Mancini keeps mum on signings long-term success: City captain Kompany believes current squad are good enough for a new era of dominance
WHILE Roberto Mancini remains tight-lipped on his club's future transfer activity, Manchester City captain Vincent Kompany believes the squad, as it is, should be good enough to defend their English Premier League title this season.
A number of players, including Arsenal's Robin van Persie and Daniele De Rossi of AS Roma, have been linked with City, who have yet to add to their title-winning squad with the start of the Premier League just three weeks away.
Kompany, who arrived in Kuala Lumpur early yesterday with his manager Mancini before the rest of the squad flew in last night from Beijing, said having the same players together for another season is an advantage for City.
"All the top teams want to sign top players, they want to be strong. But I think the strength for us is that we are all together for another season which has not always been the case with City.
"We know each other well and it will be better for us next season," said Kompany at the team's hotel in Seri Kembangan yesterday.
While the Belgian stressed the benefit of having a settled squad, Mancini did his best to avoid giving direct responses to questions on his transfer targets.
"I don't think we need 10 more players. We are taking to some players but the transfer market is not easy. It's difficult and for this, we need more time, maybe in the next two weeks, we can do something about new players," he said at a press conference.
"I think we did well last year and we are in the same position again. I don't think it (new players) is important. The mentality is more important.
"Maybe we can change one or two position but we got to have a good attitude if we want to. This is very important."
Turning to tomorrow's friendly against Malaysia at the National Stadium in Bukit Jalil, Mancini wants his team to carry on from where they left off in Beijing, where they defeated Arsenal 2-0 on Friday.
"We played one game yesterday (Friday) and we want a big match on Monday (tomorrow). For us, it is important to improve positions and we want to do this against the national team (Malaysia).
"We don't have all the players in Asia because some have played at the Euros. For this reason they are not ready to play but we have a strong team to play this game.
"In two weeks we play an important game (the Community Shield) in England so it is important to do well on Monday night," added Mancini, who did not include the likes of Mario Balotelli, Joe Hart, Joleon Lescott, James Milner, Gareth Barry, Micah Richards, Samir Nasri, David Silva, Gael Clichy and Nigel De Jong in their Asian Tour squad.
But with Carlos Tevez, Sergio Aguero and Yaya Toure available, City will pose a bigger challenge to national coach K. Rajagobal's squad than the 2-1 defeat to Arsenal last Tuesday.
"You have to understand who we are playing against but we will try our best. It is a learning process for us and even Arsenal could not score against them.
"But this kind of chance to play against a strong team is rare so we will find our good moments and try to break them. If we can put them under pressure and create chances that will be good," said Rajagobal yesterday.
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