Change Balotelli? That would be impossible! Mancini on the challenges facing Man City

Manchester City's title-winning manager has sat down to tell Sportsmail about how Mario Balotelli can never be changed, off the field problems and his plans for the year ahead.

 

What did you make of Mario Balotelli's performance at the European Championships?

 

I think that he did well in the Euros. I also hope those performances can help him to improve. I think every time he plays well, like he did at the Euros, it's important for him because it can help him with his behaviour. Then he can understand that, if he improves his behaviour, he can be better at his job.

He thrived as a central striker for Italy? Can he get in your team in that role?

With his body and his attitude, I think he can play as a forward or like a winger, so I think he can play in every position. Maybe, for me though, he is better like a first striker. But we have four strikers, and of these four strikers, only Mario can play wide.

Title winner: Roberto Mancini takes a training session in Kuala Lumpur

How do you feel now that you are the Barclays Premier League winning manager? How many times have you watched the last 10 mintues of last season back on TV?

Just one or two times. It was enough to be there in that moment. But we deserved to win the league because, for me, we were the best team.

 

Manchester United have been saying that they lost the league rather than you winning it...

We were the best team because we played the best football, scored the most goals, conceded the fewest, beat United twice - and dominated them on both occasions. We are very proud of this because we beat a team like United, who are used to winning every year. So for us this is very important. I can understand some people saying we were lucky, not just because we scored twice in the last few minutes against QPR, but because we scored quite a lot of goals in the last three or four minutes. But that was because we wanted this title.

Sir Alex Ferguson still says United are the team to beat...

I agree with him (smiling).

Are you serious?

Yes.

Thrived: Mario Balotelli was key for Italy at Euro 2012

Have you had any contact with him since the end of last season. He likes to write letters to managers.

No. But I haven’t  been at the club. Maybe there is one there.
There was an issue on the touchline during the game between you at the Etihad...
Yes but afterwards he came to the office and we had a glass of wine.

You went to Abu Dhabi to see Sheikh Mansour. What did he say to you?

He was very happy because for him this championship was very important. It was amazing for him and for us. For us it was important that we won because the Sheikh has spent a lot of money on this club. Usually it takes four or five years to do this…to win the league. We won it very quickly, I think.

City slickers: The players are in action on a pre-season tour

You have signed a new contract and turned down approaches from the Russian FA and others. Did you consider leaving?

No. I never considered any other options.

How important is it to get players in and not stand still?

It is important for us because we are not a team who has won the title for the last 15 years. Our mentality is very strong like the other teams but if you don't change a lot of players you can't hope to win more than other teams. I think we need to improve.
We need to work even harder now because we have won the title. We need players with the right mentality, like the ones we have signed in the last year. We don't need 10 players like we did maybe three or four years ago but we need three or four players, players who can improve our team.
If we don't then we could face the same problems that we faced last season when Yaya Toure went to the African Nations Cup and we had two or three injuries. If we want to do well in all the competitions we need to have a stronger squad.

Need more strikers? City hitmen Carlos Tevez (left) and Sergio Aguero (right)

How confident are you that you can get players in before the start of the season?

I don't know this. I hope we can do this business this week because it is important you have new players three or four weeks before the season starts so they can settle in. 
Can you understand the club's stance over spending? 
I don't think that the problem is that the club don't want to spend. It is not easy when Manchester City try to buy a player. The club we are buying from asks for 30 or 40 per cent more. This is not correct.  It is difficult to do business. But I think also we need to work well [in the transfer market]. We need to work better sometimes.

City, United and Juventus all want Robin van Persie. Surely he should choose City?

No, no. I don't know what will happen with Van Persie because now he is an Arsenal player and I think Arsenal is a top team.  When you talk about Manchester City, Manchester united and Juventus, it is difficult for a player to choose between these three clubs. If we have a chance to take him, we will try.

Plenty to ponder: Mancini accepts it is going to be very tough to defend their title

Emmanuel Adebayor still hasn't gone to Spurs. Is that a problem?

I think maybe we can close this in the next few days.

You seemed to say some strange things at the end of last season. Were they mind games?

I enjoyed it. Sometimes we talk, you write, we are all happy.

How important is it that you now strengthen your position as champions and establish yourself as top dogs?

It's important because it's not easy to win a Championship in England. It's more difficult than in Italy. But after that it's more difficult to stay at the top for a long time. For this reason we need to improve by buying players and through our work. We can't just think that we won the last Championship and arrived at the top so now we deserve to stay there.

You're the one for me: Mancini with the prized Premier League trophy

What about the Champions League?

The Champions League is strange. I don't think we can start to win this yet. When I won the title at Inter, the idea was to defend the title and that should be our target this year. The same. If we also go well in the Champions League, there could also be a chance that we can arrive in the quarter, semi-final or final. We will try to win it, but it is important, for this, that we have a good squad. I don’t think we can play for the Champions League with this squad. That is my opinion, so for this reason we have to buy.
But your squad is arguably better than Chelsea's and they won the Champions League last year...
Yes, but this is why I say that the Champions League a strange competition sometimes – not because Chelsea didn’t deserve to win it, but because there were better teams than Chelsea last year. Our target for the Champions League should be to go for the second stage after the group.
How has Carlos Tevez been in training?
I am happy because Carlos has been working very well since we started training. His attitude is good and we hope he can continue like this.
Were you surprised to see him with a golf bag on his shoulder at the Open Championship?
Yes. (laughs). Maybe next time he can be the referee? I didn’t see it, but I saw it in the newspaper. I thought he had changed his job!

Respect: Mancini wants Tevez - and everybody else - to respect the club

Yaya Toure has said he will go to the African Nations Cup again next January...

I hope that Yaya stays with us, but I don’t know if this is possible.

Can you afford another season of behind the scenes problems like you had last year?

I don’t forget it, only because it is all experience and useful for the future if you have a problem. I hope that we don’t have another season with all these problems, but we won the Championship with all these problems, so maybe we should hope for another problem!

How do you make sure there are no more issues or problems?

This is impossible. With Mario, is it is impossible, but Carlos, maybe.

Club or country: Yaya Toure (left) may go to the African Nations Cup again

Has Carlos really changed? Can he stay focussed?
Carlos has another two years on his contract and I hope (he does). But I don’t think I can change Carlos. Maybe I can change Mario, because he is young, but you can’t change older players. I just want respect, for me and for the club, for my job and for their job.
That is important for me. Respect for what we do every day and what we do in our job. We don’t play and work because earn some money – we start to play when we are young because we like football and for this reason, we should play because we like the job I hope that Carlos understands that maybe he made some mistakes.

Did you learn from your mistakes as a player?

Yeah, but also as a manager. I don’t think I always do things well and I am the first to think that I maybe make a mistake. Every day probably. It is important that the players understand this too.

Was it a mistake to say in Munich that Carlos would never play for you again?

I was really upset after that game. Not because we had lost, but because it was Carlos in that situation. I always had a good relationship with Carlos and did everything for him, like other players, but Carlos in particular, so for this reason I was upset. But after two or three days, it was in the past. The problems came later, but it is important that we did well in the end and won for Manchester City.