Players are not machines - Mancini

Aston Villa midfielder James Milner has been named in his club's squad for Saturday's clash against West Ham even though he is close to joining Manchester City.Milner could be a City player by next week after Eastlands boss Roberto Mancini revealed a deal was close.The England international has not featured in any of Villa's pre-season matches. But caretaker manager Kevin MacDonald, in charge since Martin O'Neill quit earlier this week, has decided to include Milner in his group for the Premier League opener against the Hammers at Villa Park.

Roberto Mancini is thinking back to his childhood and trying to remember if there was ever a time when he was not quite so obsessed with winning. Eventually, he concludes there was not. His cousin learned the hard way when the nine-year-old Mancini lost a game of table tennis one day.

Roberto Mancini believes his Manchester City side are on course to meet their targets for the season after closing in on Champions League qualification with a 2-1 win over West Ham.Mancini has faced questions about his future throughout the campaign after seeing his team slip out of contention for the Premier League title and get knocked out of the Europa League quarter-finals by Dynamo Kiev.But with the chance to end City's 35-year trophy drought in the FA Cup final against Stoke on May 14, his team are also now seven points clear of Liverpool and Tottenham in the league.

Roberto Mancini believes Manchester City are still to see the best from Mario Balotelli, despite seeing his striker go some way to answering his calls with an eye-catching performance in the 3-0 victory over Aston Villa on Wednesday in their FA Cup fifth round clash.Arsenal, meanwhile, defeated Leyton Orient 5-0 at the Emirates stadium in London in their fifth round replay match to seal a place in the Cup quarter-finals.The Manchester City manager questioned the Italian striker's work-rate and demanded he do more ahead of the match.

Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini has insisted Mario Balotelli's long-term future is at Eastlands as the striker himself denied rumours of a move back to Italy with AC Milan.Balotelli, 20, scored a hat-trick as City overcame Aston Villa 4-0 on Tuesday to maintain their bid for the Premier League title.The Italian striker has rarely been out of the headlines since arriving from European champions Inter Milan in a 24 million pounds (37 million dollars) pre-season move.

Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini reckons it will take him another six months to get the Premier League's big-spenders into shape.The Italian boss, whose side face Juventus here at Eastlands in the standout Europa League tie on Thursday, has been pleased with a start to the season that has seen City rise to fourth in the Premier League table and last week defeat leaders, and reigning champions, Chelsea.However, speaking to reporters here on Wednesday, Mancini said: "I think we can create a special team in six months.

Carlos Tevez scored a hat-trick as Manchester City moved up to fifth in the Premier League table with a 3-0 victory over 10-man Wigan at Eastlands on Monday.The visitors matched City until they had Gary Caldwell sent off 10 minutes after the restart.And then Tevez rolled in three goals in just under a quarter of an hour to take his tally to 25 for the season and 21 in 19 appearances.City are now two points behind fourth-placed Tottenham, who still have to travel to Eastlands but it was not a comfortable evening for Roberto Mancini?s side.

Manchester City insisted Tuesday they had not lied to their supporters over when they approached Roberto Mancini to become their new manager.In a prepared statement at Monday's news conference to present Mancini as the replacement for the sacked Mark Hughes City chief executive Garry Cook claimed the Italian had agreed to join the club on Friday, two days after a 3-0 defeat to Spurs.Mancini appeared to contradict that statement, however, by revealing that he had first met with City chairman Khaldoon Al-Mubarak in London a fortnight ago.