- Premier League
Mancini: City could have stopped exit talk
Roberto Mancini has admitted he does not know what his future holds, saying he is bemused and disappointed that Manchester City have not come to his defence as speculation mounts over his position.
Malaga manager, Manuel Pellegrini, is reportedly set to replace Mancini at the Etihad Stadium in the summer, and the Italian has grown increasingly frustrated that his employers have not intervened when Pep Guardiola, Jose Mourinho and Pellegrini have been linked with his job.
Chairman Khaldoon al Mubarak, owner Sheikh Mansour, chief executive Ferran Soriano and director of football Txiki Begiristain have failed to back the Italian publicly. And he is also annoyed that the club's press office, including communications director, Vicky Kloss, have not moved to quash stories about him.
"I am not a magician," Mancini said. "I don't know what can happen tomorrow or in two weeks.
"The people, Vicky, the other people who work for the press [office], I don't know why they don't stop this rubbish. You wrote this for the six months, and for the last two weeks. It's too much. That is my opinion. It's too much. I don't understand why.
"For football, I talk and I take responsibility in the press. For this you need to talk to Vicky and the other people."
Mancini branded some of the reports "stupid" but also said: "If it's true, it will be true. City is a serious club, a very serious club, the people who are in charge, Khaldoon, is a fantastic man. But this problem has come out because we didn't stop all these things you wrote for six months."
Mancini won the Premier League title last season but, before then, it was rumoured he would leave City. "Also last year it was the same," he said. "No one did nothing about this. I am used to seeing these things in football."
The 48-year-old said his time managing in his native Italy prepared for him this and recalled being sacked after helping Inter to a third successive Scudetto.
He explained earlier this week: "I say to you one thing... when I worked for Inter Milan, the newspapers were the same as they are here and I thought always: 'It's not true, it's not true, we are winning Serie A for third time in a row.'
"After the Italian Cup final I read the Corriere della Sera, a newspaper which is very close with Inter, and one journalist wrote this that probably Inter will sack me. In that moment I understood that maybe it was true."