Manchester City manager hopes star will stay
Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini has reminded hopeful that Nigel De Jong will soon sign a new contract. The midfielder is contracted to the club until 2013, however talks to extend his £90,000 a-week deal started over a year ago.
Reports had suggested that negotiations between the Dutch star and the club broke down over the summer due to De Jong feeling “under-valued” and wished to be amongst the club’s higher earners like Carlos Tevez and Yaya Toure.
Mancini revealed that he is keen for the defensive midfielder’s future to be resolved as soon as possible.
“Nigel is continuing to talk about his contract with the club,” Mancini told the Manchester Evening News.
“I hope that we can close a deal, but I don’t know when.” Mancini added.
De Jong has missed the start of the new campaign after suffering a bruised foot in August, however the Italian boss is ready to put him into his starting line-up.
The 26-year-old did make a return to the City squad in their Champions League defeat to Bayern Munich, however has only been used to sit on the bench on three occasions for both club and country since then.
“Nigel is an important player for us,” Mancini said. “He had a big problem because he had a big injury for 40 days.
“Now he is OK, and I hope we can close this deal with Nigel – in the next week, in the next month, I don’t know – but Nigel has two years left on his contract.”
