Shay Given Claims Roberto Mancini 'Fell Out With Everyone' During Time at Manchester City

Less than two years after Roberto Mancini's appointment as Manchester City manager in 2009, he guided the Citizens to their first league title since 1968. His name should be synonymous in Manchester City folklore.

However, as Shay Given claims in excerpts from his autobiography 'Shay: Any Given Saturday' which is being serialised in the Daily Mirror, not everything was plain sailing behind the scenes.

The current Zenit St. Petersburg manager was a complex character who found building relationships with his own players challenging. 

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Given revealed: "He fell out with everyone. And when I say everyone, I mean everyone. The players, the back-up staff, the physios, the kit man, the press officers, the canteen workers, the car park lads, the lot.

"The maddest thing was, after causing chaos with everybody in the week, I’d then go off to St Pius X Church in Alderley Edge on a Sunday morning and he’d be in there, as devout a Roman Catholic as could be!"

Given's personal reason for falling out with Mancini came after returning from injury to find himself out of favour and down the pecking order, with up and coming Joe Hart the new number one between the sticks. 

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Mancini never clarified the situation with Given, adding to the Irishman's frustration. 

Given wrote: "I can’t give you a straight reason as to what I’d done to justify that, or warrant it. All of a sudden I was on Mancini’s s**t-list and I couldn’t get off it. 

"In December 2009, he’d told the press I was, “One of the best five goalkeepers in the world”. I’d gone from the top five to top f*** all."

It is fair to surmise that Given found developing an effective working relationship and having respect for Mancini both as a manager and a person challenging. However, he won't be the first or the last professional footballer to encounter these issues with Roberto Mancini as history has shown.