Source: Team_Talk
Mancini: Game on for super Mario
Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini has hinted that the protracted transfer of Mario Balotelli could be due to the striker's price-tag.[LNB] Inter forward Balotelli has long been linked with a move to City and reports in Italy today suggest the Premier League club have agreed a fee for the 19-year-old, who Inter claimed they would not sell for less than 35million euros.[LNB]Mancini is keen to be reunited with Balotelli, who he snapped up as Inter coach in 2006, but insists they will not pay over the odds for anybody.[LNB]"There is the money to buy anyone but not to pay them a lot as some people are saying," Mancini said in an interview with Italian daily La Stampa.[LNB]"That's in general terms. If someone ups the price of a player by 40 or 50% convinced that Manchester City will take them anyway, they've calculated wrong.[LNB]"He (Balotelli) is one of the four or five strikers that interest us.[LNB]"I was the first to believe in him and I'm convinced about what he can give. Mario has two qualities that suit us: his talent and his age, because I want people able to build a cycle at Manchester City.[LNB]"That said we return to the problem of valuation that has to be just. I like the player and at certain conditions. That's all.[LNB]"I think that in a couple of days certain situations will be clearer, but I can't guarantee in what way."[LNB]Jerome Boateng, Aleksandar Kolarov, Yaya Toure and David Silva have already joined City this summer but Mancini's recruitment drive is far from over.[LNB]Among the players City have been linked with are Fernando Torres, Edin Dzeko, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Diego Forlan, though Mancini now appears to have ruled out a bid for the Uruguay striker who won the Golden Ball award for the best player at the World Cup.[LNB]"Those that I am interested in are those that the newspapers are saying apart from Forlan," continued Mancini.[LNB]"He's formidable and I was in love with him when he played at Villarreal four or five years ago.[LNB]"I would have taken him to Inter. Today instead I am looking for younger players."[LNB]There are not many clubs who can afford to match City's spending powers, especially in the current economic crisis.[LNB]However, Mancini insists his Premier League counterparts have nothing to be jealous about.[LNB]"If at Manchester City[LNB]we think we have to spend, it's only because we have a lot to change," he added.[LNB]"I could be jealous of colleagues that already have their squad ready."
