Stuart Pearce has stressed that Kiki Musampa has a future at Manchester City.
Manchester City boss Stuart Pearce has revealed that Kiki Musampa could stay at the club permanently.There had been speculation that the Dutch winger, who is on loan from Atletico Madrid, would be offloaded this month, but Pearce is keen to keep hold of the 28-year-old until the summer, and hopefully beyond.
"Kiki is still an important part of the squad and he will be with us until the summer at least," insisted the manager.
Pearce believes that City cannot afford to lose key players such as Musampa with the amount of depth the squad has, even though midfielder Albert Riera has been brought in from Espanyol.
"I know we have signed Riera now but I want a situation where players are vying for places in the team," he explained.
"To have just one player for each position is not good enough for a club of this size.
"The good thing about Kiki is he can play in a more central position as well, which is where he was when he got injured. He still has a future here that's for sure."
Pearce also agreed with Andy Cole's recent suggestion that Bradley Wright-Phillips would benefit from a loan spell in The Championship, but conceded that it was unlikely to materialise.
"We are aware that Bradley needs some first-team experience and in an ideal world it would be nice for him to go out on loan," he remarked.
"But the problem is he is very close to being in the first team, probably too close to consider loaning him out."
