Players blast Mancini over Super Mario

(22-11-2010) Several Manchester City players are said to be angry with manager Roberto Mancini for his apparent bias towards Mario Balotelli. According to a report in The Sun newspaper, the players believe the £23m summer signing from Inter Milan is treated with kid gloves by Mancini. "Balotelli gets away with murder. He's like Mancini's blue-eyed boy because he used to play for him at Inter," a City insider is quoted as saying. Several players including Emmanuel Adebayor, Joleon Lescott, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Wayne Bridge are alleged to have clashed with Mancini after City's 0-0 draw against Manchester United earlier this month after the Italian claimed some of his squad were being unprofessional and not knuckling down hard enough. They are said to have retorted that Balotelli had left the training pitch early without Mancini batting an eyelid.