BILLY BUNTER

Weblog: The football punter

Mancini's diplomacy unites Manchester

CRACK open the Boddingtons, it's the Manchester derby.

Actually, as I learned while on a recent pub crawl in Manchester, Boddies is produced in Magor and Salmesbury these days (no idea where that place, or those places, are) and as such the proud Mancs have largely turned their backs on it.

Of the many beers I consumed, one of the best was amazingly called Bollington. It's brewed in Bollington and Macclesfield so is not quite Manc to the core, but hey, how many United and City fans are (I refuse to make any rubbish jokes about Man U fans from down south), so it'll have to do.

So let's try again: crack open the Bollington, it's the Manchester derby.

Despite the animosity between the sides, even Sir Alex Ferguson believes his City counterpart Roberto Mancini dealt with Carlos Tevez's refusal to play in the Champions League against Bayern Munich well.

I don't know many people who think Mancini was wrong or out of line and neither did any of my fellow Manchester drinkers, red or blue. In fact, you could say that both halves of Manchester were brought together in a shared appreciation for the Italian gaffer's handling of the situation. Either that or they'd had too many pints of Bollies.

But as we have learned this weekend, former City boss and United player Mark Hughes has somehow managed to blame Mancini, because he is "autocratic".

Hughes insists there would have been no row with Carlos Tevez while he was in charge, absolutely not.

He said: "It would never have happened under my watch." Now, that statement is so silly that we should either take it literally, and assume that Hughes meant Tevez would never take the former City manager's timepiece, put it on his head, and refuse to play. Or, he means that such a situation would never have arisen, because if he had still been in charge, City would not have qualified for the Champions League and would never have been in Munich in the first place.

Anyway, as much as I'd like to raise a glass to Mancini's no-nonsense management, I expect his team to lose at Old Trafford, where United just tick every box there is.

If the Red Devils win, I'll crack open an Adnams beer, you know, because all Man United fans come from Suffolk.

Just joking,it'll be Bollies all the way.