Pellegrini tight-lipped on Hart return

Manchester City boss Manuel Pellegrini continues to offer no guarantees that goalkeeper Joe Hart will return to his side in the near future.

Pellegrini was again questioned about the matter as he met with the media to preview tomorrow’s Premier League clash with Tottenham (kick-off 1:30pm).

Hart was dropped earlier this month after a spell of poor form but impressed on international duty by making a number of good saves in England’s friendly loss to Germany. That performance caught Pellegrini’s eye but the Chilean has consistently fended off questions about his own team.

He said: “I don’t know. We will see tomorrow the starting 11. It was very important for him to play with England. It was an important game for England against Germany, it is a good test.”

Pellegrini recently said he believes Hart will benefit from a spell out of the side.

When asked to explain his reason for that, the 60-year-old said: “He played the last two and a half years all the games in the Premier League. All the players are human and can have a bad moment.”

Meanwhile, Tottenham manager Andre Villas-Boas revealed Emmanuel Adebayor could make his first appearance of the season in tomorrow’s clash. The striker, who spent three years at City before an acrimonious split with then manager Roberto Mancini, played in a behind-closed-doors friendly at the club’s training ground last week and the Tottenham manager liked what he saw.

“Our likely approach is to go with one up front (at City),” Villas-Boas said.

“They (Soldado, Adebayor and Jermain Defoe) are very near each other and it could be a possibility that even Ade could play that game. These are all decisions that we have to take. We don’t have enough reasons at the moment not to trust Soldado and Defoe because they’ve been excellent.

“Hopefully it’s a decision that’s best for the team and best for the strategy.”