By NEIL CUSTIS
ROBERTO MANCINI threw Mario Balotelli out of his squad because his attitude in training stinks.
The hard-line Manchester City boss did not even want the Italian striker at the team hotel in the build-up to last Sunday’s win over Spurs.
Now Mancini insists that he needs to see an improvement if Balotelli wants to pull on a Manchester City shirt again.
Mancini said: “I told him after training on the Saturday that he was not in the squad.
“I took this decision because he didn’t work well for three days and I don’t like this.
“It is his attitude in training I’m talking about.
“He needs to work harder. If a player does not work well then he does not deserve to play.
“What you do in training, you will then do on the pitch.
“So every player needs to work hard in training and improve his performance.”
Balotelli went out partying until the early hours of Sunday morning after being dropped from the squad.
It raised eyebrows once again at City about the player’s attitude.
If they can get the £22million they paid Inter, Balotelli will be gone in the January.
This week he has been away on international duty and it is unlikely that he will be involved in the squad again today for the home game against Aston Villa.
Not that City fans should worry, given that they saw their side produce their best half of football this season last Sunday.
Their second-half performance in coming back to beat Tottenham with Edin Dzeko’s late winner had the mark of champions again.
It will have cheered up Mancini after his Champions League woes and he was in jovial mood yesterday, coming to the Press conference in a David Platt mask.
He was poking fun back at the media who had questioned why he had sent his assistant in for the conferences before and after last weekend’s game.
But he was deadly serious when the subject of his goalkeeper Joe Hart came up.
Hart has come in for a bit of stick recently, not least for his part in Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s midweeek wonder goal.
Mancini said: “I trust Joe 100 per cent. For me Joe is the best keeper in England.
“Two years ago when he was young a lot of people wanted Shay Given as the goalkeeper but I decided to choose Joe. I thought he could become one of the top keepers in the world.
“But Joe is young and he needs to work very hard because only like this can you keep your performance high.
“For me he is the first choice but if he does not play well I can change, I don’t have any problem.
“But I trust totally in Joe.”
Despite criticism of their recent form, City are unbeaten in the Premier League and can go top — leaders Manchester United play Norwich at 5.30pm — with victory this afternoon. City then host Real Madrid on Wednesday in the latest round of their seemingly doomed Champions League campaign.
Mancini said: “What is important is the game against Villa — we need to win it.
“We will need to have a good attitude because it will be a tough game. After that we think about Real Madrid.”
Dzeko could be handed a start after netting his seventh goal of the season — his sixth as a sub — against Spurs.
Mancini added: “I hope Edin can score also when he starts a game because he has everything to do this.”
