Platt mask can't hide Mancini frustration

Platt took last week's conference, saying his manager had other things to do, but Mancini was his usual charming self this week, laughing as he took the mask off, a gesture that diffused some of the tension that had grown between Mancini and the media recently.

Speaking at the club's training ground at Carrington, near Manchester, he said City had no interest in buying Luis Suarez from Liverpool, that Mario Balotelli was not in the squad against Tottenham Hotspur last week because he did not train hard enough but was not being sold, and that his own future at the club was not in doubt.

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