Mancini tries to ignore Tevez talk

Posted Thursday, February 24, 2011 by ESPN

Roberto Mancini has insisted he is only focused on bringing success to Manchester City and is not concerned with the long-term future of Carlos Tevez.

Tevez has spoken of his desire to return home to South America for some time which has only fuelled the speculation that he will leave Eastlands and, this week, his agent Kia Joorabchian claimed that he would be happy to move back to former club Corinthians.

Tevez is currently contracted to City until the summer of 2014 when he may decide to walk away. But for now that is too far in the future to concern Mancini.

Asked if he felt keeping hold of the club captain would be a problem, Mancini said: "I don't know this. I'm happy for Carlos because he has scored 50 goals for Manchester City and I hope he can continue to score, but in football it is impossible to know what will happen in the future. I hope Carlos can continue to play here.

"At this moment, I am worried only about the game, not about other things. I am worried about the championship and the cups. For the moment Carlos is here, he plays for Manchester City.

"He is important, but in the squad there are more than 20 players who are all important. It is normal when you have a striker like Carlos, or Mario (Balotelli) or (Edin) Dzeko, that it is important they play. But I don't know what will happen next year.''

Meanwhile, Spanish forward David Silva, who joined City from Valencia last summer, has moved to quash talk that he is unsettled in England and looking for a return to his native country.

"I was as surprised as anyone else here to have read those reports,'' Silva told the club's official website. "I do the odd interview with Spanish press but I have never come out with these quotes that may or may not have been attributed to me.

"My initial reaction was surprise, but as I have said before, I am happy to be here and I find myself very much at ease with life here. The thing about a big city like Manchester is that people respect your space. They leave you to get on with your life.

"In Spain, people can get on your back and maybe live the game more. Here it's nice to go out and chill in the city. The help of my team-mates and all the people at the club has helped my settling-in period go so smoothly.

"It was difficult to begin with, but I was not quite 100% fit because I missed part of pre-season due to my late arrival from the World Cup. There were also a couple of international friendlies that involved long journeys which interrupted me getting shape.

"I didn't have the time then, but since then I think the form has started to come through for me.''