Mancini churlish to turn on Mario

Roberto Mancini spent most of last week in a foul mood and Mario Balotelli took the brunt of it.

Mancini bawled him out in training during the week, announced that “nobody can trust Mario’’, claimed he wanted to substitute him after five minutes of the Sunderland match, and later said that if Sergio Aguero had been playing instead of Balotelli, City would certainly have won.

This is all rather reminiscent of Jose Mourinho’s attitude to Balotelli when he was washing his hands of him at Inter.

The difference is that Mourinho inherited Balotelli in the squad he took over, while Mancini signed him for £25 million, having worked with him at Inter.

Mancini knew exactly what Balotelli was like and it seems a bit churlish to turn on him simply for being Balotelli.