Manchester City boss Roberto http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Mancini-c23323 wants Citizens to focus – Premier League news
Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini has warned his players against complacency as they look to end the ongoing 2010-11 season on 4th position for a place in the UEFA Champions League next season.
The Citizens may be able to cement their place this weekend if they manage to beat Everton away from home and Tottenham Hotspur lose their game against Blackpool.
However, it is not likely that Tottenham will lose all three points at home against relegation threatened Blackpool at White Hart Lane. The likely scenario is that both teams will lock horns next Tuesday to decide which team makes it into the Champions League. For
Tottenham it would be a much bigger game than City as they are the ones chasing.
Roberto Mancini is not losing his sleep over the last few fixtures of his team, but he just wants to make sure that the job at hand is known by his players.
“It is important to reach the Champions League by the end of the season, it doesn't matter whether it is Saturday or Tuesday or any of the four games we still have left,” he said. “We need another four points. Then we would be 100% sure.”
Manchester City spent no less than 180 million pounds in the summer transfer market in 2010, and with so much cash being spent there were obviously big expectations from the team. They started the season claiming they were title contenders, but that soon
faded away. However finishing 4th was always a realistic target for the Citizens and Mancini admits that it is something that his star studded team should be able to accomplish.
He said, “It was the first target we had when we started the season and at this moment we have a big chance. But we have done nothing yet.”
Even if Manchester City do manage to end the season on 4th spot, many sceptics would still say that one of the richest clubs in Europe missed a chance to win the League this season. Manchester United, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Chelsea-c38786 have had a sub standard
season. The amount of points dropped by the top three teams could have easily enabled City to make a serious bid for the title.
Roberto Mancini though is not worried about that, and believes that making it to the Champions League will be a big step for his team. He added that playing in the biggest club competition will attract bigger names to the club, for whom playing in Europe
is more important than just the lure of money.
“This experience will be very important next year, It is important that we go to the Champions League because we still need to improve. If we can buy some more good players, we have a chance,” said Mancini.
Manchester City have long been playing under the shadows of their more accomplished neighbours Manchester United. The Red side of Manchester has grown in stature over the decades, while they have had to be content by being competitive at best.
Since the take over at Manchester City by the Abu Dhabi based business group, there is abundance of money and they are looking to buy success with it.
Roberto Mancini though may be the perfect man for the job, as he understands that success comes with not only money but a team needs to build over time to become world class.
If they manage to make it to Champions League, it will be interesting to see how much cash the owners would be willing to splash in order to bring more big names to the club in the summers.
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