Ex City Fitness Coach Slates Mancio Training

It's threatening to look like something out of M.A.S.H in City's treatment rooms as players report injured at an alarming rate. Is our former fitness coach on the ball?

Raymond Verheijen, who was the fitness guru employed by Leslie Hughes then latterly Roberto Mancini has expressed his concerns over Roberto Mancini's training methods at Carrington via a YouTwitFace social networking site:

'I really feel sorry for the Man City players. They are having a difficult time. Hopefully none of them will suffer a career threatening injury.

'During pre-season and the first half of last season Mark Hughes had all his players available...City played each game with the same team. The team had the best Prozone statistics of the Premier League during the first part of the season. The players had the highest number of sprints and the highest total sprinting distance of all the Premier League teams....After the arrival of Mancini things changed dramatically. He probably did not even look at the Prozone statistics and our best-injury record in the Premier League. He decided players had to do double sessions many times a week. Those sessions often lasted for two hours. Not surprisingly the players picked up eight soft-tissue injuries within the first two weeks of Mancini.'

There are facts that Blues can deal in right now. Yes, City have an unprecedented amount of early season injuries that are threatening to derail the campaign. The boss has already blamed a severely inexperienced League cup team selection on those injuries.

We also know that Mancio has had a training hill constructed at Carrington and a couple of senior players bemoaned double training sessions last season. One of those players, signed by Mark Hughes with an ongoing knee problem is Cardiff's Craig Bellamy.

Verheijen has been working with the firey Welshman this week:

'We have almost repaired all the physical damage done to Craig in pre-season by our Italian friends at Manchester City. Thankfully, an explosive player like Craig was able to escape this training regime to save his career.'

Strong words. The rantings of a bitter former employee or reasoned statements?

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