Manager uses psychological tricks, from 11pm texts to surprise tactics in training, to keep his players on their toes
The text messages tend to drop at 11pm and only when they receive them will Roberto Mancini's players know what the landscape of the following day looks like. They reveal whether training sessions at Manchester City will start at 10.30am, as late as 4.30pm outside of the winter months, or some time in between: there is no set routine. The short notice appears to be Mancini's way of preventing his players from drifting off into a fog of complacency, or in Mario Balotelli's case drifting off down Deansgate, insulated by the thought that training remains the best part of 16 hours off.
Such are the methods that have helped Mancini make City the Premier League's Christmas No 1 for the first time since 1929 – and the pressure does not ease off when the players actually reach the training pitches of Carrington. If you think that David Silva & Co fancy their chances against their own club's centre-backs in training, then consider the current restrictions they are being put under. Players are restricted to two touches, perhaps three, in practice games. "It's hard... now the pitches are a bit more slippery," Joleon Lescott revealed yesterday. "The manager does well to restrict [the touches]. It keeps us on our toes."
It's the way things have been at Mancini's City from the start. He is the manager who has had the training ground hill built at Carrington and who has had no time for the players who can't deal with the rigours of his regime. There was a smile on his face late on Wednesday night when, reflecting on Micah Richards limping off the pitch during the demolition of Stoke, he called him crystalli and tapped his glass. The inference was that the defender struggles to shrug off aches and pains during games because of his fragile and delicate nature. Mild impatience was just below the surfac e.
Mancini briefly curbed that impatience when he arrived at City two years ago. The biggest problem the new City manager faced in the first six months, which privately he now admits were hard, was the fierce loyalty of some to his predecessor, Mark Hughes, and for a time he watched and waited. "He came here in mid-season after the regime of Mark Hughes and didn't change a lot," said Lescott, one of the few Hughes signings to have survived. It was at the start of the 2009-10 season that he demonstrated the steel which is now familiar. "When we came back for pre-season the next summer [things happened]," Lescott said.
Where Hughes' preference was for quick, high-tempo games in training, Mancini pushed ahead for shadow-play sessions and tactics boards, in the teeth of opposition from some of the old guard. "I understand that maybe they are not happy working on tactics but this is my method," he said early in that period. "I work because if you want to win the Champions League and Premier League you must be prepared very well for every situation: tactics, power, running. I don't know if they don't like that but if these things are not good, it is impossible to win." He was also clinically clear in his mind who was in and who was out. There was preferential treatment for Carlos Tevez, who was granted extended holidays in Argentina and, later, the captaincy. But those whom he did not value found him just as brutal as Rafael Benitez always was when casting players aside at Anfield. "If you are not in Robi's team you might as well be dead," said one who knows his methods well.
Those methods certainly take him a long way from Malcolm Allison. City's earlier dashing managerial legend had an equal love of fine food – for Mancini, it is the San Carlo franchise inside Kendal's department store; for Allison, it was the little French restaurant at the Rusholme end of Platt Lane – but the similarities stop there. While Allison's great talent was to inculcate a sense of belief in his men that made them stand 10ft tall – from the left-half Alan Oakes, who would sweat profusely before games, to Colin Bell, the man he christened "Nijinsky" and convinced he did have the racehorse's qualities of endurance – Mancini leaves his players on the edge. It is the survival of the fittest.
The two men bear comparison in their desire to try new methods to get the best results on the training ground. Allison went in for tactics boards and would return to Platt Lane from the statistician he had found at Salford University, armed with evidence of who had run hardest the previous Saturday. Mancini is also scientific about his substitutions. He has no compunction about removing those he believes have failed him, with the 60-minute substitution very common. He is also unflinching about making negative points about his players in public: Adam Johnson has borne the brunt, though Samir Nasri, Micah Richards, Carlos Tevez, Craig Bellamy, Robinho and – this week – Wayne Bridge, have not been immune.
In the main, the squad's management is not quite so blunt as it seems. The psychologists working at City, for instance, focus on the subtleties of how to help players put mistakes behind them in games and move on in the match environment. Mancini's assistant, David Platt, is also a foil to the Italian: the one who encourages the players not in the first team and works hard on the fine detail of loan deals to help develop younger players. Platt often attends to the detail of strategy meetings with the City board while it is Mancini who takes care of the all-important phone calls to Abu Dhabi. Chairman Khaldoon al-Mubarak likes to be called after games for a debriefing and Mancini complies. Hughes had Khaldoon's mobile number but never used it.
For some players, there has been no way back with Mancini. Robinho, a player Mancini believes is made for Europe's sunnier climates, was quickly dispensed with and so, too, Bellamy, though there is understood to have been a personal reconciliation between the two. But Gareth Barry and James Milner have been survivors, emerging from fallow periods as better players this season.
There have been some mighty personalities to deal with across two years but Mancini has drawn on his own huge self-esteem to tackle them without flinching. On the Italian television show Le lene, where guests are asked to describe themselves with one word, Mancini chose "Genius" when his moment arrived. His players will tell you that reply was not tongue in cheek and the Premier League table suggests his answer may have been right.
Yaya and Kolo to leave City for Africa after United cup clash, admits Mancini
Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini has virtually accepted defeat in his bid to keep the Toure brothers in England beyond the FA Cup third-round tie with Manchester United on January 8.
City midfielder Yaya Toure was named the 2011 African Footballer of the Year and has become a key member of Mancini's Barclays Premier League table-toppers.
Mancini has often spoken of his concern at how his side would cope without Kolo and, in particular, Yaya, who are required for the Ivory Coast's African Nations Cup campaign.
Initially, the City chief expressed the hope that their departure could be delayed until after the Premier League encounter with Wigan at the DW Stadium on January 16.
That now appears unlikely, with the pair now also set to miss the Carling Cup semi-final first-leg against Liverpool on January 11.
'It is difficult but I think they will leave us after United,' said Mancini. 'We have talked with their manager three days ago and will talk again with the Ivory Coast president.
'We will try but it is difficult.'
Instead, there is the potential for bringing in additional reinforcements. Cash is available for transfers but with UEFA's Financial Fair Play demands to be met, Mancini knows he will have to sell before he can buy.
'We should sell some of our players before we do anything,' he said. 'After that maybe we can do something but at the moment there is nothing.'
Manchester City officials meet with AC Milan to discuss Carlos Tevez
Manchester City officials met their AC Milan counterparts yesterday in a bid to establish some common ground over the transfer of Carlos Tevez.
The Serie A giants are keen for Tevez to join them but want that initial deal to be a loan, with a commitment to buy at the end of the season.
However, City have made it clear they are not interested and would only be willing to do business over a straight transfer.
Acting City chief executive John MacBeath led the City delegation and was accompanied by football administration officer Brian Marwood at the talks, which took place in London.
City offered no guidance as to how the discussions had gone but it is believed the respective positions remain the same.
Tevez is currently at home in Argentina and has been pictured playing golf on a number of occasions.
He has not played for the Manchester club since falling out with Roberto Mancini over his non-appearance in the Champions League defeat to Bayern Munich in September.
Tevez was subsequently fined for his conduct but then left Manchester and has not been back.
Although it would seem to be in everyone’s best interests for Tevez to move on, Mancini outlined on Tuesday why City were refusing to countenance a loan deal.
“When Manchester City buy a player, they have to pay a lot of money,” said Mancini.
“But when we want to sell them, they have to go on loan. This is not good. It is not correct for the other players.
“Manchester City paid Carlos Tevez a lot of money for three years
We'll score when we want... and rampant Man City look as though they really can
A chorus of 'we'll score when we want' has become commonplace at Manchester City this season, and Roberto Mancini's players believe they now have the firepower to open up any team in the Barclays Premier League.
City lead English football's top division at Christmas for the first time in 89 years, and they have done so by becoming the quickest team to rack up 50 goals in nearly half a century.
Mancini's side have scored three or more in 12 of their 17 games this season. With £140million-worth of attacking talent in Sergio Aguero, David Silva, Mario Balotelli, Samir Nasri and Edin Dzeko, plus plenty more in support, they have evolved into a team almost unrecognisable from the one labelled negative at times last season.
It took a while to break down stubborn Stoke in Wednesday's 3-0 win at the Eithad Stadium, but at times it really does look as though City can score when they want.
'We have the balance now,' said defender Joleon Lescott. 'Last season we were hard to break down but not scoring as many free-flowing goals.
'This year it has been the opposite. We have been scoring goals at will, but still have the strength and belief to keep clean sheets.
'On any given day we can punish teams, as we did with Stoke.
'The manager came here in mid-season after the regime of Mark Hughes and didn't change a lot. But when we came back for pre-season the next summer, he put his own stamp on things.
'He changed us as a whole. Last season we got a lot of uncalled-for negative publicity because the goals weren't flowing freely. But this year we have the belief and the confidence to score more goals.
'I think we did need to change, and it's working. We're scoring a lot of goals and winning games and have an air of confidence about us.
'But that is controlled – you don't want it to be too arrogant. The main thing is to keep going, keep progressing, and keep our feet on the ground.
'We never think we are unbeatable at home. But we just take it as a compliment that a team like Stoke has to come here and adapt their game to combat us.'
Lescott admits that facing such an array of attacking talent at City's Carrington training base every day can be a nightmare for the defenders.
'It's hard to face them in training, especially now the pitches are a bit more slippery,' he added.
'The manager does well to restrict it to two-touch and three-touch to keep us on our toes!
'We hadn't been getting many clean sheets before winning against Arsenal on Sunday so we've been doing some extra defensive work, and it has paid off.
'We needed to continue that consistency, and keeping another clean sheet against Stoke was massive for us.'
Lescott believes that losing their undefeated record at Chelsea earlier this month has only made City harder to beat. Mancini's side have gone a whole year unbeaten at home in 2011, winning 27 games and drawing the other two in all competitions.
'The Chelsea defeat was never going to damage our confidence,' said Lescott. 'It hurt us a bit, being our first loss, but it also woke us up a bit.
'We had a similar kind of performance in the Community Shield against United, and that woke us up. Now hopefully the defeat at Chelsea will do the same.'
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