Mancini frets as City stand still

ROBERTO MANCINI’S grand five-year plan for Manchester City is in danger of hitting the buffers only weeks after the Italian signed a £37million long-term contract with the club.

Mancini has not been fobbed off by last weekend’s £12m signing of youngster Jack Rodwell and wants three ready-made first-team players before the end of the transfer window, including Liverpool defender Daniel Agger and Roma’s Italy midfielder Daniele de Rossi.

City start the defence of their Premier League crown against Southampton this afternoon, with Mancini still fretting about the lack of his club’s transfer activity compared to Manchester United, who have captured Arsenal’s Robin van Persie and Japan midfielder Shinji Kagawa, from the Bundesliga champions Borussia Dortmund.

Mancini has set himself the ambitious target of trying to match the biggest clubs in Europe, including Barcelona and Real Madrid, over the tenure of his contract.

But he is facing difficulties from within his own club, who are keen for FIFA’s fair play regulations to work to prevent wealthy investors from Qatar, China and India from pumping money into other clubs — as they have done with City.

City hope the appointment of new chief executive Ferran Soriano, a former Barcelona vice-president, will help smooth the relationship between Mancini and Brian Marwood, who controls City’s transfer policy.

‘I’m happy with Jack (Rodwell) because he is young and a really good player. But we need to have other players,’ said Mancini.

‘When the Champions League starts, we will be playing every three days for 10 months. This is not easy if we don’t have players.

‘We could also lose Yaya Toure when the Africa Cup of Nations is played in January.

‘We will work hard to get players before the window closes, but it will be difficult.’

City hope Joe Hart has recovered from a back injury to face Southampton, but Micah Richards and Gareth Barry are both ruled out.