Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini admits Owen Hargreaves 'gamble' hasn't paid off

The 47-year-old signed the former Manchester United midfielder on a one-year contract to bring cover to his squad but he has struggled with a succession of injuries

4 Feb 2012 12:40:00

By Jake Watson

More On :  Manchester City, Roberto Mancini, Owen Hargreaves
Carling Cup: Owen Hargreaves, Manchester City v Birmingham
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Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini has admitted that the gamble signing of Owen Hargreaves has not paid off as he has again endured an injury hit campaign.

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Mancini signed the former Manchester United man to bring cover to his midfield, especially to cover Yaya Toure while he was away on African Cup of Nations duty, but Hargreaves has gone on to make just 4 appearances this season.

It was a shock when the 31-year-old signed a one year contract in the summer, but, since the January loan acquisition of David Pizarro from Roma, he has admitted that the transfer hasn’t quite worked out as he had hoped.

"We took a gamble on Owen because he was such a fantastic player," Mancini told Sky Sports.

"We thought we could try to get him fit in two or three months and then he would be able to play. But it hasn't worked out quite like that.

"When you have a player who hasn't played for two years and he starts to train every day there are small problems all the time. Problems in the knees or the hamstrings. So Owen hasn't been able to play when we have needed him.

"He may play again this season but he is not ready now. I hope eventually he will be able to play all the time. He deserves to, because he is a really nice guy."

Mancini also moved swiftly to dismiss any similarities between David Pizarro and Hargreaves.

"David is not a gamble, he's a top player,"

"He can play as defensive midfielder or he can play in the Yaya Toure position. We need cover at the moment because we have players away in Africa, and also because when the Europa League starts we will be back to playing every three days."

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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.

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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."
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.
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