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Roberto Mancini hails 'great' Eden Hazard & 'interesting' Mamadou Sakho but denies duo are part of Manchester City's immediate plans
Citizens boss admires Ligue 1 starlets but suggests he is not looking to bolster his attacking options, ruling out an imminent move for the Belgian wonderkid
3 Feb 2012 11:02:00
By Matt Scott
Getty Images
Roberto Mancini has praised Lille playmaker Eden Hazard and PSG's Mamadou Sakho but has ruled out bringing them to Manchester City for the moment.
Hazard has been linked with a move away from France in the summer, with the 21-year-old suggesting that he wants a move to the Premier League.
But Mancini has poured cold water on suggestions that the Belgian could switch to the Etihad Stadium.
The Italian told LE 10 Sport: "Eden Hazard is a great player with great potential. He is very technical and fast.
"But despite what people have been saying for many weeks, we don't envisage recruiting him. We want to strengthen, but not on the level of our attack."
Mancini also spoke kindly of PSG skipper Sakho but believes he has too many centre-backs at the club to facilitate a move for the Parisian-born French international.
Mancini continued: "I watch what's going on in Ligue 1. There are some interesting players, but I won't buy anyone right now.
"There are players for the future, like Mamadou Sakho of PSG, for example, but we have many centre-backs. We watch players all across Europe and we can't sign everyone."
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Hazard has been linked with a move away from France in the summer, with the 21-year-old suggesting that he wants a move to the Premier League.
But Mancini has poured cold water on suggestions that the Belgian could switch to the Etihad Stadium.
The Italian told LE 10 Sport: "Eden Hazard is a great player with great potential. He is very technical and fast.
"But despite what people have been saying for many weeks, we don't envisage recruiting him. We want to strengthen, but not on the level of our attack."
Mancini also spoke kindly of PSG skipper Sakho but believes he has too many centre-backs at the club to facilitate a move for the Parisian-born French international.
Mancini continued: "I watch what's going on in Ligue 1. There are some interesting players, but I won't buy anyone right now.
"There are players for the future, like Mamadou Sakho of PSG, for example, but we have many centre-backs. We watch players all across Europe and we can't sign everyone."
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| Open an account with Sportingbet today and get up to £50 in free bets! |
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| Sign up with William Hill for a free bet up to £25 |
|
| Sign up with bet365 for a free bet up to £200 |
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Live!
England 1-0 Belgium, Netherlands 4-0 Northern Ireland - follow all the international action LIVE! ahead of Euro 2012
With countries across the continent gearing up for their final warm-up games ahead of Euro 2012, join us for all the action from Saturday's friendlies. Get in touch with us via Twitter with your reaction.
Hosted by Joe Doyle
Hosted by Joe Doyle
20:06 BST
So, that game gave a few players a chance to impress for England. Who did/didn't? Will Welbeck start against France? Or Carroll? Or Defoe?!
19:59 BST
Unfortunately for Northern Ireland, they are trailing the Netherlands 4-0 at half-time. Looks like that one's all sewn up then.
19:54 BST
We're still getting plenty of Hazard chat on Twitter. A few are now saying that he's not worth the hype, others saying he was brilliant(!?) and others (which I agree with), saying he created much of his own hype. What do you think? Get involved!
19:46 BST
Joe Hart has also been giving his thoughts after the Belgium game: "It was a really tough game, a good run out. I thought we played well, [but] we were a little bit bitty at times.
"But, we came through. Obviously there were a lot of changes so it's good to get the result.
"Belgium are a very, very strong side who are going to be really good in the future. Vincent [Kompany] told me about them and said that they were coming good and I totally agree with him."
"But, we came through. Obviously there were a lot of changes so it's good to get the result.
"Belgium are a very, very strong side who are going to be really good in the future. Vincent [Kompany] told me about them and said that they were coming good and I totally agree with him."
19:38 BST
Here's Roy Hodgson's reaction to the result and some injury chat: "I'm very pleased, it's been a hard week and we've used a lot of players. There was a lot of disruption in the second-half with substitutions – some forced upon us, some we wanted to do. But it's still a very good end to the week playing against a good Belgian team here. Arguably even stronger than the Norwegian team we played last week and I've got to be more than happy that we've come out with another victory."
"[Gary] Cahill I suppose is slightly more of a concern for me because it is a jaw injury. We're desperately hoping the CT scan doesn't show any fracture and it's just going to be a bruising situation, which will be bad enough, but won't stop him taking part in the tournament. As far as John's [Terry] concerned he felt his hamstring a little bit. Again it wasn't a major thing when he came off but we still need to scan it just to be 100 per cent sure."
Suffice to say, if Cahill has broken his jaw, he won't play any part in the tournament.
"[Gary] Cahill I suppose is slightly more of a concern for me because it is a jaw injury. We're desperately hoping the CT scan doesn't show any fracture and it's just going to be a bruising situation, which will be bad enough, but won't stop him taking part in the tournament. As far as John's [Terry] concerned he felt his hamstring a little bit. Again it wasn't a major thing when he came off but we still need to scan it just to be 100 per cent sure."
Suffice to say, if Cahill has broken his jaw, he won't play any part in the tournament.
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