Ghosts of Christmas past will stalk Manchester City for as long as they fail to lift silverware. One of them is Robinho, who claimed yesterday that while he was a City player he had talked his compatriot Kaka out of signing two years ago.
"I told him what it was like to live in Manchester; that it is cold, it always rains and offers little," the Milan player said. He also said he had had discussions with Mario Balotelli, to whom Milan have made eyes. "I do not think [he will stay long in Manchester]," Robinho said of the 20-year-old.
Maintaining Balotelli's interest beyond his first season may prove challenging if City are not in the Champions League next season, though manager Roberto Mancini can put such concerns to the back of his mind with his side comfortably within the top four ahead of Aston Villa's arrival this afternoon. Balotelli may feature from the start.
The match could give City a chance to resolve their patchy home form. "We have found it hard at home because teams have come and sat deep and made it difficult for us," Gareth Barry said yesterday.
Kolo Touré will return from a one-match ban, though may not be recalled as Joleon Lescott performed well against Newcastle on Boxing Day. City know a win would see them, for a few hours at least, leapfrog neighbours United, who have an evening kick-off.
Roberto Mancini's positive comments about Newcastle's Andy Carroll after the 3-1 win were a response to a question, rather than a declaration of his intent to pursue the player. City need to sign a Champions League-calibre striker, which is why Wolfsburg's Edin Dzeko is a January target.
City ready to let Bridge join Hammers - if the price is right
Manchester City are ready to let Wayne Bridge join West Ham – if the survival fighters come up with a deal.
The clubs are trying to thrash out figures on a loan, or even a permanent low-fee transfer.
Bridge has slipped out of Roberto Mancini’s side and the former Chelsea star is available as part of a massive cull on wages ordered by the Arab rulers at Eastlands.
Hammers hope City will subsidise a loan arrangement for Bridge – who is on around £90,000 a week.
But there are no special City deals any longer like the one which eased Craig Bellamy’s switch to Cardiff.
So West Ham must come up with Bridge’s wages in full for the rest of the season, or find a way of taking him permanently and risking having his huge salary on their payroll if they go down.
Avram Grant is also closing in on another signing – Hoffenheim’s £6million-rated Senegal striker Demba Ba.
Hammers want to bring in the powerful target man who was heading for Aston Villa as Gerard Houllier’s big-money buy for the transfer window until the move went cold last week.
Let me go home! Manchester City forward Mario Balotelli homesick for Italy and doesn't like England Mario Balotelli’s increasing struggles at Manchester City are being underpinned by chronic homesickness and a dislike of life in England.
Balotelli was not in the starting 11 for the Boxing Day win at Newcastle and is far from certain of making Roberto Mancini’s team for the visit of Aston Villa in the Barclays Premier League today.
Sources close to him revealed yesterday that the former Inter Milan star is finding it painfully hard to settle in to a new country and is struggling to form any close friendships in England.
Indeed, he has already told friends in Italy that he simply wants to move back home. At City, Mancini and his staff continue to work hard with Balotelli, 20, and still believe his exceptional talent can be coaxed to the surface if he is handled the right way.
Certainly, there is no way they would sanction a move home, just five months after signing him for £24million.
However, those close to the striker last night told of a deeply unhappy and troubled young man who is already convinced that his high-profile move is not going to work out.
He has told friends he understands the potential for success and development at City is there and he appreciates the chance to work with Mancini.
Indeed, Balotelli spent time working one-on-one with him after training yesterday. Away from the field, though, he has spoken of being miserable and it is obvious this is affecting his football.
Despite the obvious talent that persuaded Mancini to pay so much for him in the summer, Balotelli has shocked City fans with his bizarre behaviour. In the 10 appearances he has made this season, the Italy striker has scored five goals but has picked up as many cards — four yellows and a red.
At Newcastle on Boxing Day, for example, he only appeared as a substitute with five minutes remaining and still managed to get booked.
He then had to be publicly told by Mancini to applaud City’s travelling fans at the end of the game. And earlier this season, Balotelli scored two goals in a Premier League game at West Bromwich Albion but was then sent off for picking up two bookings. City will not give up on him.
Mancini worked hard to bring Balotelli to Eastlands during protracted negotiations and believes he can get the best out of him as he did when he managed him at the San Siro.
Having seen the striker fail to get on with last season’s Inter coach Jose Mourinho, Mancini believed he could use his own relationship with Balotelli to positive effect. Perhaps what he didn’t expect was to see the striker fail to adapt to life outside Italy.
Comments attributed to Balotelli in Italy seem to offer conflicting views of his state of mind. But it is known he returns home to Milan whenever he can, sometimes going to extreme lengths to get there for fleeting visits.
He may not start, but Balotelli will certainly be in Mancini’s squad to take on Villa today.
The City manager knows that on his day he can bring things to the Premier League’ s second-placed team that no other player is capable of.
Whilst the Guardiain reports ...
Mario Balotelli regrets Manchester City move and yearns for home
Striker open to idea of summer return to Italy • £25m signing regarded as loner by team-mates
Mario Balotelli feels a strong debt of loyalty to the City manager, Roberto Mancini, but has struggled to settle in Manchester. Roberto Mancini is facing a new challenge to keep one of his key Manchester City players happy after it emerged Mario Balotelli is homesick for Italy and has regrets about moving to England.
Balotelli has struggled to settle in Manchester and the Guardian has learned that the Italy international considers the problem to be getting worse rather than better. A complex, often difficult, character, he has found it hard to make friends with his new team-mates and, four months after signing from Internazionale, the £25m striker is openly admitting to associates in Italy that he intensely dislikes life in England and cannot see the situation improving.
The 20-year-old is on a five-year contract at City and feels a strong debt of loyalty to Mancini but is open to the idea of returning to Italy at the end of the season, despite the issues with racism that plagued him when he was a player at San Siro. Balotelli has frequently been linked with Milan in the Italian media, where there is a consistent belief that it is a just a question of time before he plays for the club he supported as a boy.
Mancini is aware of the player's difficulties and hopes their strong working relationship will help to find a solution for the benefit of City. The manager always knew that introducing a player with Balotelli's brooding, temperamental nature to a new country would not be an easy process and his thinking from the outset has been that it would be worth the hassle for someone he believes will eventually be regarded among the top five footballers in the world. Mancini was realistic enough to warn the chief executive, Garry Cook, and chairman, Khaldoon Al Mubarak, that Balotelli would bring baggage but would ultimately be worth it.
Balotelli is not totally without friends – he has spent time with one of Mancini's sons, Andrea, and turned up for training one day recently in a Lamborghini borrowed from El Hadji Diouf of Blackburn Rovers – but he can appear dislocated from the rest of the squad.
He did not attend the players' Christmas party and, to put that into context, many of his team-mates did not expect him to be there in the first place. Balotelli's routine, with Mancini's permission, is to fly back to Italy whenever the players are given time off. His colleagues have come to regard him as a loner, difficult to approach and work out. Staff at Eastlands are not certain whether his attitude stems from surliness or shyness – or maybe a bit of both. Language is not a problem – Balotelli speaks good English – but the player has not embraced Manchester, the weather and the food and, as the only Italian footballer in the dressing room, is struggling to adapt to a new country.
The problem for Mancini is not a new one, with Robinho's inability to adopt Manchester one of the main reasons for his departure to Milan and, more recently, the revelation that Carlos Tevez is homesick for Argentina because of being separated from his two young daughters.
Tevez was persuaded to withdraw a written transfer request and City will hope Balotelli's issues are merely the kind of teething problems that might be expected of a player who arrived with a reputation as a man who struggled to make friends and frequently courted controversy. Nonetheless, his prickly and combustible nature is becoming an increasing matter for concern behind the scenes, with a growing feeling that City are dealing with an unhappy player, albeit one who has brought many of the problems on himself.
Balotelli was involved in a practice-ground fight with Jerome Boateng recently and has tested the patience of Mancini with his erratic performances and the frequency with which he ignores instructions. There have been glimpses of his prodigious talent but, overall, Balotelli's first few months in English football have been defined by the way he has run into trouble with referees.
Balotelli has scored five goals and picked up the same number of yellow cards, plus one red.
Manchester City have been linked with Real Madrid centre-back Pepe after the Portuguese international demanded a threefold pay rise in contract talks with Bernanbeu officials. Daily Mail
Manchester City have been in talks with striker Edin Dzeko's agent over the finer details of a £30m transfer from German club Wolfsburg. Daily Mail
Manchester City eye up French ace
Manchester City are chasing former Liverpool player Alou Diarra.
The Frenchman spent two years at Anfield, after joining from Bayern Munich in 2002, but never played a competitive game for the Merseyside club.
The 29-year-old is currently playing for Bordeaux in the French top-flight but newspaper Le Parisien claims City are ready to make £7m bid once the transfer window opens on January 1.
The defensive midfielder is under contract at the Ligue 1 club until June 2013 but City's financial resources mean Bordeaux will struggle to keep the player if Roberto Mancini firms up his interest.
WAG OF THE DAY
OTHER BOLLOX
Birmingham manager Alex McLeish has told striker Marcus Bent that he is free to leave the club in January. (Press Association)
Liverpool have submitted an offer of £10.7m for Lille's Ivory Coast striker Gervinho. IMScouting.com
Newcastle striker Andy Carroll has told manager Alan Pardew that he is not tempted by a move from St James' Park. Chelsea, Manchester City and Tottenham all harbour an interest in the 21-year-old. the Guardian
Aston Villa are ready to step up their interest in Newcastle midfielder Joey Barton. Daily Mail
Stoke defender Robert Huth plans to reject the chance of a £5m move to Liverpool to stay at the Britannia Stadium.
Daily Mirror
Liverpool manager Roy Hodgson is ready to battle with old club Fulham for Crystal Palace's 18-year-old striker Wilfried Zaha, who is valued at about £2m. Daily Mirror
Liverpool may also attempt to persuade winger Hatem Ben Arfa, currently on loan at Newcastle from Marseille, to opt for a permanent switch to Anfield at the end of the season. The 23-year-old is recovering from a broken leg sustained in October's 2-1 defeat by Manchester City. caughtoffiside.com
Frederic Piquionne has refused to rule out a move from West Ham in the January transfer window, with Aston Villa rumoured to be interested in the French striker. Daily Mirror
Blackburn and Fulham are leading the chase to sign £5m-rated Espanyol striker Pablo Osvaldo, according to the player's agent. talkSPORT
Hull City want to follow up moves for Matty Fryatt and Aaron McLean with a £2m bid for Everton striker James Vaughan. Daily Mail
Cardiff boss Dave Jones has made an audacious bid to sign Tottenham defender Jonathan Woodgate on loan. Daily Mirror
Woodgate is also a loan target of Middlesbrough boss Tony Mowbray, who is keen on Toulouse striker Soren Larsen. Daily Mirror
Stoke will compete with Chelsea for the signature of teenage Southampton winger Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. The Potters hope the fact his father, Mark Chamberlain, played for the club may sway the 17-year-old. Daily Mail
Celtic want to take Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Niko Kranjcar on loan after the 26-year-old Croatian fell out of favour with manager Harry Redknapp. (the Times)
Former Celtic striker Henrik Larsson says the club cannot afford to miss out on the chance to sign his fellow Swede, Freddie Ljungberg, who is on trial in Glasgow. (Various)
Freddie Ljungberg would not be good for Celtic as he is now more suited to being an underwear model than playing football in the twilight of his career, according to the club's former striker, John Hartson. (the Sun)
Dwayne De Rosario's bitter contract dispute with Toronto could pave the way for a transfer of the Canada midfielder to Celtic during January. (Daily Express)
Swindon striker Charlie Austin says he could leave the club next week, with Celtic, Hull, QPR and Reading all interested in signing the 21-year-old. (the Sun)
Celtic target Sergei Pareiko is now available for nothing after the 33-year-old goalkeeper left Tom Tomsk at the end of his contract. (the Sun)
Kilmarnock are weighing up a January move for Finland goalkeeper Anssi Jaakkola, with the 23-year-old having failed to become a regular starter with Slavia Prague. (the Sun)
Chelsea boss Carlo Ancelotti is "on the brink" because Monday's 3-1 defeat by Arsenal means the Blues have only picked up one win in their last eight league games. the Sun
Mark Hughes will be sacked from his post as Fulham manager after only five months if he fails to win any of their next three games. Daily Mirror
Blackburn defender Pascal Chimbonda will have his contract at Ewood Park terminated six months early in a bid to reduce the club's wage bill. talkSPORT
Birmingham goalkeeper Ben Foster has no regrets about leaving the "cut-throat" atmosphere of former club Manchester United for St Andrew's. the Guardian
Former Blackburn assistant Neil McDonald has rejected the chance to become Motherwell manager and a mystery foreign coach was interviewed by the club on Sunday. (Daily Express, the Herald)
Former Blackburn manager Sam Allardyce had advised Motherwell to approach his former assistant, Neil McDonald, about their managerial vacancy. (Daily Mail)
Neil McDonald's move to Motherwell hangs in the balance after he had second thoughts about moving to the Scottish Premier League. (Daily Record)
Newcastle defender Steven Taylor has praised his agent Paul Stretford after signing a new five-year deal with Newcastle. Stretford, who was criticised for his role in forward Wayne Rooney's short-lived request to leave Manchester United, "has taken a lot of flak", admits Taylor. the Times
Two chickens were locked in a police cell at Ewood Park after being released by Blackburn fans at the Boxing Day defeat by Stoke in protest at the club's owners, poultry firm the Venky's Group. Daily Telegraph
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