Roberto Mancini has moved to consolidate his position of strength at Manchester City by securing an assurance from Carlos Tévez that he is happy at Eastlands and prepared to accept his manager’s demanding training regime.
Mancini received public backing from chairman Khaldoon al Mubarak less than 24 hours after City’s failure to qualify for the Champions League was confirmed by defeat at home to Tottenham on Wednesday and he plans to speak to Craig Bellamy tomorrow in an effort to address any similar concerns held by the Welsh forward.
The former Inter Milan coach has been forced to endure rumblings of discontent among his senior players as a result of his preference for one double training session each week at City.
Tévez, City’s 29-goal top scorer, has been the most high-profile critic of Mancini’s methods, but the manager insists he has now addressed the matter by warning his players that he will not change his approach next season.
Mancini said: “I wanted to speak to Carlos because I wanted to know from him if he was happy to play here and happy to train two times a day.
“I am serious about the double training. When we have a week with no midweek matches, there will be one day when we have double sessions.
“I have always done that, but I wanted to know if Carlos was happy [with that], and he is very happy to play for Manchester City and wants to win things for Manchester City.
“He is a very important player for the club and he told me that he was happy. That is important because Carlos is a top player and, when you are a top player, you must also be an example for all the players. If he wants to improve and work hard, he can be the best player in the world.”
Mancini, who takes City to West Ham on Sunday, admits that his Eastlands squad have taken time to adapt to his methods since succeeding Mark Hughes as manager last December.
He said: “For the first 15 days it was difficult because I changed training, but I didn’t change everything.
“In the summer, though, I will change everything for the players and it will be difficult. I said to them, ‘Recover very well in the summer because, if we want to win next year, we will be working harder’.
“I think they have a different culture from Italian players, but all players are the same. They all want to play, they all want to win, and all the players don’t want to work hard!
“But I played for 20 years and I was the same. When I was young I didn’t like to work either, but afterwards I realised you can win more if you work hard.”
telegraph.co.uk
It's nice to see Mancini and Khaldoon coming out and putting all the shit the press write to bed.
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