Tevez saga over City failure to finish fourth

The 26-year-old City captain has not travelled with the team to play Juventus in the Europa League on Thursday but has been training with the rest of the squad not required in Italy.

"I haven't spoken to him yet. He is our player and I hope he continues to play for us and score for us," Mancini told a televised news conference on Wednesday.

"I will speak with him on Friday."

City have already qualified for the knockout phase of the Europa League and are third in the Premier League with Tevez instrumental in their progress this season.

"I am disappointed because we are in a good moment and in a good position in the table and our focus must be on this," Mancini said. "I want to speak to him. Carlos has three-and-a-half years left on his contract."

Tevez said at the weekend that his relationship with some of the executives at the club was "beyond repair" but reacted angrily to suggestions that he was angling for a more lucrative contract - instead suggesting that promises made to him by the club had not been honoured.

His adviser Kia Joorabchian said Tevez, who signed from Manchester United in 2009 for 26 million pounds, had become disillusioned at the club after their failure to qualify for the Champions League last season.

In August he even said he was considering retiring from the game altogether.

"There was a reason why he signed for the club. He saw the vision of the owner," Joorabchian told the Daily Telegraph newspaper.

"He decided he would sign for the club, play one year outside the Champions League and, hopefully, take this club into the next phase.

'BITTERLY DISAPPOINTED'

"When he joined City, he made a commitment that this was what he wanted to do. At the end of last season, after all the turmoil, Carlos was bitterly disappointed because they did not qualify for the Champions League.

"He felt the situation at the club was not going in the same direction as he imagined. In the summer he wanted to leave."

Joorabchian also said Tevez was unhappy with the club's transfer policy, despite splashing out huge amounts on players like James Milner and Yaya Toure.

"Through September Carlos again began to get disillusioned," Joorabchian said. "His view was that they had agreed and promises were made to him and now the transfer window was closed these issues were not being resolved."

Tevez has scored 33 goals in 50 league appearances for City and is the highest-paid player at the club and Joorabchian said he was not refusing to play for the club.

"He will play if picked and 100 percent do his best," he said. "He feels that it's important every time he puts on the shirt. He always gives 100 percent."