Manchester City reward Mancini with five-year deal

MANCHESTER City manager Roberto Mancini has been rewarded for bringing the title back to the club for the first time in five decades with a new long-term contract.

City pipped near-neighbours Manchester United to the Barclays Premier League in a dramatic final day in May to win their first top-flight championship since 1968.

However, Mancini is not prepared to rest on his laurels and believes the club has the potential to go on to bigger and better things.

“I am delighted to be able to give all of my efforts to Manchester City for a further five years,” he told mcfc.co.uk. “The opportunity which exists to build on our recent success is enormous.

“Manchester City is a fantastic football club, from the owner, chairman, board and the executive team, through to the players, staff and fans.

“I am very much looking forward to the challenges and excitement ahead.”

The Italian joined City in December 2009 as a replacement for Mark Hughes, who was somewhat controversially dismissed with the club still well within touching distance of the top four.

He guided the Blues to fifth place that season and although missing out on Champions League football he was fully backed by the owners in terms of huge investment in the playing squad.

That paid off the following season when Mancini led them to third, their highest league spot since 1977, to finally secure a place in Europe’s elite club competition.

But, perhaps more significantly for City, in that same campaign they ended their 35-year trophy drought with victory in the FA Cup.

That provided an important platform and with Mancini also displaying strong leadership in the wake of the Carlos Tevez affair – the striker eventually having to back down and apologise for refusing to warm up before a Champions League match and his subsequent lengthy absence from the squad – he took the all-important next step by winning the title for the first time in 44 years.

Having won three consecutive Serie A titles and two Italian Cups, interim chief executive officer John MacBeath said that success had only enhanced Mancini’s pedigree. “Roberto’s managerial credentials have been well proven in Europe for many years,” he said. “And in leading a team which has won the FA Cup and an unforgettable Barclays Premier League title in successive seasons, his ability to manage in the English domestic game is also undisputed. This new agreement allows Roberto to focus on the challenge of guiding a team which is capable not only of defending the Premier League title, but one which can compete for European honours.”

With Mancini’s contract now sorted, plans can continue for their Premier League defence with City announcing a pre-season friendly against Wolfsburg – from whom they signed Edin Dzeko for £27 million in January last year – on 4 August.