"I don't have any comments about that," said Sven. "If that's his opinion - that's okay.
"I don't feel disturbed about it at all - I have seen worse in my football life.
"So we just go on trying to beat Portsmouth and work as well as possible on the training ground and then play as well as we can on Sunday. Then comes Fulham and so on."
Sven has maintained hope of reaching Europe throughout our recent slump, and after our surprise win a Sunderland last week, perhaps he has a point.
Fifth-placed Everton lost at home to Chelsea on Thursday and we face sixth-placed Portsmouth on Sunday, so victory would take us 2 points behind Pompey and within 6 points of Everton in the UEFA Cup spot.
"There are 4 games to be played and I'm rather confident that we will do well and we still have a chance to reach Europe," Sven added.
"When we started the season well, the dream of playing in Europe was planted in the heads of the players and myself, so we are still fighting for that and hope we can do it.
"I know Dr Thaksin said a top-10 finish is the goal and I know we can do it and am confident we will do it."
Micah Richards has not quite recovered yet from knee surgery so Vedran Corluka will continue in the centre of the City defence against Portsmouth.
Striker Valeri Bojinov continued his recovery from a lenghty injury lay-off with a second run-out in the reserves in midweek, but he is not quite ready to return either.