According to a report in The Sunday Express, Roberto Mancini is keen to become manager at Manchester City, should the Abu Dahbi Group, who own the club, decide to part company with Mark Hughes.

The tabloid states that Italian agents are pushing the claims of the 44-year-old former Sampdoria legend, who won three Serie A titles as coach of Inter.

But City’s middle-Eastern owners are set to give Hughes until Christmas to impress them sufficiently to keep his job.

The Welshman’s position has been the subject of intense scrutiny and speculation all season, as City’s recently new-found wealth has turned the global media spotlight onto them, with the signing of Robinho and the high-profile failure to sign Kaka from AC Milan heightening the glare of that scrutiny still further.

The owners will reportedly back Hughes in the summer transfer market, but he will have only until Christmas to prove that he has improved the side, otherwise he will face the sack.

Whether Mancini would be top of a list of potential appointees for the City board remains to be seen, as he has little experience of the Premier League and doesn’t speak English. His coaching credentials are highly-rated, though, and he has proved that he can manage the kind of big name players whom City wish to attract to the blue half of Manchester.

Mancini is also known to be fond of what he sees as the more lighthearted nature of football in England, compared with the pressure-cooker existence he grew so tired of in his homeland.

That said, The Sunday Express report comes with absolutely no evidence of fact whatsoever.