeah Eddie Arsenal were/are a great side, lovely, thanks for that. Why don't you answer this question instead though. Why are we so bloody awful.
Eddie talks a good game, as does Mark Hughes. Come to think of it, both Micah and Dunny give good interview, and so do Robinho, Bellers and Nedum. And it was only last week that Ireland was quoted as saying that everyone needed to pull together and put in a shift. In fact, the entire staff seem to be world-class when it comes to talking about football.
Now how about letting the boots do the talking?
On the face of it, a good piece but we've heard most of it before. Whilst it can't be denied that some folk have unrealistic expectations, Eddie is failing to recognise that we have actually gone backwards.
Any manager given £120M to spend would be expected to show some kind of positive result, yet we are being consistently out performed and out muscled by clubs who could only dream of our resources e.g. Stoke City!
Thinking back, we could easily have lost the Middlesbro match and the Sunderland result was far from convincing. We've also had a charmed EUFA cup campaign. Therefore we could by now have been fighting on nothing but a SERIOUS relegation battle. Look at our defeats, however, and it's hard to recall a game which we were unlucky to lose.
If the current form continues on Thursday in the presence of the owners, I'll be amazed if Hughes survives.
City can be this, City can be that. Sick of hearing what City might become.
I'm seeing no desire nor the organisation to suggest we'll achieve anything.
The Hamburg & Fulham games have been the two worst performances for a number of years.
The players need to pull that shirt on and go out and die for the cause.
They are currently going through the motions and it's not good enough and never will be
And what on earth goes on in training ? Do they ever work on defence ? Do they ever work on corners ? Do they ever work on set pieces, attacking and defending ?
In other words if the lazy one's don't like it then go. Trouble is knowing us we will pander to the lazy one's and get in another manager, then by Christmas they can decide that they don't liek him and will give up and we'll get another manager etc etc
Headline ever so slightly misleading. Good, sensible stuff but I fear you'll not get the time at the club mate and we'll head off on a spree of managers that just want the money... but if that's what the fans want...
IM SORRY BUT WE AINT GOT A CHANCE.THE FACT IS THE TEAM DONT WANT TO PLAY FOR HUGHES.WE ARE IN FREEFALL.TRY AND GET JOL IN FOR NEXT SEASON.
What has Hughes ever done as a manager to deserve all this backing? He was a good player but has achieved nothing as a manager and in a normal world he should really have been sacked with such poor results as this season.
"If a player comes in here with the wrong mentality then they will fall by the wayside. It is our job to either remove them or change them."
Better start by getting rid of about 20 of the current squad then Eddie. CTID
I am still backing hughes,continuity is the key, give him 3 years not 9 months.
A lot of encouraging comments from Eddie,some key phrases,
"If a player comes in here with wrong mentality,they will fall by the wayside"
"You cannot afford to take a day off if you want to be top of your profession"
For those fan's still foolishly calling for the return of Billy Butlin sorry Sven cast your mind back to April 27 2008 Manchester City 2 Fulham 3,this was followed by Middlesboro 8 City 1!!!
A good sensible article & every word of it i'm sure is the truth. The work ethic has to be there in all the players & a few bad apples here & there can have a detrimental effect on everyone (if you allow it too ?). I believe that the premiership is the hardest league in the world & it takes time to build a succesful side which means not only buying the right players but also letting players go (which MH has not had the opportunity to do yet). If you look at any of the succesful teams over the years they have had a manager that has been at the club over a minimum of three seasons etc; Fergie, Wenger, O'Neil, Moyes etc. The only exception in recent years was Mourinho but he had walked into a club with a very experienced squad that had been built up by, Vialli & The Tinker Man !.
I like what I hear in this article but unfortunately I don't like what I see on the pitch.
I have been saying all season that Hughes (or any manager for that matter) needs time but results like that against Fulham really test any supporters patience.
Sfter the last two matches involving City I can see plenty of the current squad "falling by the wayside". There is no fight from players. I can see De Jong, Kompany and Zabaleta taking a season to settle into the pace of the Premiership but at moment none of them look any better than the midfield we had last season. Glimpses of Benjani, Bojinov, Jo & Evans are no better than Bianchi, Samaras and Corradi. Sturridge shows some potential but looks to be about to exit the club to sit on someone elses bench as a periphery figure.
As for the defence it is no different to last season. I can only see us winning two more games this season at most and one is against West Brom, bottom of the league and going down but with City being City, who knows ? The other one is Bolton at home but with Megson's team being a fighting team and him being an ex-Blue then again we could lose that as well. Allardyce will come to City and no matter how much we as fans will want to win, I'm sure the players won't let us down again will they ?
The problem at City yet again is lack of fight. We saw this under Keegan in certain games and it carried on under Pearce even though with his reputation as a player, we all thought it would be better. With Sven in charge we saw exactly what the players thought of the fans with their capitulation to Boro last season. We used to have Barton as our best player in the squad, now we have Stephen Ireland, have we really progressed in the last five seasons ?
I hope if Hughes stays he can eradicate this laziness in City's team. We're supposed to have a super fit squad and yet now the excuse is tiredness playing two games a week. I can't see Utd, Liverpool, Chelsea, Everton or Arsenal's squads tiring and we opted out of both domestic cups as soon as we could !
If Hughes is to leave then we need a manager who can get the most from the players we have until we can move them on for as much as we can recoup, because on present form this lot can all leave !
He talks the talk!!!!!!!!!!
There speaks a man desperately trying to save his job. I know Eddie try to coach your team on how to defend set pieces and then move on how to attack them. The coaching set up is a joke as is the medical team. A whole new staff is required.
Well!! After spending a few quid on midfield players and forwards the attack has certainly improved. But the defence has gone downhill since Stuart Pearce left. The team seems clueless while attacking or defending corners and make major mistakes while defending free kicks. Not to mention the ball watching when crosses come over and the midfield losing interest in defending when we get to the 75 minute mark. Managers such as Hodgson can out-think our coaching and management staff by making changes at half-time. City have some good players and they need to be coached to avoid the mistakes they repeatedly make week-in and week-out. Maybe Eddie is right about the lack of committment though.
Glad to see its all coming together keep up the good work
Jim , Furness Vale
14/04/2009 at 10:28
So you think Ireland is not an improvement on Barton? And here's me thinking you understood the game...
This is what will happen on thursday,we will concede early on and the fans will be screaming for HUGHES OUT,and we will be lucky to keep the score down and the stadium will be half empty at half time,hopefully Hughes will then pick his P45 up after the game.
If Eddie watched top players at Arsenal and Chelsea spending time after training honing their skills what are City's back four doing to improve their returns at both ends of the field ? Very little is my guess. We leak goals from corners , hardly ever score from set pieces and too often hoof the ball forward aimlessly.We stand by and let mediocre teams like Fulham walk all over us - not for the first time this season.The views of the owners after Thursday and the West Brom game should be interesting.