Mancini – City are not good enough to win Champions League

After losing to Napoli during the week, Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini has claimed that his side are not quite ready to win the Champions League.

Following the defeat in Italy, even those looking at the best casinos online will tell you that City face an uphill battle to qualify for the knock-out stages. They must beat Bayern Munich next month to stand any chance and even then they are relying on results from elsewhere.

With their place in the last 16 hanging in the balance though, Mancini has played down the importance of qualifying, saying that there are superior teams in Europe to his own.

He said: “We should be realistic. I do not think we have a team to win the Champions League this season.”

“Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Barcelona and Inter Milan all have more experience than us.”

Despite this, he is still in a confident mood about his team qualifying. They may not have quite enough to win the whole thing, but Mancini wants his team to progress as far as possible.

“We hope we can stay in the Champions League. We hope we can beat Bayern Munich and Villarreal can get a draw with Napoli.”

Although Mancini was more than happy to discuss his team’s chances in the Champions League, he would not talk about the future of want away striker Carlos Tevez.

The Argentina international is reportedly in talks with AC Milan, but when asked about the latest situation, he said: “I do not want to speak about Carlos Tevez. I will answer no questions about him.”

Despite the manager being quiet on the issue, Manchester City have confirmed that they are not willing to let Tevez leave the club on loan. Instead, they will only accept a sufficient offer for the former Manchester United man.

As far as City are concerned, the sooner they can get Tevez out of the club the better. He has been a poor influence on proceedings of later and Mancini will be relieved to draw a line under the issue.

AC Milan have had their say on the potential deal, with assistant coach Mauro Tassotti saying: “Tevez to Milan? He is a great player but we need to evaluate his condition. There are problems with Manchester City but it could be an idea.”

They could face competition from fellow Italian giants Juventus though. They have appartently entered the race and would like to speak to Tevez about a January move.