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MANCHESTER: Jose Mourinho has emerged as the managerial target for Manchester City's rich Arab owners, reported The Daily Mail.
Current manager Mark Hughes is believed to have until the end of the season to convince Sheikh Mansour Zayed,
who bankrolls the investment group that bought the Barclays Premier League club, that he is the man to satisfy their lofty football ambitions.
Discreet soundings have already been made in the direction of Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, but the Frenchman is not interested in switching to another BPL club.
So their new target is former Chelsea boss Mourinho, now in Italy with Inter Milan.
The charismatic Portuguese would surely find the temptation of going head-to-head with Manchester United's Alex Ferguson in the battle to become the city's managerial top dog too much to resist.
Meanwhile, City are already busy identifying targets to boost their sub-standard squad when the transfer window reopens next month.
Top of their list is unsettled Newcastle striker Michael Owen, and City are expected to bid around £6 million (S$12.7 million) for him, reported The Telegraph.
Owen has just six months left on his £120,000-a-week deal at St James' Park, and has said that he is prepared to stay only until the end of the season.
But a significant bid may be enough to tempt Newcastle to cash in now rather than risk losing him on a free transfer in the summer.
City hope to pair him with their other major January target: Blackburn's Roque Santa Cruz, who Hughes had groomed into a deadly scorer last season.
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