City hungry for more silverware

VICTORY was a moment to savour for Roberto Mancini and his players but £650 million (€746m) of recent investment means time is not allowed to stand still at Manchester City and thoughts turned immediately to the future once Vincent Kompany, the last man up, lifted the FA Cup.

Francis Lee, the former City player and chairman, once declared that if they gave cups for cock-ups then the club’s trophy cabinet would be full but now, after a 35-year wait, there is tangible evidence of success and the challenge is to ensure it lasts.

Mancini’s side certainly won’t win any prizes for their exhilarating play, although at times in the first half against Stoke they played with an uncharacteristic freedom, but this season has been all about hitting targets; a top four finish and silverware. On both counts the manager and squad have succeeded but before the last strains of Blue Moon faded at Wembley, Mancini was warning of the bigger tests to come.

Next season the intensity of the Champions League will replace the inconvenience of the Europa League in the fixture list and, if the club is to genuinely challenge the established order at home and in Europe, the margin for error will shrink considerably.

Mancini is under no illusions about what is required, however, having witnessed Tottenham’s stuttering efforts to make a similar leap forward this time around.

“I don’t think we need to make too many changes but I do feel that, this year, we should take Tottenham as an example,” the manager said. “Tottenham played in the Champions League until the quarter-finals and in the Premier League will be fifth or sixth.

“It is difficult in the league if you do not have a big squad, so you can change six or seven players every game. If not it is difficult to play in the Champions League. At this moment I’m too tired to think about the changes.”

At least the Italian has a core of experienced players, not least Yaya Toure whose 74th-minute winning goal capped the kind of performance you would expect from a player with Barcelona on his CV.

Vincent Kompany, Nigel de Jong and Mario Balotelli also demonstrated their pedigree as Mancini’s powerful side overwhelmed a nervous Stoke side who left north London crestfallen at having underachieved.

“This club obviously has ambition,” said Kompany, Mancini’s captain. “You move forward from this. You never look back at something and say, ‘That’s nice, we’ve done it’.

“We want it again. So I think that’s got to be the ambition for everybody here. We hope this is the start.”

The bank account suggests this is not a club making empty promises.