Mystery surrounds Robinho’s City future
Robinho, who scored his side’s final goal before being substituted, has stated that he wants to leave the club and secure a return to former club Santos on-loan for the remainder of the season.
This was news to Roberto Mancini, however, who claimed he wanted the former Real Madrid forward to stay at Eastlands and knew nothing of his comments.
The duo could do worse than resolve their differences and for the good of both parties and Mancini said: “I think he’ll stay.
“I want him to stay. He’s a top player. I don’t know about what he has said. He hasn’t spoken to me about it.
“I want to keep him and for me he should stay here, but I think it’s important that he stays happy and enjoys it. He must be happy.”
Banana skins don’t come more slippery than this, especially for the likes of Robinho, who for once was probably not best pleased to see his name included in Mancini’s starting line-up. Prior to kick-off it emerged he had told a radio station back in Brazil that he expected this to be his last game for the Premier League club and he was hoping to secure a way out.
However, Robinho started the game well, displaying his array of skills to the 9,000 supporters crammed like sardines into Glanford Park.
It was his step-over and square pass to Martin Petrov that allowed the Bulgarian international to open the scoring with a rasping left-footed drive into the top corner of Joe Murphy’s goal inside three minutes.
It had been the perfect start for Mancini’s side, yet Scunthorpe are made of stern stuff and refused to be knocked out of their stride.
Indeed, the underdogs went on to dominate possession for the remainder of the half and even fashioned an equaliser in the 30th minute.
Gary Hooper hooked a loose ball into the City penalty area and it fell kindly to Paul Hayes, who smashed a smart volley past Stuart Taylor to restore parity.
City refused to panic, however and restored their advantage on the stroke of half time when Stephen Ireland played in Nedum Onuoha and he blitzed a powerful strike inside Murphy’s near post.
Sylvinho made it 3-1 in truly spectacular fashion on 57 minutes but after Dedryck Onuoha put through his own goal with 20 minutes remaining it was ironic that the final word was left to Robinho, who scored from close range six minutes from time to secure City’s passage into the fifth round with what could well be his last meaningful act for the club.
* FA Cup 5th rd: Wolves/ Crystal Palace v Aston Villa; Man City v Stoke; Derby v Birmingham; Bolton v Tottenham/Leeds; Chelsea v Cardiff; Fulham v Notts County/Wigan; Reading v West Brom; Southampton v Portsmouth.
* Ties to be played February 13/14th
SCUNTHORPE UNITED (4-4-2): Murphy 7; Byrne 7, Mirfin 7, Jones 7 (Milne 82), Williams 8; Thompson 7, Togwell 6, McCann 7 (Wright 88), Woolford 6; Hooper 7, Hayes 7 (Forte 88).
MANCHESTER CITY (4-3-3): Taylor 7; Onuoha 8, Boyata 7, Kompany 6, Sylvinho 7; Ibrahim 7, De Jong 6 (Cunningham 46, 7), Ireland 7 (Zabaleta 66, 7); Robinho 6, Petrov 9, Benjani 7.
Referee: K Friend (Leicestershire). 8.
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