Breakfast over, and Mario Balotelli was just relaxing with La Gazzetta dello Sport when Vincent Kompany, Aleks Kolarov and Patrick Vieira hauled him out of the armchair and told him to get a move on. See, he’s forgotten to take his specs off in the rush. And he’s complaining that he never got chance to do the crossword, but Pat just pretends to check his trainers for specks of mud ...
The boys get ready for a brisk session with a moment of quiet time. Imagine we’re on that plane home with an away draw tucked into our pockets, suggests Shaun Wright-Phillips. All except David Silva, that is, who prefers to limber up with his Spanish pilates. Swing those arms, feel the benefit, David ...
Roberto Mancini, Attilio Lombardo and David Platt think his solo routine is a real hoot. Hey David, they tease, d’you want some disco music to go with that? No ta, grins David S, it worked fine without tunes at the World Cup ... got my medal in my pocket if you wanna see ...
Training over, Carlos Tevez is waylaid on the way back to his room. Everyone’s a manager, aren’t they? The security guy explains to Carlos where he should make his run to create space for Edin Dzeko. If this is the edge of the box, just aim for that spot there pal, you’ll take at least one defender with you and Edin cleans up, right? Tev is clearly impressed ...
Meanwhile, Tony Book has found exactly the style of bridge he’s been thinking about to enhance the pond back at Book Towers. If this were dismantled properly, would it fit into two kit hampers - and would Les Chapman notice? Hmm, tricky ...
And so, eventually, to the main business of the day - a pre-match team sprint relay led by Micah Richards and Edin, who’s a great one for multi-tasking. He can run ever so fast at the same time as he does his trumpet-blowing exercises. Band-mates in the Bosnia Brass Ensemble will be well impressed ...
