But as he prepared with the Republic of Ireland squad to face Argentina in this week’s friendly he did tell a press conference that he feels he needs to have first team football.
“I am at a stage where I need to be playing, I am 34-years-old and I have not got millions of years left to play,” he declared.
“I hope to be playing Saturday (against Spurs) but whatever decisions the manager makes I will respect that.
“I hope it is going to me but if it is not we will see what happens.
“Ideally I would like to stay at City it is a big club to be at; it is a very ambitious club with fantastic owners. I want to be part of that. That is why I joined in the first place.
“Joe’s a top keeper as well so it’s inevitable that there will be speculation about who will start on Saturday, that’s part and parcel of being at a big club because there are so many great players there. It’s not just my position, there are 10 other positions where people aren’t sure who is going to play.”
Boss Roberto Mancini has already said that he wants both keepers to stay and fight for a place.
“In this moment we have two good keepers and one will play and one will stay on the bench,” he said after the win over Valencia.
“We play many games, a lot of games in one year – three games every week – so we could play both goalkeepers.”
