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City to entice Mourinho with £10m-a-year deal, but Jose wants dream job at United
By Bob Cass and Joe Bernstein
Last updated at 1:35 PM on 20th March 2011
Jose Mourinho, told that his dream job of replacing Sir Alex Ferguson at Old Trafford will have to wait for at least another year, is wanted by Manchester United's 'noisy neighbours'.
With Roberto Mancini said by one insider at Manchester City to be on borrowed time following the club's Europa League exit on Thursday night, Mourinho is the club's No1 target to replace the Italian this summer.
Waiting in the wings: Jose Mourinho would prefer to follow Ferguson at United
The man who turned Chelsea into Premier League champions will be offered a £10million-a-year deal to take charge at Eastlands and will have to choose between staying at Real Madrid while waiting for Ferguson to retire or joining City and going head-to-head with his old friend and rival.
That the Scot intends to stay on for at least another year will be welcome news at Old Trafford but it could mean United missing out on a manager who is among the most qualified to succeed him.
One Premier League source said: 'Jose has learned that Ferguson has no intention of retiring in the foreseeable future.'
Mourinho is keen to return to the Premier League sooner rather than later after the breakdown of his relationship with Madrid president Florentino Perez and director general Jorge Valdano.
With La Liga success unlikely this season, there is still plenty for him to achieve at Real, but he could yet go out on a high in the Champions League.
City will make a convincing case for him to take over from Mancini, with money to spend and a golden legacy to build.
They will trust, of course, that Mourinho's ideas for spending Sheik Mansour's wealth are considerably more effective than the efforts of both Mancini and the man who preceded him, Mark Hughes.
Hughes, now at Fulham, paid the price last season for wasting money on overpriced vanity projects such as Roque Santa Cruz, Wayne Bridge and Kolo Toure.
Ahead of Sunday's game against Chelsea, Mancini faces the same fate unless there is a dramatic reversal in fortune for his £50million misfiring strikers Mario Balotelli and Edin Dzeko.
Mancini stuck his neck out over both men and the consequences have been disastrous so far.
Balotelli's misdemeanours are fast becoming legendary and Mancini knows he is being made personally responsible by the Abu Dhabi ownership for the £23m hothead who is darkening the club's name.
Whispering campaign: Dzeko (left) and Balotelli (right) have not impressed City's insiders
Less well known but just as alarming for Mancini is the whispering campaign against Dzeko, emanating from inside the City dressing room, with some players unimpressed by the £27m striker's qualities in training.
Mancini wanted Dzeko so badly in January that chairman Khaldoon Al-Mubarak personally intervened with the Bosnian's representatives to push the deal over the line.
Yet the centre-forward travels to Stamford Bridge this afternoon still looking for his first Premier League goal and being blamed for sucking some of the power from Carlos Tevez, who is going through his longest drought of the season.
'Dzeko has not impressed the other players in training,' said a well-placed source. 'The word being used to describe his style is "stiff". His first touch isn't considered the greatest either, which is a surprise because that was touted as one of his assets when he joined.'
Success and failure: Adam Johnson (left) was bargain buy, but Kolo Toure (right) has not lived up to the hype
Champions League qualification is the minimum requirement and that will be thrown into serious doubt if they are unable to replicate last season's thrilling 4-2 win at Chelsea.
Damningly, he ignored the advice that Balotelli was uncontrollable and persuaded City to buy him from Inter Milan where they had worked together successfully.
But so far the 20-year-old has proved his critics right, acting like a sulky child and getting himself sent off against Dynamo Kiev for a high kick on an opponent.
Mancini knows his head is on the block if Balotelli's tantrums continue.
'Mario makes life difficult for himself, but also for me because I trusted him 100 per cent,' said City's manager. 'After this red card, the situation is very difficult. He is not repaying my trust and he should work more to repay me.
'I hope every day that he becomes a man. He should realise how lucky he is to be in a fantastic sport like football.'
Hughes was sacked for buys like Santa Cruz, an injury-prone forward who cost £17.5m and scored only four goals in 18 months before returning to Blackburn Rovers on loan.
Mancini risks the same fate and it is significant that City's best value-for-money buy during his time, £7m winger Adam Johnson, was picked out by football administrator Brian Marwood rather than the Italian.
Johnson will will have a vital part to play at Chelsea on Sunday after returning from a six-week injury lay-off in midweek.
He is not a typical Mancini player, being direct rather than cagey.
But with all the other problems surrounding the club following their Europa League exit, City will be glad of Johnson's half-full attitude towards a fixture they dare not lose.
'We played Chelsea off the park last year and hopefully we can do the same again,' said Johnson, who hopes to be named in Fabio Capello's England squad to face Wales and Ghana.
'The Champions League is the minimum we expect to achieve this season.
'Everyone says the title is done but two defeats for Man United or Arsenal, and a couple of wins for us or Chelsea, and it is back on. Anything can happen and I still think there is a lot of football to be played. We are battling with all the teams at the top and at the same time, nobody is totally safe to finish in the top four.'
The current malaise at City will be banished if the season ends with them winning their first major trophy since 1976 - an epic FA Cup semi-final against Manchester United awaits after the international break - and finish in the top four.
Missing out on the Champions League last season when they were beaten by Spurs in their final home game still hurts.
Johnson added: 'We gave away a lot of points to teams we should have beaten. We'd go in front and then concede late goals. In some games, we would make 20 chances and couldn't put it in the net.
'We're hoping this year will be different and we will learn from our lessons. I think we are a better team now. We are gelling more.'
Dzeko and Balotelli were signed specifically to put those chances away.
That has not happened yet and lurking in the background is uncertainty over what will happen to Tevez in the summer.
In recent games he has spent more time gesticulating to Mancini about the lack of service than he has in the penalty area.
But Mancini, himself capped 36 times by Italy, did not win Serie A three times as a manager without learning how to deal with the blows.
Clubs are only starting to enter the business end of the season now and already he is putting a gloss on City's European exit and trying to turn it to his advantage.
'The past two months of the season are going to be hard for everyone. With Manchester United and Chelsea also playing in the Champions League, it will be especially hard for them,' he said.
But unless his £50m flops start producing, Mancini can surely expect to find the next few weeks are no holiday for him either.
Especially with a man like Mourinho waiting in the wings.
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