In between the pop and the daily traffic bulletins, Manchester-based Rocky quickly tuned into the intense loyalty of Blues supporters on the Lancashire airwaves and when his name started to crop up it was music to his ears.
Paraguay’s World Cup talisman said: “I am very excited to join this club. I know how passionate and excited the fans are. I heard on the radio when the fans were ringing up talking about the possibility of me coming here.
“It was 40 or 50 minutes to Blackburn, so I always used to listen to the radio, to improve my English. It was very helpful to listen to football chat, and interesting to hear what they said about the fact I might join City.”
Santa enjoys a shorter morning commute now to Carrington after linking up once more with Blues manager Mark Hughes, and it’s the air at City’s training complex that crackles with optimism for the coming season.
He enjoyed success with Bayern Munich, winning the Bundesliga and a domestic double, and said: “My biggest ambition is to win trophies. I am sure we can do it here. We have a big chance if we focus on winning one of the cups.
“It will be very hard to win the Premier League this season, but I would love to do it in the near future. It is my dream to win titles and get back into the Champions League.
“It will be sweeter to win titles here than at Bayern. There, it was an obligation. We did it five times. To win one here would be like ten times greater than there. But we will need the mentality of a big club.
“We need to start by getting results. Once we get them, we get confidence. You can tell players from a big team by the way that they walk and act. Everybody needs to act like winners, because that is what we want to be.
“The only way to get there is by hard work and by doing the right things at the right time. There is no place for any mistakes. We want to create a big team here. And if we keep doing the right things, we will be one.”
