The early signs are unconvincing. The season has yet to begin and already the Manchester City boss is under more pressure than a? Libyan air traffic controller and betraying more signs of strain than James Corden's cummerbund
Pressure cooker: City's boss must winthe title or his time is up
The 'trouble' - if we can actually use that term to describe his predicament - is Mancini really is the man who has too much.
He has too much money, too much baggage in his first-team squad, too much dissent in the ranks, too much interference from above and too muchexpectation to deal with.
Last year, finishing in the top four wasall that was required of him. It did not matter how he got there; the end justified the means and I applauded as City made their? way into the Champions League, collecting the FA Cup along the way.
But everything is different now and Mancini knows it. That is why he has spent the summer demanding more boardroom power and overreacting like a jittery supply teacher when one of his classroom clowns shows off in public.
? ???Loading tweets...Obviously, there are few managers in world football who would not wish to be burdened with such an embarrassment of riches, but at the moment Mancini seems unsure whether to laugh or cry at his good fortune.
The extent of Mancini's insecurity was there for all to see when Mario Balotelli hilariously? mistimed his attempt to backheel the ball into the net in a pre- season match against LA Galaxy.
The cocky youngster sought to have a Hollywood moment in? Hollywood itself and got a metaphorical custard pie in the face for his arrogance. It was daft, but it was hardly a hanging offence.
His Italian manager disagreed, however, erupting like Mount Etna, waving his arms in fury, chasing along the touchline and generally making an almighty scene as he demanded Balotelli's immediate substitution.
Since then, pretty much everyone has been putting the boot into the player, which is not something I've been averse to myself in the past.
There is no doubt Balotelli can be an idiot. As Jose Mourinho once said: 'He has one brain cell'.
But I have saved my opprobrium for when he has thrown darts at youth players, fought team-mates, driven into a women's prison for a joke and generally behaved like a delinquent.
For a manager to throw a hissy fit because a player has tried something unorthodox in nothing more than a pre-season friendly suggests he is horribly anxious about his authority in the dressing room, or he has an incurable suspicion of flamboyance. Or both.
Sweet 16: New signing Sergio Aguero
When the Premier League season gets under way, Sir Alex Ferguson will look down on the rest from his Old Trafford throne, Kenny Dalglish can rely on the adoration of the Anfield public, Andre Villas-Boas will be able to bank on a honeymoon period at Chelsea. But Mancini?
Think back a few months when City were on course for the European elite, five points ahead of Tottenham and closing on a fading Arsenal. The bookmakers still rated Mancini as the second most-likely boss to be sacked, behind that personification of the phrase 'dead man walking', Avram Grant.
Those suspicions linger even after he ended City's 35-year trophy drought. With Carlos Tevez, Emmanuel Adebayor, Roque Santa Cruz and Craig Bellamy all circling the nest and spreading unhappiness.?
With Nigel de Jong, Vincent Kompany and Micah Richards murmuring their discontent at being 'undervalued' at ?80,000 a week. And with Balotelli acting as if there should be a psychiatrist's couch by the dug-out, Mancini faces numerous challenges to his command.
Title-winning teams tend to have unity of team spirit and purpose. Does Mancini have that yet? I'm not sure. Remember, new huge money signings such as Sergio Aguero also have to bed in.
Maybe it will all click. Maybe the problems will disappear. We will have our first glimpse next Sunday when United and City face one another at Wembley in the season's curtain raiser.
Last year, when Mancini was under fire, I said that, given another two seasons to establish himself, he would win the title. I still believe that to be true; I just don't think he'll be given that long. It's the title this season or the door.
Pantomime Diouf
A quick football pantomime scene. All I require from you is the appropriate audience reaction.
El Hadji Diouf has been banned from football for five years!
'Hooray!'
But the ban only applies to the Senegal national team.
'Boo!'
Berbatov in the doldrums
Dimitar Berbatov defiantly reaffirmed his footballing principles, even though his Old Trafford career is in the doldrums.?
The Manchester United striker, not even considered worthy of a place onthe bench in the Champions League final against Barcelona, said: 'Thereis a saying in Bulgaria that great quality doesn't require much effort.I always play like this. You are not going to see me puffing around thepitch.'
No, I imagine we're not going to see you on the pitch very much at all Mr Berbatov, if that's your response to being dropped.
Rory's rant really does make you root for him
There are many reasons to love Rory McIlroy.
He is winning, he's Irish, he plays with verve, he is undoubtedly the game's burgeoning talent - and, on top of that, possesses a laudable ability to slap his American critics around the chops without hesitation.
US commentator Jay Townsend, a chap who has so far worked on Radio 5 Live and the Golf Channel without being noticed, announced on Twitter that McIlroy was guilty at the Irish Open of 'shocking course management', going on to describe his round as the 'worst I have seen beyond under 10's boys competition'.
He even added McIlroy should not only sack his caddie but 'hire Steve Williams' - Tiger Woods's bag carrier - which was an insult to a top professional. Having heard this, McIlroy set about Townsend.
'Shut up,' he said. 'You're a commentator and a failed golfer, your opinion means nothing!
'I stand by my caddie,' McIlroy continued, defending his friend JP Fitzgerald, as one might expect.
Inevitably, some numpty American presenter called Erik Kuselias weighed in, saying: 'McIlroy comes across as a spoiled brat and it doesn't make you want to root for him.' Actually, it does, Erik. It really does.?
And if US commentators are concerned about 'spoiled brats' in golf, they might be better served directing their attention to the likes of 'Bubba' Watson. This philistine turned up at a French tour event, collected his ?180,000 appearance fee, sneered that the Arc de Triomphe was 'that archway I drove round in a circle', the Eiffel Tower was 'that big tower' and the Louvre was 'the building starting with L'.
He refused to share a courtesy car with another competitor, complained about the course and said he wouldn't be coming back, much to everybody's relief. Now that sounds a little more brattish than defending a friend.
BBC-Sky car share is the pits
Road rage: BBC F1 man Martin Brundle is 'not impressed' by Sky move
What a cop-out and compromise it is by the BBC to surrender half of the Formula One season to BSkyB.
Overnight, the sport they do brilliantly has become the sport they are only half bothered about.?
The Beeb even had the cheek to boast in the press release announcing their cull that viewing figures were 'at a 10-year high'. A fat lot of good that did the public, or the staff working on the programme.
The quality of the BBC's F1 shows set the bar for every other outside broadcast. The grand prix shows are always fresh, inventive and informative.
Jake Humphrey has matured into a fine anchorman, Martin Brundle is the doyen of experts and David Coulthard and Eddie Jordan provide an amusing Hinge and Bracket sideshow with their pit-lane spats.
Sky Sports will do a superb job, but it is a fact of life that many cannot afford to pay for that satellite box, and the '10-year high' audience has been betrayed.?
Given the choice, I'd have kept F1 and cut the smug Wimbledon tennis coverage by half, if only to spare us from the banshee wails of interchangeable east European women.
But the slow demise of F1 at the BBC is a sign of things to come as sport is cut back right across the organisation.?
Soon our licence fee will pay for no more than dreary EastEnders, identikit bonnet dramas, reality TV dross that belongs on ITV, endless dancing and cookery shows and a glorified antiques fete.
'Not impressed,' said Brundle on Twitter. But then, who is?
Source: Daily Mail
Source: Daily Mail