Nigel de Jong has continued the inquest into Manchester City’s Champions League exit by insisting the Blues are close to ruling Europe.
City crashed out of the Champions League despite racking up 10 points in Group A alongside Bayern Munich, Napoli and Villarreal.
That haul would have been enough to qualify from six of the eight groups and Dutchman de Jong believes that’s proof enough that City are ready to challenge for the Champions League trophy next season.
“We are not far off from challenging in the Champions League,” said de Jong.
“We won’t be affected by the setback. We made a few mistakes. It’s all about experience and being consistent at this level. As a group we didn’t play in the Champions League until now, so this is a good experience.
“You have to make mistakes – and we did that this season – and learn from them.
“It’s a shame we lost our place but we still have four cups to play in. We have announced ourselves on this stage.”
Neighbours United also failed to make it out of their Champions League group and will join City in the Europa League draw next week.
With City and United separated by five points at the top of the Premier League and paired together in the FA Cup third round, the Blues could potentially stop United winning anything for the first time in six years this season.
But de Jong refused to delight in the struggles of City’s Red rivals, choosing instead to focus on winning trophies, not stopping others.
“It’s a shame for Manchester because the biggest teams in the Premier League are not going to be in the Champions League but, on the other side, we have a lot to play for.
“We could be challenging United for the Premier League, FA Cup and Europa League but we have to see what the draw is.
“You can see there’s a reverse league now. The Europa League is a little bit like the Champions League with all the big teams in there, United, Porto, Olympiakos and Ajax. We are not despairing about the season because it’s still early.
“Winning the Premier League would make up for going out of the Champions League. That was our main target this season.
“We didn’t go through but we can’t let that distract us from our main target and that’s winning the Premier League.”
After Wednesday’s European disappointment, City will re-start their title challenge with a trip to Chelsea on Monday. And while de Jong concedes there’s still a long way to go before City can be crowed champions, he insists victory at Stamford Bridge would represent an important step.
“You always have to prove yourself against the strongest and what is better than a Chelsea in form?” said the Dutchman.
“You have to beat them to become Premier League winners. They are still title contenders and still up there. We are still in December and the next few months are going to be very hard. Then you can see who are fighting for the prizes.”
What do you think? Have your say.
Nigel de Jong: Manchester City can be future kings of Europe
December 10, 2011
Comments
Login or Register to comment
Long way to go. Two point lead tonight. Easily eroded. Can't count any chickens but its looking good.
'City crashed out of the Champions League' whereas 'Neighbours United also failed to make it out of their Champions League group'. Quite a difference in emphasis from Manchester's local newspaper, is it not?
Too much hype coming out of City, we can be the best in the world, etc, we
could be out of everything by March, we need to cool it and walk the walk quietly.
And cue the rags...
Not even on a PS3 or Xbox will you lot, be kings of europe !!!!!
watch out city here comes the reds knocking at the door TICK TICK TICK
Lets do it first them talk about it. Long way to go yet and this seasons Champions League experience should go down as a very expensive learning exercise.
I am more concerned about Nigel de Jongs form this season. Maybe its uncertainty over his contract but he is not the same player this season as in previous seasons. I would like Nigel to focus on that.
Let's do our talking on the pitch. Looking for a big 2nd half of the season from NDJ.
One game at a time, so far so good, it will be great if we beat Chelsea. It's so fantastic now, every game is huge now, I think about late 60's & the 70's Wembly in '99 having been down two divisions.
NOW WE'RE FIGHTING FOR FOUR TROPHIES !!!
CTID !!
Manchester out of Europe on Wednesday; Britain out on Thursday. What Manchester does one day the world does the next.
Personally I like the players to do the talking on the pitch. Its not our style at City to get too far ahead of ourselves. Nigel can make a start though by having a blinder on Monday.
Nowhere does he say we're going to rule Europe - he simply states that we will challenge again in the future. Nothing arrogant about that - the headline misrepresents the facts.