Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini has criticised the club for not acting to stamp on speculation surrounding his future.
City have pointedly not rejected claims that have emerged from Spain that Malaga coach Manuel Pellegrini will replace Mancini in the summer.
With a distant second-place finish in the Barclays Premier League to Manchester United and yet another group-stage exit in the Champions League, it is hard for Mancini to claim progress has been made this season.
And that was before Saturday's FA Cup final defeat to Wigan Athletic, who were 8/1 underdogs prior to kick-off, but were the better side and grabbed a last-minute victory thanks to Ben Watson's header.
It piles the pressure on Mancini, who admits he cannot be sure what his future holds because the club have not intervened on his behalf.
"If we find out in a week the things you say are not true, you have written a lot of stupid things in the last six months and more in the last two weeks," he said.
"If it is true I am stupid because I didn't understand anything.
"You have been speaking about this for the last six months, and also the last two weeks. It is too much.
"The club didn't stop this. I don't think that was correct.
"I don't think it is true."
Mancini spoke at length with chairman Khaldoon al-Mubarak before the game, although he insists his future was not mentioned.
"I have a four-year contract, not one," he said.
"There is no reason for me to ask. Do you think the chairman told me not to worry before the game?
"How many teams did better than us this year? Manchester United. Swansea, I don't think anyone else."
Mancini repeated his mantra that City's problems date back to the summer, when he is adamant they failed to move quickly enough in the transfer market, losing out on Robin van Persie in particular.
"Our target at the start of the season was to try and win the Premier League," he said.
"But our mistake started in the last market. We didn't do enough to improve our team.
"After winning the Premier League, the second year is more difficult.
"Then maybe you don't get the Champions League. You can have a bad season. We had problems because we lost some players. We lost Yaya (Toure) for a month. We had a lot of problems this season.
"Every manager takes the responsibility. That is normal. But I don't think last year, when Manchester United lost the Premier League and didn't play in the FA Cup final they had all the discussion we did."
Yet Mancini accepted his team dropped well below their own high standards against Wigan, while at the same time claiming they deserved to win.
Most neutrals would say not, although Mancini had no complaints with the second yellow card for a challenge on man of the match Callum McManaman that condemned Pablo Zabaleta to become only the third player in FA Cup final history to be sent off.
"It was a correct yellow card," he said.
"We were in a good moment, we were attacking, we lost the ball and they counter-attacked.
"In a final I thought we would be better but we had two incredible chances to score.
"We cannot do anything about it now but I am very sorry for my players and the club and for our supporters.
"There were 40,000 people here and we deserved to win this game."
Midfielder Gareth Barry refused to use uncertainty over the future of Mancini as an excuse for City's shock defeat.
Barry said: "We are professionals. We can't use something like that as an excuse.
"We have it not just before this game, but all this season and last season as well.
"What happened today has nothing to do with the speculation.''
Reflecting on the game, Barry added: "It was exactly the sort of game we expected really.
"We knew what sort of game Wigan play and on a pitch like this they can play their football, no matter what the situation is.
"They have got a fight at the bottom of the Premier League but they showed what a good team they are.
"We didn't play our normal passing game, but sometimes that can happen at the end of the season.''
City had their moments but none of their star men were able to take control of the game.
"We had our chances as well,'' Barry said. "The keeper made a great save from Carlos (Tevez) in the first half and that was a turning point.''
Barry insisted the club's long-term ambitions remained intact, continuing: "We have had one of those days.
"It will make no difference to where this club wants to go.
"We have to learn from the season we have had and push on next season, raise it to another level.''
