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maltatoday, SUNDAY, 10 AUGUST 2014 48 Sport FOOTBALL Pellegrini won't set trophy target Manchester City boss Manuel Pellegrini insists the club's stated target of winning five trophies in five years is "not important" to him CITY chief executive Ferran Sori- ano underlined the ambition from the hierarchy at the Etihad Sta- dium in May 2013 when he said about the next five seasons: "On average, I want one trophy or title a year. "That is the Champions League, the Premier League or the FA Cup." Pellegrini was announced as successor to the sacked Roberto Mancini shortly after and in the campaign that followed, City won the Premier League title and the Capital One Cup. That looks like a decent start in terms of working towards Soriano's goal, but when asked ahead of Sun- day's Community Shield clash with Arsenal about the chief executive's comments, Pellegrini said: "I don't have a target to win five titles. "Every time I play a competition, I want to win it. "But that thing that we have to win five titles in five years - for me it is not important." Pellegrini was keen to emphasise the point that his side will be doing their utmost to claim silverware at every opportunity. Asked about his priorities for the season, the Chilean said: "For this year, our target is exactly the same as last year. "We will play in the four compe- titions we must play in and we will try to continue in all competitions as far as we can. Exactly the same as last year. "We continue trying to win the Premier League, the FA Cup, the Capital One Cup and the Champi- ons League, and we will see during the season what we can do." City have so far made five new signings this summer in goalkeeper Willy Caballero, defender Bacary Sagna and midfielders Fernando, Bruno Zuculini - a deal completed late on Friday - and Frank Lamp- ard, who has joined from the club's American sister outfit New York City FC on loan until January after leaving Chelsea. Pellegrini feels he has a stronger squad than last season, but is not about to make any predictions about exactly how potent they might be. Asked if the group he has are ca- pable of winning the Champions League in 2014/15, he said: "I don't know. It is impossible for me to know the future. "The only target of our squad is the same as last year - to try to win the four competitions that we are going to play." Of the new recruits, only Cabal- lero, Fernando and Zuculini might feature in Sunday's match at Wem- bley, with City set to have eight players missing. Lampard is deemed not ready to be involved yet and the same ap- plies to Sagna, along with Sergio Aguero, Pablo Zabaleta, Martin Demichelis, Fernandinho and skip- per Vincent Kompany - a sextet who were involved in the knockout stages of the World Cup. Alvaro Negredo is the other man to miss out due to his foot injury. Meanwhile, Arsenal's trio of World Cup winners Per Mertesack- er, Mesut Ozil and Lukas Podolski are also unavailable having been given extra rest after their triumph in Brazil. Although acknowledging there will be a considerable number of high-profile absentees, Pellegrini is adamant the contest will be more than just a glorified friendly. "Of course it is not a friendly match," the 60-year-old said. "It is an important game against an important team in Arsenal. "Maybe both teams do not arrive in our best moment because both have a lot of players who are just getting back after the World Cup. "But I think it will be a very good game, it is important for both teams to try to win it, and we will try to do that." I want to win everything we enter - Manuel Pellegrini Cardiff City confirm transfer of Gary Medel to Inter Milan for £10m IT'S has been reported by the Ital- ian press that Cardiff City have faxed over the documents to Inter for Gary Medel's transfer. The Chile international defender had been in negotiations for sev- eral weeks, but there were delays in completing the move. According to La Gazzetta dello Sport, Cardiff City faxed the signed and counter-signed documents over this afternoon. In a saga that has dragged on since Medel departed the World Cup at the hands of the hosts Bra- zil, the Bluebirds have this evening confirmed the deal has been com- pleted. Midfielder Medel, who signed for the Bluebirds from Sevilla exactly a year ago was much sought after fol- lowing his performances in defence for Chile this summer. Inter led the chase for Medel all summer long while a host of other clubs from Spain to Turkey tabled bids. But last week Medel's repre- sentative Fernando Felicevich came to the UK to insist he wanted to sign for the Serie A club. There had been much toing and froing over the price of the 27- year-old as the Bluebirds were keen to make a profit on the £9m they spent on him after his impressive performances in South America. Piero Ausilio, Inter's transfer chief had played hardball with Car- diff all summer, insisting their rel- egation to the Championship had weakened their bargaining power and was keen to pay closer to £7m with payments spread over the next three seasons and had even mooted an initial loan deal. The Cardiff transfer committee, comprising of chairman Mehmet Dalman, general manager Ken Choo and manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer stuck to their guns and negotiated the £10m fee but the ex- act schedule of payments are still to be ironed out. Medel has been in Milan since the middle of this week and Inter were keen to push the deal through so that they could register El Pitbull for their Europa League clash with Icelandic outfit Stjarnan. After the draw at Blackburn, Sol- skjaer told reporters: "As long as we get the fee we want, we will be happy to let Gary go to Inter Milan." Download the MaltaToday App now Milan confirm impending arrival of Lopez from Real AC Milan have agreed to sign Span- ish goalkeeper Diego Lopez from Real Madrid, the Italian Serie A club's coach Filippo Inzaghi said on Saturday. The goalkeeper has been deemed surplus to requirements at Real Ma- drid following the signing of Key- lor Navas from Levante and is now poised to join the Rossoneri, having agreed personal terms with the Serie A side. Lopez will undergo a medical in Milan on Monday before putting pen to paper on a four-year contract and Inzaghi is looking forward to working with the 32-year-old shot- stopper. "The arrival of Diego Lopez is very important," Inzaghi told reporters. "He's an experienced goalkeeper. He is going to improve our team." Milan are also hoping to sign Adel Taarabt on a permanent basis, with the QPR-owned attacking having spent the second half of last season on loan at San Siro. However, Inzaghi refused to be drawn on whether an agreement is close, saying nothing other than: "Will Taarabt be my gift for Ferra- gosto [an Italian holiday on August 15]? Let's see." Although it appears as if the former Milan striker's squad looks set to be strengthened before the start of the Serie A season at the end of the month, Inzaghi is remaining grounded. "I'm very happy," he stated. "Milan are doing things better. I want to do well together with the team. "But only the field will tell us how well we can do. We must work hard and be ready for August 31." Milan, who finished eighth in Serie A last season, kick off their campaign against Lazio at the Giuseppe Mea- zza. Diego Lopez Gary Medel