Source: PA
Mancini ready to finalise Balotelli move
Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini has hinted that the protracted transfer of Mario Balotelli from Inter Milan could be due to the teenage striker's over-inflated price-tag but believes everything will be resolved in the next 48 hours.
Balotelli has long been linked with a move to City and reports in Italy on Monday suggest the Barclays Premier League club have agreed a fee for the 19-year-old, who Inter claimed they would not sell for less than 35million euros.
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.
"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.
"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. He (Balotelli) is one of the four or five strikers that interest us.
"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. 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. I think that in a couple of days certain situations will be clearer, but I can't guarantee in what way."
