Stevan Jovetic axed from Man City's Champions League squad 
Stevan Jovetic has been axed from City's Champions League squad. And now the player is set to demand a move in the summer after being left out to make way for Wilfried Bony. The striker was said to be distraught by the news that he has been removed from the 21-man squad, which was submitted to Uefa on Tuesday.
And the £22million buy from Fiorentina is set to leave the club, despite having another three years left on his contract.
Jovetic fell foul of Manuel Pellegrini's need to trim one of his foreign stars from the squad following the arrival of Bony in a £25million deal last month.
The Blues were hit by the unusual restriction following their failure to hit their targets under Uefa's financial fair play rules, having their squad reduced from the normal 25 to 21 as part of the punishment.
The European governing body also decided that City should have the normal quota of 17 foreign players trimmed to 16 – and that restriction played a part in the decision to allow Alvaro Negredo to leave on loan for Valencia last summer.
The acquisition of Bony meant Pellegrini faced the headache all over again, and
he pondered dropping the axe on Willy Caballero, Bacary Sagna, Aleks Kolarov and Edin Dzeko before plumping for the unfortunate Jovetic. 
The Montenegro international has paid the price for his poor injury record since he joined City,
although he has already made more appearances this season than he did in the whole of his debut season, when he was beset by calf and hamstring problems
Jovetic was also City's main striker at the start of the season and, after an excellent pre-season, began well with a double to sink Liverpool 3-1, before his injury curse struck again.
He has again been hit with hamstring trouble, but says he is now fitter and stronger than at any time since joining the club.
Jovetic was also unlucky that the arrival of Bony means City now have four strikers – and are likely to play just Sergio Aguero in the last 16 clash with Barcelona later this month.
The 25-year-old remains in City's 25-man Premier League squad, which has also been re-submitted this week, to include Bony. But with Juventus heading a long list of Italian clubs keen to take the former Fiorentina man back to Serie A, Jovetic is expected to ask for a move.
The Uefa restriction on City's Champions League squad size will be lifted next season, as the Blues have trimmed their spending back to within the stipulated limits. But if they intend to bring in another foreign star – with Paul Pogba already on the shopping list –
someone will have to go from the 25-man squad, as the limit on overseas players is 17 for both Premier League and Champions League – and that quota will be full.
The alteration to City's squad was originally meant to be revealed on Wednesday, but Uefa insisted on extra time in order to “validate” City's re-submitted squad.
With embarrassed City refusing to confirm the name of the player dropped, the situation became farcical, as it became obvious that Jovetic had been given the push – but no-one was prepared to say so.
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/stevan-jovetic-axed-man-citys-8588263[ 此帖被羅力亞在2015-02-06 00:53重新編輯 ]
