Ye Daily Links for Tuesday

Side note: The summer signings have been described as a "fleet of Ford Fiestas" by our Harkiano. Too early for line of the year candidates? I'm having t-shirts made post-haste. I used to own a Ford Fiesta so this was a double har-de-har-har for yours truly.

That's Bollocks in England, mate! According to Yahoo sports, Mancini criticized his players with much harsher language than what other outlets are reporting. If the players want to play, they need to have Testes Gigantus.

When you play football and you are a top player, you should take your responsibility, always," Mancini told reporters. "It's not always the fault of the manager. He added, "The players should take responsibility - <em>if they have big balls</em>. If not, they can't play in a top team."

Call me crazy but I think this is an awfully important quote. Mancini is essentially calling out his entire squad for lack of effort and courage. If the team responds with another clunker, there is every reason to believe he's lost the team. I personally don't think that's the case and I fully expect Man City to play demons this weekend but there can be no question where Mancini thinks the responsibility lies for the egg laid at Southampton. He's blaming the players.

A Distraction Sorely Needed: Man City players speaking Chinese and handling snakes? Okay, Man City players speaking Chinese and handling snakes.

Hey, Gareth? It Could've Been Worse: The wife and kid both reacted with shock and smiles after the Barry fiasco. The kid, being a wise-ass teenager along with the pride of my life, asked with malice if he had just witnessed the worst own goal in history. Myself being wise-ass in my own right, I responded haughtily that it wasn't even the worst own goal in City's history. "A thing of beauty, that one was." Then I slowly crawled into the fetal position and started to sob.

A Larger Distraction: I need a cute dog and pig video and face it, so do you.

Negligible Nasri: Noxious Nasri? Nauseous Nasri? Nada-So-Good Nasri? My gut tells me he just ain't that good. And Think Football agrees. But if shudder tells me otherwise, I'm changing my mind.

Edin the Angel: God bless Dzeko for staying on his feet long enough to brighten the day of a striken teenager. Yes, I just made snark at Dzeko's expense in what should be a feel good story and, yes, I know I'm in trouble.

What Joe Hart Needs? A long sleeved shirt. Solves everything, I tell you.