Mancini set to be sacked by Manchester City

The Blues have not commented about the stories, however the Italian manager has been under increasing pressure over the past couple of weeks amid apparent City interest in the outgoing Malaga coach Manuel Pellegrini.

Roberto Mancini was critical of the club’s handling of his situation after Saturday’s FA Cup final defeat to Wigan, when he stated his belief the City hierarchy should have stepped in on his behalf to end the speculation about his future.

But it seems that City’s Wembley loss to Wigan – a team who could well be relegated into the npower Championship this season and were assembled at a fraction of the cost of Mancini’s squad- has been the final straw.

However, such is the intensity of the reports, City’s decision not to clarify Mancini’s situation appears significant.

It has been suggested that Mancini’s abrasive style upset members of his backroom team and some senior players

Progress hard to claim

With a distant second-place finish in the Premier League to Manchester United and yet another group stage exit in the Champions League, it is hard for Mancini to claim progress has been made this season.

And that was before yesterday’s defeat to a Wigan outfit who were 8-1 underdogs prior to kick-off, but were the better side and grabbed a last-minute victory thanks to Ben Watson’s header.

“If we find out in a week the things you say are not true, you have written a lot of stupid things in the last six months and more in the last two weeks,” he said when asked about the reports linking Pellegrini with his position.

“If it is true I am stupid because I didn’t understand anything.

“You have been speaking about this for the last six months, and also the last two weeks. It is too much. The club didn’t stop this. I don’t think that was correct.

“I don’t think it is true.”