Al-Mubarak: Mancini’s future not under threat

ROBERTO MANCINI has been assured his long-term future is safe as manager of Manchester City despite failing to lead the club into the Champions League.

Khaldoon al-Mubarak, the club chairman, dismissed fears that the Italian would lose his job as a result of the 1-0 defeat by Tottenham Hotspur on Wednesday night.

Al-Mubarak said that Mancini had the full backing of Sheikh Mansour, the club’s owner, and that the Italian would still be given the finances to strengthen significantly the squad over the summer.

“Roberto is our manager,” al-Mubarak said on the club website yesterday.

“He’s doing an excellent job, coming in mid-season, organising the team. I’m very happy. Sheikh Mansour is delighted with the way he has organised the team. I believe now with a good pre-season, he is going to do a wonderful job for us next season and for many years to come.”

On replacing Mark Hughes in December, Mancini was given a minimum requirement of qualifying for European football’s elite competition. The Italian himself said the club would win the Premier League next season.

Al-Murbarak, however, said his view of the manager had not been affected by results over the past six months. “I have the highest regard for Roberto as a manager, as a person,” he said. “He is a man that is driven, that is committed and that has a winning mentality. We believe he’s definitely the right manager.”

Gareth Barry, meanwhile, is to see a specialist about the ankle injury he suffered in Manchester City’s Premier League defeat against Tottenham last night.

Barry hurt himself when he fell over a team-mate during the second half of the 1-0 defeat that ended City’s hopes of qualifying for next season’s Champions League.

The former Aston Villa man has already been ruled out of Sunday’s trip to West Ham.

England coach Fabio Capello will be interested to know the results of the scan given Barry is a certainty for his 23-man World Cup squad.

Capello will name his 30-man provisional squad for South Africa on Tuesday and will not want any doubts over a player who is regarded as a first-choice member of his starting line-up, having struck up an impressive midfield partnership with Frank Lampard.

City manager Roberto Mancini claimed last night that the damage was “not too serious” although he admitted he it would require further tests for a full diagnosis to be confirmed.

If the injury is similar to the one Wayne Rooney suffered against Bayern Munich last month, Capello will be relieved.

Although Rooney did not look fit when he returned to action for the second leg a week later, England are not due to depart for the first of two training camps in Austria until May 17, are not scheduled to play until fellow finalists Mexico visit Wembley on May 24 and do not begin their World Cup quest for over five weeks, tackling the United States in Rustenburg on June 12.