ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE:ROBERTO MANCINI has reiterated that Carlos Tevez will be staying at Manchester City and has urged the club to splash out in the summer to compete for the Champions League and the title next season.
While the Manchester City manager has been adamant all week that his captain will start next season at Eastlands, Tevez gave an interview to Argentina’s Radio del Plata in which he was reported to have said: “I have given my everything to the club but I need a change of scene.”
However, Mancini maintains his captain is going nowhere and countered by remarking that when he had appeared to suggest in the Italian media the striker might leave for Serie A, Tevez had confronted him.
“I don’t know if he has said these things,” the manager said. “I didn’t say what he thought I said but Carlos came to me and said: ‘Why did you say this?’ I told him I never said it but I also told him I didn’t know whether he wanted to go to Italy. Carlos said he wanted to stay. Finished. That is history.”
In terms of how much the world’s wealthiest club are prepared to spend this summer, the immediate future may be dramatic. The club’s chairman, Khaldoon al-Mubarak, had said only one or two players might be required while City’s football administration officer, Brian Marwood, argued Mancini merely needed to tinker with the squad.
Mancini, however, stressed the need to add to his squad.
“In football anything can happen; we could sell Carlos and win the title because football is very strange,” he said. “This year we have worked well but we need to improve. We need to buy other good players, keep Carlos and, after that, I think we can do better than this season.”
Mancini also laughed off the idea of a move for Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo this summer.
“I said after the FA Cup final I would like to sign Ronaldo, Messi, Fabregas and Iniesta. I don’t think it is possible.”
Guardian Service
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