Soccer: Mancini warns stars about booze

The next time Joe Hart wants to celebrate, his manager advised him to seek out a woman rather than a bottle of Malibu.

Pictures of the England goalkeeper standing on a table celebrating at a stag do with coconut liqueur and pink champagne left Roberto Mancini shocked - and not just because of the awful combination of drinks.

To the Manchester City manager it represented the kind of drinking culture he is determined should be stamped out in the Premier League.

Last month Mancini warned Hart's England teammate, Adam Johnson, after he appeared at a charity auction and paid £12,000 ($25,000) for a date with the model Katie Price.

"I have spoken to them. It is private what I said but it is much better that they go with a woman rather than drink," he said, tongue presumably in cheek as Hart has a longstanding girlfriend. "It does not happen in Italy. The players do not have this culture of drinking after a game. It is so different, but I understand it is part of the English culture and it is not easy to change. Johnson and Joe are young; they are playing in the England team and they must change."

Following Manchester City's narrow 2-1 win over Newcastle which featured a dressing room confrontation between Mancini and Carlos Tevez, Hart and the City midfielder Gareth Barry left for the stag do at Puerto Banus on the Costa del Sol.

Hart was photographed at a bar partying hard 36 hours before joining up with Fabio Capello's England squad for the turgid goalless draw with Montenegro.

"It is very frustrating because I don't understand this," said Mancini.

"I don't understand why a player must drink after a game. Maybe one drink is OK but three, four, five, six ... drinking until they are drunk? That is no good."

Mancini's brief time at Leicester nine years ago should have given him some indication of what to expect.

"One day, when I first started at Leicester, I went with my teammates after training and we all went to a pub and the 10, 12 of us drank I don't know how many beers."

And in 2001 taking photographs with your mobile phone and posting them online was in its infancy.

"These players are young now but when you are 28 or 29 you pay the price," he said.

Mancini adeptly defused the confrontation with Tevez by pointing out it was normal in every walk of life to have rows with your boss.

He dismissed suggestions that his captain might walk away from the game with the observation that if there was one thing the Argentinian was born to do, it was to play football. Mancini said it was unlikely that Tevez' future at Eastlands depended on Manchester City winning a trophy or qualifying for the Champions' League.

"It depends on Carlos," he said. "He is a striker, he is the best player. If he scores, if he plays well, then we have more chances to win. I repeat: we have a good chance [of winning trophies]."

- INDEPENDENT