Roberto Mancini explains row with Mario Balotelli

Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini has come out in explanation about the training ground bust-up against Mario Balotelli.

“It wasn’t bad things like in the newspapers.We were playing a game [in training] and Mario kicked his team-mate and I said to him to go inside, leave the pitch.”

“He said ‘no’, I take his shirt and push him out of pitch. That was it. That is what happened. Nothing special.”

On being asked whether he had lost his temper, he replied,“For two seconds, yes. Three, four seconds later no. He didn’t want to leave pitch. No fight.”

While the pictures appear to show Mancini as the aggressor, it is the latest in a long line of controversial incidents involving Balotelli since his £24m move to City in 2010 from Inter Milan.

Only last month the player dropped a Premier League tribunal against the club who he believed had fined him unjustly for his poor disciplinary record last season.

Mancini had refuted suggestions that the Italian would be sold on in January because of the incident but their relationship seems frayed.

Balotelli has been involved in three separate training ground incidents before, once having a bust-up with City defender Micah Richards, another one with former player Jerome Boateng and he also escaped unsanctioned after throwing a dart at a youth team player at the club.

Mancini admits the Italian international is difficult to manage and insists he must change his attitude if he is to achieve his potential.

Balotelli has had four red cards in his time at City and has only been in and out of the first-team this season.

Mancini said: “The problem could be himself. He doesn’t change, for him it will be very difficult in the future. For him, not me. Mario could stay with me one day, one month, five years. He is 22 years old. He needs to change. His problem is for himself.

“What he did yesterday he can do also during the game. This is the problem. But I have faith, yes.”