Pre-season bargaining with players overshadows City's Community Shield opener against Chelsea
Roberto Mancini admits Manchester City’s Community Shield clash with Chelsea on Sunday has been overshadowed by the transfer row that threatens to derail the Premier League champions before they have even started their title defence.
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Manchester City head coach, Roberto Mancini gestures during a pre-season friendly against Besiktas recently. Pic/Getty Images.
Mancini’s side will face European champions Chelsea in the traditional curtain raiser to the English season at Villa Park this weekend and the fixture should have been an ideal chance for City to flex their muscles by showing off new additions to their squad.
But instead City boss Mancini has been unable to make a single major signing since that dramatic May day when his team were crowned English champions for the first time in 44 years. Mancini had hoped City’s incredible 3-2 win over QPR, which wrestled the title from Manchester United on the final day of the season, would be the springboard for significant investment in the transfer market during the close-season.
The Italian clearly has a talented squad already, but he believes more options are required in every area to cope with the renewed challenge from United and Chelsea.
With that in mind, it is easy to see why Mancini has become frustrated as the club’s football administrator Brian Marwood failed to secure deals for Arsenal forward Robin van Persie, Liverpool defender Daniel Agger and Roma midfielder Daniele De Rossi.
“Sorry, but I know that for you (the media) these questions are more important than the match but for this you should talk to Brian Marwood, not with me,” Mancini said.
“I think we have a good team but we built this team two years ago. I think that it is impossible that after two years ago you did everything well. You still need to improve. You need to improve when we have a training session, we need to improve in every way.”
City duo Micah Richards and Gareth Barry are set to miss Sunday’s glamour game, with the latter facing up to a month on the sidelines, while captain Vincent Kompany will undergo a fitness test 24 hours before the game.
Italian striker Mario Balotelli and Spanish midfielder David Silva, who both starred at Euro 2012, will feature from the bench after only beginning their pre-season preparations six days ago following extended leave.
Man City vs Chelsea (deferred telecast) on Star Sports at 18:30 (On Monday)
Juventus beat Napoli 4-2 to win Super Cup
Beijing: Serie A winner Juventus sank Coppa Italia champion Napoli 4-2 to win the Italian Super Cup at the Bird's Nest here on Saturday.
Cavani opened the scoring for Napoli in the 26th minute when he was one-on-one with goallie Buffon. Asamoah pulled one back in the 36th minute for Juventus with a long shot from the left wing.
Four minutes later, Pandev scored a one-on-one goal following a defensive error on the Juventus side. The score was held until the second half, when Vidal secured a 2-2 tie from a penalty in the 73rd minute.
Maggio of Napoli scored an own goal in first half of extra time. Vucinic secured another goal for Juventus to make it 4-2.
-- IANS
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