City trio determined to beat United again

Players maintain high ambitions

By Zain Alvi | 17th May 2012

Manchester City may not have enjoyed the most popular title celebration this week but that doesn’t bother the club’s players, who firmly believe that they can beat bitter rivals Manchester United to the crown next season.

Carlos Tevez stole headlines earlier this week when he held up a ‘RIP Fergie’ sign given to him by a fan during City’s parade across Manchester. Samir Nasri then went on to mock his former club Arsenal for failing to match the Citizens’ hunger.

It all panned out bitterly for City as they went from earning plaudits for their first title in 44 years to coming across as an arrogant bunch that competitors will certainly look to hunt down next season.

Gunners midfielder Jack Wilshere already slammed his former teammate Nasri while City had to apologize on the behalf of Tevez.

Nasri has now added fuel to fire by revealing that he chose to move to City instead of United due to the higher potential of the Eastlands outfit’s project.

“I thought for a few months before making my decision, with my parents and my advisors. I weighed up the pros and cons, Roberto Mancini was calling me every day and I decided to go there,” the French playmaker explained.

Tevez refused to repair any damage for his actions against Sir Alex Ferguson either, instead arguing that the Scot deserves to be treated with disrespect given the way he talks about opposition players.

“It seems like Ferguson is the president of England. When he speaks badly about a player, nobody says he has to apologise but when someone comes out with a joke, you have to say sorry. I don’t say sorry,” Tevez was quoted by BBC Sport.

Accusing the United boss for saying particularly hurtful things about him, the Argentine added: “There’s no relationship at all between me and Ferguson.”

Fergie’s dismissal of City’s future potential has not helped matters either; despite congratulating Roberto Mancini’s side for a hard-fought title win this season, the manager cast doubt on a repeat next season by suggesting that the Red Devils are 100 years ahead of their cross-town rivals.

One player who remains focused on proving Fergie wrong is James Milner. The England international has vowed to compete even harder in the coming years following the confidence boost received from this season’s glory.

“We would like to hope it’s the first of many. That’s why we all came here, to win the title. We’ll enjoy it these next few days but after that it’s about retaining it and winning it again and again. We have got the squad and the fans to do that,” Milner asserted.

The midfielder added: “To have a Premier League winners’ medal is something every player wants but we want more and to keep having days like this.”

When asked to comment about the thrilling nature of City’s final day win, Milner stated: “I keep watching it on TV and it gets a little more real every time. It’s still hard to believe we were 2-1 down going into injury time so it’s going to take a while to sink in.”