By NEIL CUSTIS
The Manchester City chief was irritated to hear the Special One say he would have been sacked had he performed as badly in Europe with Real Madrid this season.
Mancini stormed back: “Mourinho is not my chairman. He’s not my owner. What Mourinho said, isn’t interesting. He wants to talk about everything.”
The Italian was replaced by the Portuguese coach at Inter Milan in 2008. And he ignored Mourinho and the traditional handshake between managers at the end of Wednesday night’s game at the Etihad when Manchester City drew with Real Madrid.
That result confirmed Madrid’s passage to the next round while Mancini was out at the group stage of the Champions League for a second year in a row.
But the City boss insists that, without the experience of Real in club football’s biggest tournament, it is impossible to expect instant success.
He believes the club is on the right lines having just reacquainted itself with trophies following a barren 35 years.
Mancini said: “We are Manchester City, not Real Madrid or Manchester United or Bayern Munich, who are used to winning every season for 100 years and have big history.
“We’re Manchester City and for 35 years we didn’t win but in two years we’ve won three trophies.
“That is good for us, we want to win every year but in football it’s not possible.
Only one team can win the Premier League, only one team can win the Champions League.
“We need to be patient for the Champions League.”
While the focus has been on Mancini’s failings in Europe, it is easy to forget that his team are champions and go into this weekend top of the Premier League.
They are also on an unbeaten league run of 18 games stretching back to last season and unbeaten at home in nearly two years.
Tomorrow Mancini faces Chelsea aiming to put a seven-point gap between the pair — although City could be briefly toppled off the top this afternoon if Manchester United win at home to QPR.
It is a Chelsea side now managed by Rafa Benitez.
Mancini said: “I’m sorry for Roberto Di Matteo as he only won the Champions League seven months ago. But they’re one of the best teams so it’ll be tough.”
