A few stories in the papers already covering this one, but the extent at which Roberto Mancini seems to allow Mario Balotelli to continuously get away with things seems to quite surprise me considering Mancini is supposed to be a very tough, disciplined manager. The story is that Mancini is allowing Balotelli to continue with his smoking habit, stating that he has about 5 or 6 cigarettes every day.
Mancini joked that if Balotelli was his son he’d give him a kick up the backside, and although he doesn’t like his star striker to smoke he still allows it, as he feels coming from Italy there is more of a tenancy for footballers to smoke.