The Man City Thread*******

Roberto Mancini claims that when Sergio Aguero miraculously won the Premier League title, he got an assist from the Virgin Mary!

The City boss has revealed how he feels a pilgrimage he took to a holy shrine in Bosnia-Herzegovina at the height of the title run-in may have turned the tide back in the Blues’ favour.

And his belief is backed up by a strange set of circumstances which followed from his trip to the town of Medjugorje in March, just as United had seized the initiative at the top of the table.

City had started to wobble in the race and lost top spot just as Mancini, along with wife Federica and daughter Camilla, took a two-day break and flew to the Balkans.

At the time of his visit, devout Catholic Mancini denied that he was seeking divine help for the Blues, saying: “I think The Lord and Our Lady have more important things to worry about than, say, my career.”

But one purpose for the visit was to seek mental and spiritual renewal, and that worked, said Mancini at the time: “Millions of people come here, and I will come again. I believe more and more that Medjugorje will change the world for the better. When a man comes here, he returns different, better.”

During his brief visit, Mancini visited Vicka Ivankovic-Mijatovic, one of six people in the town who claimed to have begun having visitations from the Virgin Mary in 1981.

He revealed that he had a vivid dream about meeting Vicka ahead of his trip, saying: “I was in a room with some people, and the visionary Vicka was with me.

“At a certain point she smiled at me, looking straight into my eyes, so that I tried to see if she was looking at someone else. But, suddenly, she moved towards me so that, at that point, I had no doubts anymore.

“She came towards me, she got near, once again she was looking straight into my eyes. Then she kissed me on my forehead. I explicitly felt the sensation of a physical contact with someone I had never met in my life before.”

Vicka prayed over Mancini, who was an altar boy as a child in Italy, when he went to her home as part of the visit.

While Mancini returned refreshed from his pilgrimage, his team’s fortunes continued to slump. The title slipped further away from City in the next fortnight, and by Easter Sunday they were eight points behind with six games to play.

Then came the turning point. After giving themselves some hope by beating West Brom on the same night as United lost at Wigan, the Blues then received a huge boost when the Reds lost a 4-2 lead against Everton at Old Trafford.

Two of the Everton goals that day were scored by Nikica Jelavic – who was born just five miles from Medjugorje, in the Croatian town of Caplijna.

The story, relayed in a new book by Italian author Paolo Brosio, goes that Mancini bumped into Jelavic in a restaurant two days before Everton’s game at Old Trafford.

He left him with the salutation: “Take care, you have to score goals.”

Jelavic duly delivered, opening the scoring at United and then grabbing the vital third before Marouane Fellaini’s scored a dramatic late equaliser which put the title back in City’s own hands again.

The Blues continued to win, including the derby victory at the Etihad Stadium, and set up that incredible final day of the season, May 13.

Mancini claims that day was also significant, as it is the Feast Day of Our Lady of Fatima, which celebrates one of the more famous alleged visitations by the Virgin Mary, to three children in Portugal.

City appeared to be out of it until substitute Edin Dzeko – headed in an equaliser, before Aguero grabbed that remarkable late winner to snatch the trophy from the grasp of the Reds.

Mancini says in the bookhe has pondered whether the Virgin Mary may have answered his prayers many times, and he feels City may have got divine help.

Asked whether heaven had intervened, Mancini replied: “I thought and still think so.  When I think about it, I wonder how it was possible, because I think that in Heaven they have other problems to solve.

“However, when I pray, I understand that something impossible became possible on that day – May 13, the Feast Day of Fatima, the anniversary of the apparitions in Portugal.”

City have been linked with a dramatic £40m move for Luis Suarez in the January transfer window.

Blues boss Mancini is keen to bolster his squad and is thought to be mulling over a bid for the Liverpool and Uruguayan striker.

The Italian is also tracking Atletico Madrid star Radamel Falcao who has  a £48m release clause in his contract.

But the Colombian superstar is understood to prefer a potential move to Chelsea.

As a result, Mancini may be tempted to switch his sights to Suarez, though whether Liverpool would be open to a deal is highly debatable.

Suarez only signed a new fourcontract in August but City could easily improve on his £120,000 a week salary.