Ireland recalls Tevez and Mancini "swinging for each other" in Man City training

Former Manchester City star Stephen Ireland has claimed manager Roberto Mancini and striker Carlos Tevez were "swinging for each other" in training long before winning the title together in 2012.

Tevez spent much of the 2011-12 campaign away from the team, with Mancini alleging that he refused to come on as a substitute during a Champions League game against Bayern Munich. The former Manchester United man denied that this was the case, but after the September incident he did not play again until March.

Academy graduate Ireland had left City by this point, joining Aston Villa in 2010. However, the Irish international had a chance to see the relationship between Tevez and Mancini up close when all three were together at the club during the 2009-10 season.

"The amount of arguments and fights and fists I saw in training, honestly, if only there was an Amazon documentary back then, with some of the stuff he was doing," Ireland exclusively told Ladbrokes: Fanzone.

"Honestly, it was just incredible; the amount of times him and Carlos Tevez would go head-to-head, swinging for each other.. mental stuff. And it was over literally nothing. I don't know if that was just his tactic to constantly p*** people off.

"Maybe he was a genius, maybe he just wanted to p*** everyone off. I don't know; no one knows. But if it was anyone else who came in, be it a Manuel Pellegrini, or a Pep Guardiola, I think I would've played a bigger part in things."

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Tevez scored more than 20 goals in each of his first two Manchester City seasons, having previously spent two years with rivals United. He only played 13 league games in the 2011-12 campaign after his dispute with Mancini, but returned to score four goals in the run-in before City ended up winning the title on the final day.

Ireland, meanwhile, suggested the overhaul ahead of the 2009-10 season played a part in his own exit. Mancini joined midway through the campaign, with predecessor Mark Hughes dismissed with the club down in eighth.

"I started to feel a little bit like I was being pushed out," Ireland said. "It felt like there was a huge name coming in and signing for us every day. One day it was Carlos Tevez, then it was Emmanuel Adebayor, then it was Kolo Toure... it was just nuts.

"And it was more of the same the following year; David Silva, Yaya Toure, Mario Balotelli, all coming in, one after the other. We'd be sitting at the table together in pre-season and they'd have to add tables to the end because there were so many people coming in."

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