'You're all rubbish' - Roberto Mancini's Yaya Toure jibe that helped Man City to first title
Manchester City won their first Premier League title 11 years ago and are now closing in on their fifth in six seasons under Pep Guardiola
Micah Richards has revealed that Roberto Mancini accused Manchester City's first Premier League title-winning squad of being a "one-man team" to motivate them mid-season.
City won their first Premier League title in 2012 with Sergio Aguero's dramatic goal on the final day of the season ensuring they pipped Manchester United to the trophy. Mancini's side won the title on goal difference.
City trailed United by eight points heading into the final month of the season after a sticky run of results in March. However, they beat United and capitalised on dropped points to edge ahead of Sir Alex Ferguson's side.
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Richards revealed that Mancini accused the City dressing room of being too reliant on Yaya Toure that year to inspire them. The Ivorian left mid-season for the Africa Cup of Nations and results took a turn.
"When we were going into the season we didn’t think we were going to win the league because Man United were obviously the favourites," Richards told Sky Sports.
"When we went to Old Trafford we had the 6-1, that gave us a little bit of an edge to say, ‘we can beat them’, even though they did have 10 men at the time - Jonny Evans got sent off.
"We had a little period in January when Yaya Toure went to the Africa Cup of Nations and Mancini called us into the dressing room and said, ‘you’re all rubbish without Yaya’, and I remember the players saying, ‘okay, he thinks that, let’s take it up a notch’.
"We did well after that. We had a sticky patch in March, I think it was. We drew some games and lost some games in that period, but then it was the Man United game. The Man United game was when [Vincent] Kompany stepped up - captain, leader, legend, 1-0, that’s when we knew. That’s when we knew it was our time.
"Man United had some tricky results, I remember the Everton 4-4 last minute sort of killed their confidence, but it was a rollercoaster of a season."
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