I don't think he really mishandled the Manny Wright situation. He took a kid that did not want to work hard at all, had a weak mental constitution, and he brought him to a boil to where he felt he needed to **** or get off the pot. He got off the pot.
I think sometimes we lose sight of how damaging it could be if the Manny Wright laziness/wishy-washy attitude had been allowed to persist over a couple of years to where we could find ourselves tempted to count on him to produce...when he may not deliver.
You really do need people you can count on. If he looks good enough to hold down the fort at nose tackle, and so you don't go out of your way to acquire a good nose tackle, then you find yourself not being able to rely on him, that could be more devastating than driving him away sooner.
Now, I have to say now that Saban is gone I hope Manny is emboldened and decides he would like to work hard now...he would like to come back and show that he's a different man.
But I doubt it will happen.