• Premier League

Mancini won't curb City's fighting spirit

Roberto Mancini is relaxed about the thought of his players fighting in training © PA Photos

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Roberto Mancini has confirmed he will not halt his players' aggressive instincts in training, but has warned Manchester City's star names they will be hit in the pocket if they step over the line.

City are mounting a credible title challenge under Mancini, but negative headlines were plastered over the papers last week after Kolo Toure and Emmanuel Adebayor had to be pulled apart by team-mates.

Mancini has admitted he had training-ground spats during his playing career - one with a certain Trevor Francis - and is fine with it provided it does not boil over into a feud.

"I know that in every team sometimes these things can happen," he said. "When you stay and train every day and play a match at 100 per cent, it can happen this way.

"I had a fight on the training ground about five times in my career. One time when I was young I had a fight in training against an English player who was playing with me at Sampdoria - Trevor Francis. I don't remember the cause of it because it was about 25 years ago, but I remember the fight very well. It's important that afterwards, it was finished."

Commenting on the negative coverage of the scrap between Toure and Adebayor, Mancini said: "I'm not bothered about the headlines, no, no, absolutely not. I like players to be competitive on the training ground, but this happens at every club.

"We give a fine to the players for fighting because we mustn't do this, but it happens again. Sometimes not, sometimes it's better to.

"It's never serious because it starts and finishes in two minutes and in the dressing room everything is finished. We fine the player, the player pays and in the end any money may go to charity.

"We call it creative tensions. I understand that this can happen sometimes - not always - but it can happen sometimes. I'm not worried because it's not serious. It's for stupid things, always."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.