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Pic via (@edclark15)

Leslie Gudel sat down with Charlie Manuel – who, as you can see, was at a local Shop Rite after his interview – to discuss his time with the Phillies. Manuel basically said what we all knew:

Did you feel like you had the pieces to win the last two years?

“The last two years? No. I can straight-face tell you that. Really.”

Even going into the season?

“Start of the season, both years. Yeah.”

Did you know it in Spring Training or before the season started?

“Spring Training. The last two years, yes. But you know something, Leslie, I always figured that we’d add pieces and things like that. I always thought, I can say it, I’m straight, I always thought, check this out: When someone talked contract to me, OK? When everyone talked contract to me, especially after we won, and I looked up in the stands and see baseball at its peak here in Philadelphia and I guarantee you I used to say this sometime to some of my friends or something, or my son or something, I’d say I’d sign that contract, they’re going to always put a good team on the field. And we’re going to always have more talent than we’ll need, and I said that because those people keep coming and filling the ballpark, the way baseball’s flying in Philly, I mean seriously that was absolutely no problem at all. I knew if we started the season with this team that somewhere along the line we were going to improve it, and if you remember, there were a lot of years where we definitely did that all that. They always went out and they always got pieces and gave us a good opportunity to win.”

Except… they didn’t improve it. They’ve consistently gotten worse since the moment Ryan Howard’s contract kicked in with a blown apart Achilles. Ruben Amaro consistently made them worse. While Charlie just made some kid’s day:

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The full interview will air Wednesday night at 10:30 p.m. on CSN.

Video after the jump.