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This is an interview with Simon Mullock printed in tomorrow's Sunday Mirror:

Stevan Jovetic assessing Manchester City future after being "killed" by Champions League snub
22:30, 14 February 2015 By Simon Mullock
Manuel Pellegrini opted to replace the Montenegrin with Wilfried Bony for the knockout stages and Jovetic admits he was left devastated

Champions League outcast Stevan Jovetic has accused Manuel Pellegrini of “killing” him by leaving him out of Manchester City’s European squad.

Jovetic, who has made way for £28million new-boy Wilfried Bony, has broken his silence over his shock omission in an exclusive interview with Sunday Mirror Sport.

The Montenegrin striker insisted that City boss Pellegrini has got his selection wrong – and that he will now assess his future at the club.

Jovetic, a £22million recruit from Fiorentina 18 months ago, said: “I deserve to play in the Champions League. I know that. The manager has killed me with this decision. I feel I deserve my place and other people have told me the same.

“People have told me I am a great player, but it is clear that the manager doesn’t think the same way. I am very disappointed, even now. I don’t think it was a good decision – or the right decision.

“I know that I deserve to be on the list. I told the manager this, but he didn’t want to listen to me. I came here to play in the Champions League.”

Jovetic, 25, who was attracting interest from Inter Milan last month and is now also on Juventus’ radar, added: “I have not made any decision about my future. I will wait until the summer then we will see. But the manager has put other players ahead of me, so maybe this is a message about what he wants to do.

“It is difficult to be focused when something like this happens, but I am a professional and I want to show that I can still play a big part this season. This is a bad time for me, but I am working hard and I will be there for the team.”

Jovetic featured in five of City’s six group games as the Premier League champions beat Bayern Munich and Roma to set up a last-16 clash with Barcelona next week.

But City have been operating with a reduced squad of 21 this season after falling foul of UEFA’s Financial Fair Play Regulations. And once Bony was added to the squad, there was always going to be a fall-guy.

Jovetic said: “I have spent all week thinking about it and when we play Barcelona I think it will be very difficult for me.

“I think I helped the team get through the group and, because of that, I am very unhappy that I am out.

“This year, every time I have played, I think I have done well. I have score five goals in the Premier League without having too many minutes on the pitch.

“I know that we can all have disappointments – that’s football – but I am hurting really bad right now.

“Of course, the squad has been made smaller, but the club knew this at the start of the season. I don’t feel I have had a chance. Okay, I have had injuries but so have other players.”

I don't have a problem with it personally.Everyone and his dog would know that's exactly how he would feel so I don't think saying it is an issue especially the way he said it. And like most people I would agree he should be in the CL squad rather than Edin

This was always gonna happen. He has some points, and id feel the exact same way if i was him and dont blame him, but its clear he hasn't got a future at the club sadly so see ya later Stevan.

Bye bye. Not good or fit enough.

Not one mention in the article about his reliability or fitness or even the remotest hint of looking at it from Pellers view.

Balanced journalism at its finest.

Slim wrote:Not one mention in the article about his reliability or fitness or even the remotest hint of looking at it from Pellers view.

Balanced journalism at its finest.

My thoughts exactly. I'd have left him out of it were my call.

Bony and Dzeko are fit more often than not.

Aguero and Jovetic are often injured. Aguero is world class when fit, Jovetic shows glimpses of talent but there are still doubts.

If we're picking 3 strikers, it wasn't really a difficult decision.

I have sympathy for him, but whowever has told him that he deserves to be there needs a slap.

He looks to do something different in the pitch and very rarely pulls it off, thus no end product. He has energy but doesn't dictate the game. And all that is when he isn't fucking injured.

He needs to get down the fucking gym, sort himself out and come out fighting when he does get a chance now this year if he wants a career at the club

Good to see that people have finally realised I was right about Jovetic.

AntMcfc wrote:Good to see that people have finally realised I was right about Jovetic.

did you say that he's a quality footballer?

He thinks he's done well. I've not see it. A hugely disappointing transfer.

Nigels Tackle wrote:

AntMcfc wrote:Good to see that people have finally realised I was right about Jovetic.

did you say that he's a quality footballer?

No he's an absolute fraud.

AntMcfc wrote:

Nigels Tackle wrote:

AntMcfc wrote:Good to see that people have finally realised I was right about Jovetic.

did you say that he's a quality footballer?

No he's an absolute fraud.

We had people saying that when he signed, and you didn't register for another 3 months, are you aware time is linear and only works in one direction?

I don't think Jovetic has been a success at City, but equally he has not been a failure either.

He was injured a lot last season. Less than most of our other attackers this season.

He doesn't lose the ball any more than the other forwards, as people are accusing him of, & this season he scores at a higher rate per minutes on the pitch, than Dzeko or Bony. He is also correct in his claims that he played a part in getting us through to the qualifying stages, & when he retires, he will probably be able to look back on a much more effective career in Eurpoean games than Dzeko.

Interesting piece from Scholes the other day talking about how if he didn't take risks & try stuff in games, Ferguson used to drop him.

People complain that we play too many safe passes, then we get a bloke who tries stuff, & a decent amount of it results in goals or efforts on goal, & we slag him off for it.

We have gone for Dzeko because he is the safe option, which is fair enough, but it's not deserved. Jovetic deserves to be in the squad; he's right.

Slim wrote:

AntMcfc wrote:

Nigels Tackle wrote:

AntMcfc wrote:Good to see that people have finally realised I was right about Jovetic.

did you say that he's a quality footballer?

No he's an absolute fraud.

We had people saying that when he signed, and you didn't register for another 3 months, are you aware time is linear and only works in one direction?

15 months?

Ted Hughes wrote:I don't think Jovetic has been a success at City, but equally he has not been a failure either.

He was injured a lot last season. Less than most of our other attackers this season.

He doesn't lose the ball any more than the other forwards, as people are accusing him of, & this season he scores at a higher rate per minutes on the pitch, than Dzeko or Bony. He is also correct in his claims that he played a part in getting us through to the qualifying stages, & when he retires, he will probably be able to look back on a much more effective career in Eurpoean games than Dzeko.

Interesting piece from Scholes the other day talking about how if he didn't take risks & try stuff in games, Ferguson used to drop him.

People complain that we play too many safe passes, then we get a bloke who tries stuff, & a decent amount of it results in goals or efforts on goal, & we slag him off for it.

We have gone for Dzeko because he is the safe option, which is fair enough, but it's not deserved. Jovetic deserves to be in the squad; he's right.

Not sure who's slagging him off, well apart from fake Ant, but it's clearly a logistics problem. Having played three weeks without a striker, I think Dzeko is the safer option fitness-wise and that's the start and end of the reasons behind the choice.

If he wants to throw a hissy and chuck his toys from the pram then that's up to him, but if I wasn't a complete moron who was ruled entirely by my self-victimization I'd probably say "fair enough boss, I see your point".

WHAT HE DESERVES???

WHAT HE FUCKING DESERVES???

11 goals in 32 appearances over 2 years, he hasn't proven fuck all to City, to Pellers or to the footballing world.

69 goals in 172 appearances over 5 years....no no, you deserve to be ahead of this guy.

96 goals in 148 appearances over 4 years...may as well say you deserve to be ahead of this guy too.

Slim wrote:

AntMcfc wrote:

Nigels Tackle wrote:

AntMcfc wrote:Good to see that people have finally realised I was right about Jovetic.

did you say that he's a quality footballer?

No he's an absolute fraud.

We had people saying that when he signed, and you didn't register for another 3 months, are you aware time is linear and only works in one direction?

Is that another one of those oblique pop music references?

Peter Doherty (AGAIG) wrote:

Slim wrote:

AntMcfc wrote:

Nigels Tackle wrote:

AntMcfc wrote:Good to see that people have finally realised I was right about Jovetic.

did you say that he's a quality footballer?

No he's an absolute fraud.

We had people saying that when he signed, and you didn't register for another 3 months, are you aware time is linear and only works in one direction?

Is that another one of those oblique pop music references?

Oh well done, got a actual laugh out of me.

Slim wrote:

Ted Hughes wrote:I don't think Jovetic has been a success at City, but equally he has not been a failure either.

He was injured a lot last season. Less than most of our other attackers this season.

He doesn't lose the ball any more than the other forwards, as people are accusing him of, & this season he scores at a higher rate per minutes on the pitch, than Dzeko or Bony. He is also correct in his claims that he played a part in getting us through to the qualifying stages, & when he retires, he will probably be able to look back on a much more effective career in Eurpoean games than Dzeko.

Interesting piece from Scholes the other day talking about how if he didn't take risks & try stuff in games, Ferguson used to drop him.

People complain that we play too many safe passes, then we get a bloke who tries stuff, & a decent amount of it results in goals or efforts on goal, & we slag him off for it.

We have gone for Dzeko because he is the safe option, which is fair enough, but it's not deserved. Jovetic deserves to be in the squad; he's right.

Not sure who's slagging him off, well apart from fake Ant, but it's clearly a logistics problem. Having played three weeks without a striker, I think Dzeko is the safer option fitness-wise and that's the start and end of the reasons behind the choice.

If he wants to throw a hissy and chuck his toys from the pram then that's up to him, but if I wasn't a complete moron who was ruled entirely by my self-victimization I'd probably say "fair enough boss, I see your point".

WHAT HE DESERVES???

WHAT HE FUCKING DESERVES???

11 goals in 32 appearances over 2 years, he hasn't proven fuck all to City, to Pellers or to the footballing world.

69 goals in 172 appearances over 5 years....no no, you deserve to be ahead of this guy.

96 goals in 148 appearances over 4 years...may as well say you deserve to be ahead of this guy too.

No idea what you are going on about, but Jovetic is having a much better season than Dzeko or Kolarov & deserves to be in the squad.

Pellegrini is banking on Dzeko playing as he has sometimes played in the past, rather than how he has played this season, where Jovetic has played much better than him, worked harder & scored more goals, as well as made more assists.

As I said, that's fair enough, playing the safe option & it may prove to be the right one. But no way in a million fucking years does Dzeko deserve it on this season. It's not even close.

Dzeko was lucky to make the cut, no doubt about it. The reality is that in making his decision Pellegrini was signalling the exit door for Jovetic. It's infuriating because you can see the intelligence and the quality but we haven't seen it anywhere near enough. I'd be shocked if he wasn't sold in the summer, probably to Juve. His wages may be the issue though for an Italian club. Ironically I can see Dzeko going as well unless he has a big end to the season. It's not necessarily his fault but he doesn't play well with Aguero who is clearly our top striker. Bony looks as though he could play well really well with him and if a partnership develops between them I can't see Dzeko being happy in third spot.