FERGIE BACKS MANCINI

In a strange incident, Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has come to the support of his compatriot Roberto Mancini at archrivals Manchester city by saying that he is lost for words after seeing the manager linked with an exit in recent months. It has been widely speculated that the Italian is coming to the end of his Manchester City spell after failing to lead the club to Premier league success this season. City are on course to conceding their Premier league title by a massive 15 point difference to their bitter rivals Manchester United.

However, Ferguson has praised the work done by Mancini during his four years at the club. Since arriving as a replacement for Mark Hughes, the Italian has spent several million pounds of the Arab money to construct a team that has managed to win only two major titles – the FA Cup and the Premier league. Due to the consistent failures on the Champions league, it is believed that the Arab owners are looking at other options.

It has been rumoured that Mancini will be out of the job in the summer even if he wins the FA Cup. City are currently in the semifinals of the competition where they will face either Manchester United or Chelsea.

“The speculation goes with the territory. If the manager doesn’t win a few games, all sorts of stuff is written. I don’t think Mancini will be worried about that. He knows what he is capable of. Will he be at Manchester City next season? Why not? Writing his team off was the only thing he could do. Considering how many points behind they are, he couldn’t say ‘we’ve got a great chance now. In January he was saying they could still win the league and that was probably the right thing to say,” said Ferguson.