Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini on Friday said that he believed Mario Balotelli “respected himself” when he climbed down in his attempts to overturn a club fine.
Italy striker Balotelli, 22, was set to take his club to a Premier League tribunal in an attempt to overturn a fine of two weeks wages over his poor disciplinary record last season.
Balotelli will miss the game against Reading at the Etihad Stadium with a virus that has kept him out of training this week.
But Mancini was pleased that the situation over Balotelli’s conduct has now been resolved.
Mancini said: “He’s very unlucky he is ill. This is an old situation and it is normal when someone makes a mistake he should take his responsibilities and Mario did this. It’s normal.”
Asked if Balotelli had dropped his action out of respect for the manager, Mancini added: “He respected himself, not me because it’s important for him to respect himself, very important.
“I am his manager like other players and if he deserves to have other chances he will have them.”
Mancini celebrates three years in charge this week and is pleased with the progress the club has made during his tenure.
In his first full season City won the FA Cup and then ended the club’s 44-year wait for a league title last season.
Mancini accepted that the success he has enjoyed is well ahead of schedule and the was also proud that he has helped shift the balance of power in Manchester, after years of dominance from the red half of the city at United.
He added: “I think that we worked really well because when I arrived here three years ago I didn’t think that maybe in two years we would win the Premier League and FA Cup.
“I thought that maybe four or five years to win the Premier League because it isn’t easy to change things in England and Manchester in particular because for 20 or 30 years United won everything and we changed this because we did well.
“We’ve also made mistakes, which is normal when we work and it can happen, and we need to continue to work hard to improve our game.”
