Roberto Mancini believes adding fresh faces to his Manchester City squad could be enough to clinch their first ever Premier League title.
Manchester City, who showed glimpses of their potential by winning the FA Cup and finishing in third place last season, have been tipped to mount another serious challenge to rivals Manchester United’s league crown.
The Manchester City manager has already signed the likes of Argentine striker Sergio Aguero this summer with the promise of further new big-name arrivals, including Arsenal’s Samir Nasri, to bolster his attacking armoury.
The mega-rich club begin their season against newly-promoted Swansea at the Etihad Stadium tonight (kick-off 9 p.m.), and Mancini said that title talk should wait till he had completed the squad for this season.
“We can talk about this (a title challenge) when we buy all the players that we need and complete our squad,” he said.
“At the moment it’s not complete. I am sure that if we complete our squad – this is a problem at the moment just days before the start of the season – that we can fight for the title.
“It doesn’t matter whether you’re the richest club or not because the market is difficult.
“But I think it was important to have players we want for the start of the season. At the moment we don’t have these players that I ask for.
“I hope that we can have them this week. It was the same last year. The first few games – we lost against Sunderland and drew against Tottenham.
“After that we had two or three players, but it is important to have all the players before.”
While Manchester City have untold millions, they will be facing a Welsh side with one of the smallest budgets in the league.
Yet Mancini believes that will count for nothing and anticipates a tough evening against a side motivated to impress after 28 years outside the top flight.
“When you start the season and play a team that has come from the Championship it is really difficult,” he said.
“Last season West Brom, and all the teams that came up from the Championship, were hard games to play against.
“This will be really difficult because it’s the first game. When you start the season, the first 10 games are really difficult because maybe the squad is not really 100 per cent.
“The squad needs another four or five games to find good form and I have watched many Swansea games. They play good football. They don’t play long ball and they have good players and a good manager.”