Mancity - News and Rumors

[zudomiriku]

Balotelli bound for City exit as Juventus and Milan close in

• Italian could complete permanent move in summer
• David Platt says he has heard nothing about a deal



Manchester City are in talks with Milan and Juventus over the transfer of Mario Balotelli and are exploring the option of loaning the striker out until the summer ahead of a permanent move.

The champions want around €23m (£19.75m) for the 22-year-old and it is understood that Milan have made an initial offer close to €20m. But last night Juventus also entered the bidding with City hoping their interest would help push up the price. The player is keen to return to his homeland and is willing to take what represents a small pay cut regarding the terms on offer, which are €5m a year tax-free, plus a sizeable signing-on bonus.

It is understood that City do not expect any resolution before Tuesday night's game with Queens Park Rangers at Loftus Road but a deal could be done before Thursday's transfer deadline. Mino Raiola, Balotelli's agent, is in Manchester to try and seal an agreement, having already failed earlier this month to persuade Ferran Soriano, City's chief executive, to allow the striker to move on a temporary basis to San Siro until the end of the season.

City are thought to favour a permanent transfer in the current window but a loan deal remains a possibility. Another potential stumbling block is Milan's desire to pay any fee in six instalments. City, conscious of Uefa's financial fair play regulations, may want a lump sum that can be reinvested swiftly. However, there is hope in both Milan and Turin that, given Balotelli's chequered time at City plus the player's desire to move, a deal can be completed before the window closes.

Adriano Galliani, Milan's vice-president, has been in consultation with Raiola regarding the best way to proceed. Two years ago Raiola was pivotal in the deal that took Zlatan Ibrahimovic, another of his players, from Barcelona to Milan.

If Balotelli were to leave, City would have only three recognised strikers – Carlos Tevez, Sergio Agüero and Edin Dzeko. Whether the club would try to replace Balotelli before Thursday's deadline is moot. It is thought, though, that City plan to play a 4-3-3 formation next season, a system that utilises only one centre-forward, meaning that three strikers for one position would be enough.

Asked on Monday about Balotelli's future, David Platt, City's assistant manager, chose his words carefully. "I haven't heard anything," he said. "I saw that speculation yesterday. It's a shame Robbie's [Roberto Mancini] not here. He might know more than me but he [Balotelli] is still a Manchester City player. I don't think anything is going to happen."

He also claimed that Balotelli is in contention for Tuesday evening's match following illness. "Mario was back on the training pitch yesterday [Sunday]," Platt said. "He was in the squad for the weekend [at Stoke City], it was only a 24-hour virus he had so he'll be up for selection."

In reality Balotelli may have played his last game for the club. Last week it emerged that his Cheshire home, which the Italian rents, has been on the market since 11 January, a sign that he was conscious of the need to keep his options open before any potential move away from City. Reports on Monday suggested that Balotelli had a farewell party for friends in Manchester on Sunday night.

Balotelli's off-field misdemeanours during his time at City have included fireworks going off in the bathroom of his home, before last season's derby at Old Trafford, in which he scored twice in a 6-1 rout of Manchester United.

This season he has started only seven times in the Premier League, scoring once – in a 2-0 win at Wigan in November – and last month he came close to taking City to a tribunal after refusing to accept a two-week fine for the ill-discipline that meant he missed 11 games due to suspension last term.

The striker called off the tribunal only at the 11th hour and finally accepted the £340,000 fine but a fortnight later he was pictured grappling with Mancini on the training ground after the manager tried to censure him for a dangerous tackle on Scott Sinclair. This last episode finally convinced Mancini, who had become isolated in his support of Balotelli, that the striker's future lies elsewhere.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2013/jan/28/mario-balotelli-milan-loan-manchester-city

[Andi Istiabudi]

Mobil Bentley Balotelli Dikencingi Fans MU



MANCHESTER, KOMPAS.com - Mobil Bentley milik striker Manchester City, Mario Balotelli, memang sangat mencolok. Apalagi, belum lama mobil itu dicat motif blonteng tentara.

Justru karena mudah dikenali itu, mobil tersebut mudah menjadi sasaran orang yang tak suka kepadanya. Minggu (27/1/2013), sekelompok pemuda yang diduga suporter Manchester United mengerjai mobil pemain asal Italia tersebut.

Saat itu, Balotelli memarkir mobilnya di Zouk, sebuah rumah makan India di Manchester. Saat ia sedang asyik makan bersama rekan-rekannya, sekelompok pemuda itu mendatangi mobil Balotelli.

Salah seorang pemuda mengencingi mobil seharga 160.000 pounds (sekitar Rp 2,4 miliar) tersebut. Sementara pemuda yang lain memelorotkan celananya dan duduk di kaca mobil bagian belakang sambil seolah bermain pelorotan.

Seorang saksi mata, Michael Armorgie (20), kepada The Sun mengatakan, "Saya saat itu sedang berjalan dan melihat sekelompok pemuda. Salah satu dari mereka mengencingi mobil. Aku nyaris tak percaya. Salah satunya menyanyikan lagu-lagu Manchester United."

Bukan kali ini saja mobil Balotelli dikerjai orang. Sebelumnya, mobilnya pernah dirusak dengan menggunakan linggis.

[iamsetia]

Roberto Mancini: Manchester City in title race with Manchester United

By Phil McNulty BBC chief football writer at Etihad Stadium

Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini insists the Premier League title race is not over, despite his side trailing Manchester United by nine points.

The champions needed a brilliant late equaliser from Sergio Aguero to secure a point in a 2-2 draw against Liverpool at Etihad Stadium.

Mancini said: "This championship is not over, absolutely not. There is still time for a team to make a mistake.

"We probably now need to win all of our 13 games, but if not 11 or 12."

Aguero & Dzeko disappoint Mancini

He added: "This is football and it can happen. Last year we recovered eight points in the last six games. It is not finished.

"We have 13 games left and Manchester United have to play in the league, FA Cup and Champions League. The season is long, we have three months to go and we are confident."

And Mancini targeted the Manchester derby at Old Trafford on 6 April as he said: "For us it is important to play the derby game only two or three points behind.

"I am disappointed because we didn't play well. Liverpool played better than us in the first half."

Mancini felt Liverpool could have put the ball out when Edin Dzeko lay injured following a tackle by Daniel Agger before Daniel Sturridge equalised.
"It was probably a yellow card," Mancini said. "The referee was there 15 metres away and the linesman was there. I don't know why they didn't see this foul."

Fighting until the end

Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson will know more than most that the title race is far from a foregone conclusion.

In 1996, his side overcame a 12-point deficit to overtake Newcastle United to win the Premier League.

But midfielder James Milner said: "The first goal was frustrating as it should have been a foul, but you have to carry on and we should have closed them down quicker. It is up to the referee to stop it and Liverpool were entitled to carry on.

"It was two points lost, as we have to pretty much win every game now. Liverpool were always going to be difficult and the two goals from Sergio Aguero and Steven Gerrard were outstanding, so maybe a draw was fair.
"When we are on top of games we should be putting teams to bed.

Everyone says how difficult it is to defend your title, but as a player you do not think about it.

"We have to keep working hard and see where that takes us. There were times last season where both teams had the title in the bag, and we know what happened - football is a great game."

Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers felt his side deserved all the points: "It should have been a win for ourselves," he said.

Rodgers defends Sturridge goal

"I thought we played terrific and were the dominant team. We scored two wonderful goals and I am disappointed with the goals we conceded.

"The first was from a throw-in and the second typifies the growth we need to make to be up there challenging. The template of our game is improving, We need to cut out the mistakes and we can challenge at the top of the league.

"Daniel Sturridge has been immense and has given us a tonic, a reference at the front for the team. He is now part of the jigsaw of our growth - we are growing all the time and that is what this season is about.

"We have come to the home of the champions and dominated. We know we can be better."

[iamsetia]

Manchester City's Premier League title bid left on the rocks

4 February 2013
PHIL Mc NULTY Chief football writer, BBC Sport



Sir Alex Ferguson never knowingly squanders a smile on a goal from either Liverpool or Steven Gerrard but he may just have been tempted as he watched Sunday's events at Etihad Stadium.

As an avid horse racing devotee Ferguson will know the Premier League title race has a long way to run - but old adversaries gave Manchester United a helpful nudge towards the finishing line and their 20th crown.

When Gerrard beat City keeper Joe Hart and added another spectacular long-range goal to the list that has decorated his career after 73 minutes, Ferguson could start to relax with the knowledge that he would be protecting at least a nine-point lead over United's neighbours on Monday morning.

Manchester City next 5 league games

9 February: Southampton (away)
24 February: Chelsea (home)
4 March: Aston Villa (away)
9 March: Wigan (home)
16 March: Everton (away)

Manchester United next 5 league games

10 February: Everton (home)
23 February: QPR (away)
2 March: Norwich (home)
9 March: West Ham (away)
16 March: Reading (home)

Sergio Aguero's tribute to awareness, audacity and a refusal to accept the basic laws of angles gave City a point in a 2-2 draw - which was all they deserved against an excellent Liverpool - but that nine-point advantage looks a very daunting and ominous obstacle.

Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini more or less said the title was United's last season until the moment Sergio Aguero's goal deep into injury-time on the final day beat QPR and left their neighbours crestfallen at Sunderland as they won their first championship in 44 years.

No such defeatist talk from Mancini this time around as he insisted City could still retain the Premier League title. Nor should there be.
Anyone tempted to call up the credits on this season should remember how City clawed back eight points in the last six games this season. The dynamic, however, seems different this time around.

City were missing injured captain Vincent Kompany and Yaya Toure, who is on his way back from the Africa Cup of Nations, but there is a worryingly laboured look to their play. They showed the resilience of champions to pick up a point but Liverpool looked the livelier, fresher side for most of this enthralling draw.

Set this alongside United now having Robin van Persie, the match-winner par excellence signed precisely for this title-winning job, and it is clear Ferguson's side are in a wonderful position. And Van Persie can also rely on Wayne Rooney to step into the breach on the rare occasions he does not find the net, as proved at Fulham on Saturday.

This is not to say United need to do a Devon Loch to lose the league, but put together City's current missing spark, the combination of Van Persie and Rooney and Ferguson's desire to erase the pain of last season and you see why United will be so confident.

They have been over this course and distance before and it is becoming increasingly difficult to see them slipping up again with the pain of their last failure so fresh in the memory.

United will have to lose three of their last 13 games, while City win all theirs, with Mancini himself admitting they need to win at least 11 of those, and the next derby is at Old Trafford on 6 April.

Ferguson may also feel their remaining fixture list is slightly kinder, although City will equally suggest they are more than capable of putting together the run Mancini requires. On this evidence, though, any optimism must be strictly guarded.

Against Liverpool, City's battery was flat. It needed the inspiration of that marvellous Aguero angled finish to claim second prize of a draw but elsewhere this was a worrying display.

After making such a mammoth, emotion-sapping effort to win the title last year, perhaps it is understandable that these players, without a real marquee summer signing such as Van Persie to help them, are having difficulty summoning up the same inspiration and energies again.

If they are do to so, they will need to do it very quickly. Yaya Toure is desperately needed to reinvigorate a midfield in which Javi Garcia looked pedestrian and the return of Kompany's authority cannot come soon enough.

Promising signs for Liverpool

• Liverpool are the third away team to enjoy a majority of possession at City in the league this season after Arsenal and Fulham.

• Liverpool had twice as many shots as Man City with 22 efforts on goal.

For Liverpool, there was more encouragement for manager Brendan Rodgers at the conclusion of a week that started calamitously with an FA Cup defeat at League One Oldham Athletic and a public attack on the club's young players that he may now feel might have been better remaining in-house.

Liverpool could have won at Arsenal, where they squandered a two-goal lead. And they could have won at Manchester City only to be denied by Aguero's genuine brilliance.

The problem for Rodgers comes when results are studied. There have been some very good signs since the Oldham fiasco but Liverpool have still not recorded a Premier League win against a team in the top half of the table.

Liverpool have played well in some of these games but a thread has run through them - they do not win any. This is the line Rodgers will eventually have to cross, no matter how often he talks of outstanding performances.

The best player on show was Daniel Sturridge. The striker never gave himself enough time to deliver at Manchester City while he did not produce enough at Chelsea. More or less every performance since his £12m move to Liverpool has come accompanied by the sound of a penny dropping.

At Etihad Stadium, Sturridge's movement was superb, his link with Luis Suarez an exciting work in progress and his finish with little backlift for Liverpool's first goal was a classic example of technique and power.
Liverpool were controlled in possession and attacked with pace. All in all a satisfying day only downgraded by another draw.

One area of concern for Rodgers must be another misjudgement by goalkeeper Pepe Reina, who has been far too prone to error in recent times. Aguero's finish was special but the sight of the yellow-clad keeper suddenly rushing headlong into territory that was never his gave the Argentine an opportunity world-class players have the capacity to take.

No wonder Reina hid his face inside his shirt at the final whistle. And it would be no wonder if Rodgers is contemplating, at the very least, giving the Spaniard some serious competition for his place next season.

It was a match that showed why City may just come up short in the title race and why Liverpool's inability to protect a lead means they will probably come up short of the top four.

Mancini, unlike last season, is conceding nothing but the momentum was with Liverpool on Sunday. And it is with Manchester United at the top of the table.

[iamsetia]

tetap semangat ya hart krn united juga tidak mau lagi trophy epl jatuh ketangan kalian...

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Joe Hart: Manchester City need to "win every game"

By Liam Apicella, Staff Reporter
Filed: Monday, February 4, 2013 at 13:19 UK
Last Updated: Monday, February 4, 2013 at 13:24 UK

Manchester City goalkeeper Joe Hart has challenged his teammates to win every match between now and the end of the season to give themselves the best possible chance of retaining the Premier League title.

Following yesterday's 2-2 draw against Liverpool, the champions find themselves nine points behind leaders Manchester United with 13 fixtures remaining.

However, despite the deficit, Hart has described the task in hand as "a good challenge" for Roberto Mancini's team.

"We've got to be confident," the keeper told the club's official website. "There's no point turning up otherwise. We have got to win every game now and look not to drop any points, and it is a good challenge for us."

Next up for City is a trip to Southampton on Saturday evening.

[iamsetia]

9 point. yes!
----------------------------------------------------
Marcello Lippi: 'Roberto Mancini's Manchester City job is safe'

By Danielle Joynson, Reporter
Filed: Monday, February 4, 2013 at 10:03 UK
Last Updated: Monday, February 4, 2013 at 12:18 UK

Former Italy manager Marcello Lippi is confident that Roberto Mancini will keep his job at Manchester City.

There had been suggestions that the 48-year-old would be dismissed from his position at the end of the season, despite him signing a new long-term contract at the Etihad Stadium last summer.

"City are second in the league and have achieved some important results in the last few weeks," BBC Sport quotes Lippi as saying.

"It's true they have been knocked out of the Champions League, but it doesn't seem to me that Mancini's position is in question. It's only the papers that question it. He has won an FA Cup, he has won the Premier League. I think he has done exceptionally well."

Despite City sitting nine points adrift of Premier League leaders Manchester United, Mancini is confident that his side can retain the title.

[iamsetia]

psywar...
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Roberto Mancini will support Manchester United against Real Madrid

By Daniel Cross, Reporter
Filed: Sunday, February 3, 2013 at 11:26 UKLast Updated: Sunday, February 3, 2013 at 18:06 UK

Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini has said that he will gladly support Manchester United when they face Real Madrid in the Champions League, as it will mean more matches for his rivals.

United take on Madrid in a two-legged last 16 tie later this month and a win would see them advance to the quarter-finals.

Mancini is happy for United to be successful as it will mean more games for them, while City can concentrate on clawing back the Red Devils in the title race.

"[Beating Madrid] would be another two games for them. I will go there and support them with a red and white flag," Mancini told reporters.

"But playing Real is tough, they are one of the best in the world. Them and Barcelona."

The City boss also insisted that his side can still win the title, despite being 10 points behind United ahead of their match with Liverpool this afternoon.

He continued: "If we could do it like last year when we were eight points behind with six games to go, it's not impossible that we can recover with 14 games left.

"We could recover five or six points and still lose, but we'll do everything to win this championship."

[rondwisan]

Diiyain aja deh ..., mulai kerasa under pressure nih, denied klo mereka udah lewat dari UCL, bahkan di EL aja gk nyangkut
Tapi bisa aja yg dsampaikan Mancini ini untuk membangkitkan moral team setelah 2 kali hasil draw City
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Mancini: City Tim Terbaik Dalam Dua Tahun Terakhir
Bola.net - 09-02-2013 14:30


Manajer Manchester City, Roberto Mancini berpendapat bahwa tidak ada tim yang tampil lebih baik dari The Citizens, dalam Premier League dua tahun terakhir.


Komentar tersebut ia ungkapkan, meski fakta dalam klasemen Premier League musim ini berkata lain. The Citizens saat ini masih terpaut jarak sembilan poin dari Manchester United di puncak klasemen.

Sementara itu, Chelsea terus menguntit posisi City sebagai runner up, dengan koleksi 46 poin, atau berselisih tujuh poin. Namun tampaknya penilaian Mancini lebih mengacu pada prestasi mereka musim lalu, saat menjuarai Premier League.

"Saya pikir tidak ada satu tim pun yang bermain lebih baik dari kami dalam dua tahun terakhir," ujar manajer asal Italia itu.

"Jelas bahwa United adalah sebuah tim yang kuat, Chelsea juga merupakan sebuah tim yang kuat. Namun saya pikir bahwa City dalam dua tahun terakhir adalah tim yang mampu bermain lebih baik di Premier League."

Manchester City akan kembali menjalani laga Premier League pada pekan ke-26, dengan bertandang ke St Mary's Stadium guna menghadapi Southampton, dini hari nanti, (10/2).

[Redsbusby]

Naikin moral sih wajar2 aja, tp mending bilang yg lain kek drpda nyebut diri sendiri lebih hebat dr chelsea MUFC 2 musim terakhir United pernah menang tanpa Rvp atau Carrick, atau Rooney, lah City? Gw rasa tim ini emang The Real One Man Club, gak bisa apa2 tanpa yaya Toure..hehehe

Musim lalu cuma dapet EPL, itu jg selisih gol, dikangkangin ama Chelsea yg manajemennya morat marit dgn memperoleh gelar UCL+FA. Musim ini, selisih 9 poin dgn Goal Different dibawah United. Lebih baik darimana???

[rondwisan]

Originally Posted by Redsbusby

Naikin moral sih wajar2 aja, tp mending bilang yg lain kek drpda nyebut diri sendiri lebih hebat dr chelsea MUFC 2 musim terakhir United pernah menang tanpa Rvp atau Carrick, atau Rooney, lah City? Gw rasa tim ini emang The Real One Man Club, gak bisa apa2 tanpa yaya Toure..hehehe

Musim lalu cuma dapet EPL, itu jg selisih gol, dikangkangin ama Chelsea yg manajemennya morat marit dgn memperoleh gelar UCL+FA. Musim ini, selisih 9 poin dgn Goal Different dibawah United. Lebih baik darimana???

Hahahaa ...
Keep calm Mas Bro ...
Biarin aja mereka mo ngomong apa ..
Udah kliatan UCL ama EL aja lewat kok ..
Klo musim lalu bolehlah mereka bilang better than United, kita di double lho #menolaklupa #16nore