what happened to stevan jovetic?

We'll start with the 'news' that Saint-Etienne vice-president Dominique Rocheteau has rubbished talks of defender Kurt Zouma joining City or Chelsea in January.

Chris Davie of Goal.com reports: "The French club claim the defender has attracted interest from several top sides but are adamant they have not received any offers for the 19-year-old, who is valued at £16.5m.

"Goal reported in November that City had conducted initial talks over a move for the 19-year-old, while the player’s agent has revealed the central defender would be keen on a switch to Chelsea.

“We talk about him now because he has talent,” Rocheteau told beIN Sport.

“It's true, many clubs are watching, it was the case last season, many foreign clubs came to see [him]. But today, there's no [chance] he leaves in the winter transfer window.

“He will remain with us until the end of the season.”

Elsewhere, Sports Direct News are claiming that Gareth Barry may join Italian side Napoli, when his loan deal with Everton expires at the end of the season.

Gareth Barry

According to Richard Flynn: "The Serie A side’s manager, Rafael Benitez, is a huge fan of the England international and tried to sign him for Liverpool during his Anfield tenure.

"The Spaniard missed out on his signature, with Barry instead leaving Aston Villa for City in 2009.

"He has been one of Everton’s most consistent performers this term following a summer loan switch hastened by the knowledge that he was not part of Blues boss Manuel Pellegrini’s plans at the Etihad Stadium.

"His contract will not be renewed and he looks set to be a free agent in the summer, but Barry is permitted to speak to foreign clubs now with a view to penning a pre-contract ahead of a summer move.

"Benitez’s club spies continue to monitor the player’s progress and an offer is in the pipeline. However, Napoli face stiff competition from Turkish giants Galatasaray, whose boss Roberto Mancini rates Barry highly from their time at City.

"The midfield man was an integral part of the Italian’s side during his spell in charge of the club."

Also in the headlines, Ed Malyon of the Mirror suggests that City and Liverpool have been offered the services of Ajax winger Ricardo Kishna.

Writes Malyon: "The 19-year-old is in the middle of contract negotiations with the Amsterdam club as he looks to extend a deal that runs out at the end of the season.

"But the talented wideman would be available for a minimal compensation package if signed by a Premier League club, and with only a few months remaining on his deal there is no barrier to talks with the likes of the Blues or the Anfield giants."

And finally, Manuel Pellegrini has dismissed reports that City are the favourites to sign Southampton's Luke Shaw - that's according to the Mirror's Alex Richards.

Manuel Pellegrini believes that his side were unfortunate not to register at least a point against Chelsea.

Pellegrini’s side went down to the Chilean’s first home Premier League defeat but the City boss believes that an injury list including Fernandinho, Samir Nasri, Javi Garcia and Sergio Aguero contributed heavily to the narrow loss.

“Well I think that of course Fernandinho is an important player for us,” the 60-year old reflected.

“Not only him, you have to add Aguero, Nasri and Javi Garcia – Milner was not 100% so he couldn’t start, Alvaro Negredo wasn’t 100% either.

“That’s too much of an advantage for an important team like Chelsea.

“We lost today against a good team who played well and I thought we deserved at least a draw but they had the luck to win it.

“They scored a beautiful goal, not an easy goal, he hit it from a long way out with the outside of his foot but before their goal we had clear chances to score, so I don’t there was a problem with the way we played.”

Arabic

Pellegrini defended his selection of Martin Demichelis in central midfield under questioning from the assembled journalists in the post-match press conference.

The City boss believes that the Argentine played well but hinted that he had no chance but to field him there – due to the condition of the rest of his squad.

“Jack Rodwell is coming back from injury, Milner’s just worked with us properly for the last day. I think that the only option I had was Demichelis in that position,” Pellegrini explained.



“Fernandinho has a muscle injury, we’ll see tomorrow how long he’ll be out for. I think it’ll be a matter of three or four weeks.

“This game was not a problem of the midfielders. I didn’t make the other two substitutions because I didn’t think we could change the game by doing that.

“For Chelsea it was an essential game. It was important because we could have been six points ahead but we’re just two points behind Arsenal in second.”