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Salgado sends City warning

Image: Salgado: Mancini warning

Michel Salgado believes Manchester City's biggest challenge will be keeping their big names happy.

Blackburn defender tells Eastlands outfit to control egos

Former 'Galactico' Michel Salgado believes Manchester City's biggest challenge will be keeping their big names happy. Manager Roberto Mancini has enjoyed another summer of lavish spending in the transfer window, with £120million splashed out to turn City into title contenders. But Blackburn defender Salgado has warned the Italian he faces a mammoth task in controlling the egos in the Eastlands dressing room. Salgado spent a decade at Real Madrid during their golden era and he shed light on the difficulties of possessing a star-studded squad. "The most important thing for the manager is to control the changing room," said Salgado in the Daily Mirror, whose side travel to Manchester for Saturday's encounter. "Sometimes it's more important what goes on off the pitch than what happens on the pitch. "You have to control the group. You have to keep everyone happy. I think that is very difficult when you are dealing with big players. That is a big problem."

Settle

Shay Given and Emmanuel Adebayor have already voiced disquiet at being out of the side this season and Salgado feels the problems is with new arrivals intergrating. He went on: "The problem is he has to settle all these new players into his team and when you sign eight more every year this is a problem. "City are under construction and they have had to start from the base. At Real it was different. "We won the Champions League in 1998 and 2002 and were the best team in La Liga. So when we bought Luis Figo in 2000 and Zindane in 2001, we already had a good team. "We just needed to buy one great player every year and bed him into what was already a good team."
Time
Salgado, 34, was part of an expensively assembled side at the Bernabeu where trophies were an expected return from each campaign. City have yet to reap the rewards of their similarly costly squad but the defender feels Mancini should be given time to deliver. "They should not be under as much pressure as Real Madrid are," he added. "Real are a big club in Spain and in Europe and every year they are expected to win a trophy. "I think each year the pressure on them is going to increase so in future they are going to be asked to win the Premier League. "That's normal when you spend money but they must be given time."

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