Mancini is 'a champion': City boss receives backing from Soriano despite United romping to title
Roberto Mancini has been given what appears to be his first vote of confidence by new Manchester City chief executive Ferran Soriano.
Soriano was installed at the Etihad Stadium last August after formally working at Barcelona but has kept a low profile.
Now, though, in an interview in Italy, he has spoken about City manager Mancini for the first time.
'He (Mancini) is a champion, I do not add more,' Soriano said.
'Anyway, it is not easy to win back any league, especially in the Premier League.'
With Mancini's City team trailing rivals United by 15 points in the Barclays Premier League, it seems that the Italian only has the FA Cup left if he wants to emerge from this season with any credit at all.
Soriano's appointment, followed by the arrival of fellow Spaniard Txiki Begiristain as sporting director, has prompted much discussion about Mancini's future, but in an interview with Gazzetta dello Sport, Soriano appeared to lift some that pressure.
Soriano also spoke of his desire to turn City in to a self-sustaining club after the extravagant spending of the last four-and-a-half years.
He added: "My way of football? One year you can win with luck, but in the long term, you need planning and investments to reach the final of the Champions League.
'In 2003 we did a study at Barcelona. For each player landed in the first team from the 'cantera' (youth academy) there was an average cost of £2m, which is nothing if you think of the current costs.
'Our problem is to find players stronger than ours. It's not easy.
'In the last three years there have been losses of £200m, then of £100m and now there is a 'red' (loss) of £50m.
'But we also have just invested £150 million for the structures of the youth sector. It's a fantastic project, focusing on financial sustainability.' DSSC
Samir Nasri moves in with Victoria's Secret model?
Manchester City midfielder Samir Nasri has reportedly moved in with Victoria's Secret model Anara Atanes.
The former Arsenal star is said to have been dating the model since February, when they were pictured together celebrating Atanes's 25th birthday.
It is understood that Nasri has asked the lingerie model to move in with him in Manchester, according to The Sun.
Atanes has reportedly denied previously dating footballers Darren Bent, Jermaine Pennant and Kieran Richardson.
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[/spoiler]Not a Chicken in Sight: Why Manchester City are not Blackburn Rovers
Manchester City and Blackburn Rovers have one very obvious thing in common; both have won a Premier League title thanks to a massive injection of funds brought about through wealthy ownership.
Long before the Abu Dhabi United consortium came to Manchester or Roman Abramovic took over Chelsea, it was steel magnate Jack Walker who bankrolled his hometown club’s march to the 1995 title.
Nowadays Blackburn, like City, have Asian owners. However, that is where the comparison ends — and for that the blue side of Manchester needs to be very grateful.
Some might have wondered afresh about Roberto Mancini’s future after this past weekend, when defeat at Everton combined with Manchester United’s victory over Reading hammered the last nail into the coffin of City’s title defence. It is now just a matter of when, not if, the trophy returns to Old Trafford.
Whatever that may say about City this season, a knee-jerk reaction against Mancini remains an absurd proposition. His position may not be absolutely bomb-proof, but it remains strong enough and there is still the chance of an FA Cup to give the season a silver lining and maintain the trophy-winning habit.
Perhaps some imagine City’s owners are like many other foreign investors such as Abramovic, but — apart from the sudden departure of Mark Hughes – there is little evidence of that. If Sheikh Mansour was like Abramovic, he would be on his fourth manager by now at the very least.
All of which brings us back to Blackburn. Their owners, Indian chicken farm giant Venky’s, clearly have no idea what they are doing. Managers are hired and fired at a rate that even Chelsea’s owner would consider wildly reckless.
The tally has now stretched to four this season, with news this week that Michael Appleton has left after 67 days, which was at least ten more than Henning Berg. Such instability saw the club relegated from the Premiership last season and one fan protesting by setting a chicken loose on the pitch. This season things have got so bad even Doctor Who is outraged. Perhaps he should send the Daleks in.
So if there are any Manchester City fans who might want their owners to be a little more trigger-happy with managers, perhaps now is a good time to look at the headless chickens in Blackburn and remember the saying: Be careful what you wish for.
Rodwell primed for early return
Manchester City midfielder Jack Rodwell hopes to be back in two weeks after injurying his hamstring in the 1-0 win over Aston Villa.
The 22-year-old joined City in the summer after coming through the youth academy at Everton.
However, he has made just 11 appearances for the side thanks to numerous knocks, leading to speculation over his future at the club.
However, Rodwell is confident that he only faces a short spell on the sidelines this time round.
"It's just over two weeks into my injury now and it's healing well, I'm hoping for maybe another two weeks until I'm back on the pitch," the midfielder told the club's official website.
"I'll hopefully train within the next 10 days, that's my aim. If I do that, then it's been a really good rehab – four weeks is very good.
"If it takes a week more, then it will be a week more just to be on the safe side, but we'll see – hopefully two more weeks is all I will need."
The England international is pushing to regain full fitness, adopting the same regime that has seen him recover from similar injuries in the past.
"I'm doing the same stuff really, a lot of strengthening work and just keeping up what I was doing last time which I thought worked really well," he added.
"It's a recurring injury, still my hamstring on the same leg. It's probably a different muscle – different areas of the hamstring.
"But I'm running well now and getting up to a good speed, nearly full speed. I haven't done much change of direction though, which is the next step and then ball work before I join the team."
Rodwell admits, at times, facing such frequent, lengthy periods in the physio room can get you down, but insists he has the right people around him to encourage his fight back to full fitness.
"Initially it was depressing, but I've got good people around me, good family, great physios, the sports science department are great and all the lads are brilliant too," he added.
"I've just got to be positive, it's just a minor setback and it's a long career. I'm still young and I just have to stay positive."
Chelsea leading the chase to land Manchester City’s £22m Yaya Toure
Chelsea are ready to launch a £22million move for Yaya Toure if the Manchester City midfielder decides to call time on his stay at the Eithad.
However, the Blues will have a fight on their hands to land the Ivory Coast international with a host of Europe’s top clubs, including Real Madrid and PSG, desperate to land the 29-year-old.
Toure is reported to have told his City bosses that he will leave the Premier League champions in the summer unless they offer him a new deal by Saturday.
The midfielder still has two years to run on his current £220,000-a-week deal and would have to buy his way out of his contract if he wished to leave.
Earlier this week Toure’s agent Dimitri Seluk said: ‘If he signs a new contract in the next three or four days then OK. If not we will not wait and longer and will start negotiations with different clubs.
‘Today is Tuesday, so it means by Saturday we will say; “Thank you. OK Yaya will leave in May”.’
‘This is not about the money – it’s for many reasons.
‘He is one of the best players at Manchester City but does not feel the respect of the staff. Only [City boss] Roberto Mancini respects Yaya.’
Chelsea will see Toure, who joined City in a £25m move from Barcelona three years ago, as an idea replacement for Frank Lampard but face stiff competition from Madrid whose boss, Jose Mourinho is said to be a big fan.
Vincent Kompany gets front page Catalan press treatment, Barcelona want a new defender
Vincent Kompany is today on the cover of Catalan newspaper Mundo Deportivo, and that means one thing - that he's being linked with Barcelona. Mundo, and their partners in crime at fellow Catalan newspaper Sport, take great pleasure in featuring Barcelona targets and, when the club starts to make a move, unsettling them as much as possible.
Yesterday they had David de Gea and Pepe Reina on the front cover after setting them up in a photo-shoot, they did an article saying the two goalkeepers were the favourites to replace Victor Valdes and explained that both were very interested but couldn't talk publicly about the situation. It's mischief making at its finest.
Today is the turn of Vincent Kompany and he shares the front page with Matts Hummels of Borussia Dortmund, the gist is that Barcelona want a new defender and those two men are the prime candidates.
Carles Puyol is increasingly struggling with injury and there have been question marks over the form of Gerard Pique. He got in FIFA's team of the year recently but most people thought that to be something of a farce as he simply hasn't been one of the world's best defenders over the past 12 months.
Mundo say that Vincent Kompany was the stand-out defender in the Premier League last season and at the end of that campaign Barcelona held negotiations about him.
if they don't get Hummels or Kompany, Mundo reckon Barcelona want one of a whole host of other defenders including Luiz, Vertonghen and even Daniel Agger. It looks like pure speculation but Manchester City don't need the Catalan press trying to unsettle their players as they head for the most important part of the season.
Young Citizens Edge Manchester Cup
A young Manchester City side beat North West League side City of Manchester 2-1 in their County Cup Final on Thursday evening.
The Regional League side wasted an early opportunity from a free kick, while the Citizens had first half chances for Saffron Jordan and Holly Brady but keeper Charlotte Heywood saved on both occasions.
A City of Manchester free kick in the 54th minute saw a looping header drop narrowly over the bar but 8 minutes later, Saffron Jordan capitalised on a defensive lapse and lifted the ball over the advancing Heywood.
Manchester City were pegged back when an opportunistic break was seized upon by Amy Pipe who slotted low to Brooks' left to level matters.
However, the Sky Blues were not to be denied a third consecutive County Cup Final victory, as Becky Grocott sprung the offside trap and used her pace to beat Heywood to the ball, giving City the advantage and the victory.
Manchester City fans react on Twitter to Mario Balotelli goal
Mario Balotelli scored a superb goal for Italy against Brazil last night in an international friendly. It has certainly got Manchester City fans talking.
Nothing can go right for Manchester City at the moment.
15 points behind in the title race, and now the striker they sold in January has turned into a phenomenon.
Balotelli has been unstoppable since joining AC Milan, scoring seven goals in six Serie A games, and now one in last night's showpiece international friendly to boot.
It was held in London between Brazil and Italy, finishing 2-2. After going 2-0 down to goals from Fred, and Chelsea's Oscar, Balotelli completed a second half-comeback scoring an equaliser from outside the box after Daniel de Rossi had pulled one back.
[youtube]yHdcxTYe7Sg[/youtube]
Now seeing the maverick forward doing the business for his country certainly got fans of his former club talking, and venting their frustration.
On one half it is argued, the problem is the management for allowing him to leave and failing to get the best out of him. The second were simply lamenting his departure.
http://hereisthecity.com/2013/03/21/man ... elli-goal/
Borussia Dortmund hope Manchester City will not price them out of a deal for Dzeko
General manager of the reigning German champions Michael Zorc admits the Bosnian is a transfer target for the club as they expect to lose Robert Lewandowski in the summer
Borussia Dortmund general manager Michael Zorc has stated that Manchester City striker Edin Dzeko is a target for his club, but says that there is an "economic aspect" to navigate.
The German club are wary that the English champions could price them out of a deal for the £27 million striker, who previously enjoyed a prolific spell in Germany with Wolfsburg.
The Bosnia international could be set to leave the Etihad Stadium in the summer after failing to secure a first-team spot ahead of Argentine pair Sergio Aguero and Carlos Tevez.
But the German club are insistent that they cannot do a deal for Dzeko if the Premier League champions are unwilling to set a realistic transfer fee.
"There should be little doubt about Dzeko being a top-class striker," Zorc told Bild.
"He is a great forward and a player one should be keen on. However, there is also still somewhat of an economic aspect.
"[A transfer] would be down to pure maths because Dzeko is under contract at Manchester City beyond the end of the season."
The Champions League quarter-finalists are on the lookout for a new striker as Polish forward Robert Lewandowski is set to leave the club in the summer after opting against signing a new contract. His current deal expires in 2014, and City's rivals United are rumoured to be interested.
Lionel Messi tells the story of the 1st time he met Aguero: Kun asked, “who are you?”
Lionel Messi has regaled the tale of the first time he met Manchester CIty striker Sergio Aguero during a TV interview ahead of Argentina’s World Cup qualifier against Venezuela.
This is a story which has already been told by Kun some time ago.
Back in 2012, Aguero recalled the day in 2005 when he incredibly didn’t know who Lionel Messi was until he sat next to him for a meal with one of Argentina’s youth sides.
Now Messi has had the opportunity to tell the story from his perspective.
The Barcelona star, who wasn’t instantly recognisable to his Argentinean teammates in his youth days due to the fact that Leo joined the Catalans at just 11, remember how Aguero “just looked at me… and at some point he just couldn’t take it anymore and told me: ‘hey, who are you?’ The guys wanted to eat him alive.”
http://vimeo.com/62201888
GOLDEN WAG OF THE DAY 22-3-2010
[spoiler]
[/spoiler]Suarez puts City on summer transfer alert
Luis Suarez has put Manchester City on alert by hinting he could be tempted away from Liverpool for a club competing in the Champions League.
Uruguay striker Luis Suarez has put Manchester City on alert by hinting he could be tempted away from Anfield for a club competing in the Champions League.
City are in the market for a striker this summer with Mario Balotelli leaving for AC Milan in January and speculation linking with Edin Dzeko with a return to the Bundesliga.
Boss Roberto Mancini is an admirer of Suarez, who has scored 29 goals in 40 games for Liverpool this season, and will no doubt have been interested to read the 26-year-old Anfield forward's comments.
Suarez, back in his native Uruguay ahead of World Cup qualifiers against Paraguay and Chile in the next week, said: "I am very happy at Liverpool but you never know in football.
"A player's ambition is always there, the ambition of wanting to play in elite teams is always there.
"I'm in a world-class team, an elite team like Liverpool. We have to realise we have a new manager who is imposing a philosophy and a way of playing that the players are adapting to as best we can. We hope it will bear fruit next year.
"If another team comes around with more prospects of competing in international club competition games, which is willing to have me, they are welcome. We would talk to the club. We would see if I want to go, if I don't want to go."
Liverpool have "no desire" to sell Luis Suarez, according to managing director Ian Ayre.
"You can read into the comments - it was given in his native language so I think maybe it was a bit lost in translation," Ayre told BBC Radio Five Live.
"We've been consistent with Luis. Last summer he signed a new four-year contract and we have no desire to sell Luis. He is a fantastic player and a great contributor to our team.
"We've been very honest with him and he's been very honest with us.
"There is always going to be instances, particularly leading up to the summer (transfer) window, when people are quoted or asked these questions."
Suarez was also quoted to have said he was "very happy" at Liverpool and Ayre insisted that while other clubs may come knocking he expected the 26-year-old to remain at Anfield.
"We are very pleased to have Luis and long may that continue," he said.
"He also says in the same interview that he feels he is in an elite team at Liverpool.
"Every player is going to get approached by clubs because that is the nature of the game.
"Every player has a choice - that's part of the game. He has a four-year contract with us and we hope he will see that through."
Italian league leaders Juventus could bid for Manchester United's Mexico striker Javier Hernandez, 24, if they fail to sign Liverpool forward Luis Suarez, 26. Juventus are searching for a strike partner for Spaniard Fernando Llorente, 28, who is joining on a free transfer from Athletic Bilbao. DSSC
Brazil striker Hulk, 26, could finally join Chelsea this summer after growing tired of life in Russia playing for Zenit St Petersburg. Metro
Norwich City are close to agreeing an £8.5m deal to sign 24-year-old striker Ricky van Wolfswinkel from Sporting Lisbon. The Times
Newcastle United captain Fabricio Coloccini's future is in fresh doubt after the 31-year-old was spotted watching old club San Lorenzo. Sun
Danish goalkeeper Anders Lindegaard, 28, has hinted he could leave Manchester United this summer after becoming frustrated at a lack of football. Daily Mirror
However, his rival at Old Trafford - 22-year-old David De Gea - says he will reject the interest of Real Madrid and Barcelona to stay at the Premier League side. Sun
Arsenal are considering a move for Sochaux's 22-year-old right back Sebastien Corchia with Bacary Sagna expected to leave the Emirates Stadium in the summer. The Times
Juventus are set to move for Torino's Italy defender Angelo Ogbonna, 24, who has been linked with Manchester United and Arsenal. talkSHIT
Tottenham and Chelsea are set to fight it out over Southampton's promising defender Luke Shaw, 17, who could cost as much as £16.5m. Metro
Italy defender Davide Santon, 22, says he lives like a king in Newcastle but would be tempted to pack his bags to return to his homeland with AC Milan. Gazzetta Dello Sport
Ex-England manager Fabio Capello, who is now in charge of Russia, has dismissed speculation linking him with the Chelsea job. DSSC
Newcastle back-up goalkeeper Steve Harper, 38, is set to leave the club this summer, 20 years after joining from non-league Seaham. Evening Chronicle
West Brom midfielder Chris Brunt, 28, claims the current squad would struggle to cope with the demands of European football. Daily Mirror
Armenian striker Henrikh Mkhitaryan, 24, has announced he will leave Ukrainian club Shakhtar Donetsk. transfermarket.de
Atletico Madrid president Enrique Cerezo says 27-year-old Colombian striker Radamel Falcao is not leaving the club and will see out the remaining three years of his contract. Marca
French newspaper Le Figaro says Manchester United are in pole position to sign Borussia Dortmund striker Robert Lewandowski, 24 - despite Dortmund general manager Michael Zorc's assurance that the Polish player will continue at the club. Le Figaro
Barcelona defender Gerard Pique believes former manager Pep Guardiola might have been tempted to stay on had the club won last year's Champions League. Marca
Pep Guardiola will not take over at Bayern Munich until this summer but the former Barcelona coach has already had a burger named after him in Germany. 606 newsletter
Burnley season ticket holder James McDonough, 28, has applied to be the next manager of rivals Blackburn. Clitheroe Advertiser
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