Work us harder, City tell Keegan

The players continue to question some of their manager's decisions as they begin to understand what relegation would mean to themselves and their club. Most of them have contracts based around performance-related pay, so many of them would inevitably lose out financially if City were relegated.

With City about £55million in debt, there would be some cost- cutting if they had to prepare for the Nationwide League during the summer. This would include redundancies and the sale of top players.

Although Keegan continues to preach the benefits of strong minds and commitment, the message is beginning to be lost on players whose levels of confidence have slipped remarkably during a run that has brought them just two wins in 23 Premiership games.

Keegan said yesterday: 'We need strong minds, total commitment, players being very much together and you need one or two of them - and it doesn't matter who they are - to lift the rest because invariably you do not get 11 players playing well at the same time.'

His problem at the moment is that hardly any players are operating at the required level and, while other teams at the bottom threaten revivals, City continue to get worse with each passing home game.

The club's supporters - some of the most loyal in the country - are already fearing the worst and it has emerged that a group of fans became involved in a heated argument with captain and defender Sylvain Distin as the Frenchman-left the field on Saturday. Eventually two police officers in the tunnel had to shepherd Distin away.

Midfielder Joey Barton will hope to be given an opportunity to help the cause this week after leaving the ground before kick-off when he discovered that he was not in the team last Saturday.

Barton said: 'I thought I was playing OK earlier in the season and I certainly didn't expect to be out of the team now. I still think I am worth a place but I have to show that to the manager. I have confidence in my ability and know that I can do the job. I just hope the manager agrees.'

Whatever City's fate, one player who may not be with them next season is Shaun Wright-Phillips, who has been earmarked by Gerard Houllier to provide the width that is still missing from his Liverpool midfield.

The Liverpool manager is lining up a summer move for Wright-Phillips after becoming exasperated with El Hadji Diouf's faltering efforts to provide pace and penetration on the right flank and deciding to listen to offers for his under- performing Senegal forward.

Wright-Phillips's dazzling exploits for City have convinced Houllier that he can provide the missing ingredient.

City are understood to have placed a £10m valuation on their England Under 21 flyer, who has supplemented his eyecatching wing-play with crucial goals in recent weeks.

Liverpool would not pay that much but believe the price might come down during the summer.