Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini has said that Spanish clubs Real Madrid and Barcelona are the benchmarks that Manchester City will try to achieve in the next few years.

Roberto Mancini guided Manchester City to their first league title ever this season after a dramatic 3-2 win over QPR on the final day of the season. The club could have so lost the title on the last day of the season after having trailed the match up until the 90th minute. However, Sergio Aguero and Edin Dzeko scored in the final few minutes of the match to turn the fortunes of the club.

Despite winning the Premier league title, Roberto Mancini indicated that the club will not be restraining from spending a lot of money in the summer. Mancini has spent close to £ 500 million in the last few years since joining City to replace Mark Hughes. However, the Italian has said that Real Madrid and Barcelona are able to sustain their dominance both domestically and in Europe due to their level of spending. In the last two seasons alone, both Real Madrid and Barcelona have spent more than £ 100 million each to bring in players like Fabio Coentrao and Cesc Fabregas respectively.

“Barcelona and Real Madrid every year buy two or three players and spend a lot of money. I think for Manchester City it will be the same. We need to improve. We need to have the strength to play Champions League and Premier League. For this we need to have a good team, a strong team with a good mentality, but I’m sure we will do it,” said Mancini after getting his team to the title. Mancini also said that there was no doubt that his team were the deserved winners of the title.