Manchester City v West Ham United: Roberto Mancini is prepared to face the real world. While Roberto Mancini 18 months of hard work are being rewarded. When you win at West Ham on Sunday at Manchester City would edge closer to qualification for the Champions League and another important milestone in the development of the club.
"We worked very hard to achieve that goal last year and now we're near the finish line," said Mancini. "I think it is impossible that the players are not [mentally] strong enough for that."
More of this line is essential for the city, even more than winning the FA Cup. If you are eligible for elite competition in Europe, and Mancini will be able to put the finishing touches to the team he built.
This summer transfer window will be different than the previous Windows after Sheikh Mansour's over, but no less busy.
No contract, but must come hand in hand with arrangements for players at the club too.
"I started to plan the next season we started working on two or three months," said Mancini.
"We have a lot of players on loan at the time, so that we can do many things. It 's hard to say right now. If we play in the Champions League we need to be stronger.
"It 's very difficult if you play in the Champions League, Premiership and FA Cup We need more players, good players.
"We had a problem this year in February and March, when we were playing in three games and was injured."
Mancini is a meeting with Mike Rigg, head scout for the club to finalize the objectives, then present the chief executive, Garry Cook and Brian Marwood, administrative football.
The team then presented its recommendations to President Khaldoon Al Mubarak, for final approval.
This summer, the City will have to play by different rules to the regulations of the UEFA Fair Play Financial entered into force. Should begin to narrow the gap between your income and expenses.
The club made a loss of £ 121 million in fiscal year 2009-10 and UEFA rules allow only a loss of £ 40 million € over three years (2011-14), they obviously need to make a serious penetrate into the picture, or risk losing their license to play in European competition in 2014.
Therefore Mancini and his players have to finish this season and enter the Champions League - the timing of the introduction of the FFP, is essential.
Not only the increase in television revenues and prize money - at least £ 30 million if the city benefit from the group stage - but the increased visibility of the club would bring more offers.
There was a huge increase business partnerships in the City over the past two years, Cook should provide much more this summer with the Champions League football as bait.
One key development could be sold the naming rights to the stadium, where the club is free to do after reaching an agreement with the Council in January.
They have also purchased land that could be used to develop the first-level training in the field - and the investment that does not count against the club under the FFP.
From the football side of things, the list is the most urgent problem to resolve. In the latest figures, is £ 133 000 000 and if we consider that the club's revenue was £ 125 000 000 You can see the problem - and these figures do not include the salaries of Yaya Toure Mario Balotelli, David Silva, James Milner, Jerome Boateng and Aleksandar Kolarov (mitigated of course by all players to leave last summer.)
City tried to revive themselves in the Champions League, giving large contracts to players in their view, to accelerate their growth. If they qualify, they no longer have to rely so heavily on financial incentives to persuade players to join.
Negotiations can become relatively standardized Champions League football is nothing as an incentive.
City of intensity over the past six windows (about 375 million pounds payment only) means that there are many players that Mancini believes his team useless.
This will be the strategy of the City during the summer - to sell as many of those players as possible and use the money collected to invest in a smaller number of signatures quality.
Alexis Sanchez, Udinese wing skilled in the middle of the standoff between the City and Manchester United, is a perfect example.
If buyers can be found, it will sell the City, Roque Santa Cruz, Craig Bellamy, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Nedum Onuoha, Shay Given, Wayne married, Felipe Caicedo and Vladimir Weiss.
Real Madrid has a £ 15 million option on Emmanuel Adebayor and then of course there is the city of £ 40 million for Tevez wait.
Not only that generates income transfer in the region of £ 80 million, but significantly streamline the payroll. The problem, of course, is to find the clubs that will have on the wages paid were inflated city. Not be easy.
Among these players, only the sale of Tevez seems to be contrary to the ambition of the club. FFP if the rules did not come, you could see the city, playing hard and with Tevez's representative Kia Joorabchian.
After all, the club owners did not need the money, and he is under contract until 2014. The new rules, however, means that you can not afford to have a player unhappy or unmotivated to take a big chunk of your salary, while his transfer value falls.
During his news conference on Friday, Mancini acknowledged that the current situation, it is "difficult to keep a player at a club where they do not want to live."
The city seems to have a pragmatic attitude when it comes to Tévez.
So with a combination of Champions League income (and its ramifications commercial) and a systematic process for the sale of players who are not part of plans Mancini, the city could build their teams while ensuring that they move on to get the line with the CFP.
At this stage, they can not afford to lose momentum.
