It is always interesting when compiling one of our daily media columns to contrast the different interpretations of the same words.

Clearly journalists, and the sub-editors who write their headlines, only have a limited number of quotes with which to work but it doesn’t stop a range of alternative takes on what was said.

Today for instance take Aussie website The World Game which has reported that ‘Roberto Mancini does not fear the sack’.

‘Although there have been a number of setbacks along the way, City remains on course to achieve objectives,’ it says.

'It is very important that we reach our targets but I don't know whether my future is dependent on me finishing in the top four,’ the boss is reported to have declared. 'I don't think so. I have a three-year contract. 'In any case, we don't want to finish fourth. We want to finish third.'

Over in the Sun, both in its paper on its website, those same Mancini quotes appear but published under the headline ‘I fear Man City axe’.

You click your buttons and you takes your choice!

The Daily Mail, meanwhile, majors on the Blues' other newsworthy Italian, Mario Balotelli. Having received pictures from the snappers who hang over the fence at Carrington - their lenses devouring every move on the training ground - all the papers were able to drum up a story based on Mancini wagging his finger at the 20-year-old striker.

Chris Wheeler’s effort was typical of others in the newspapers and on the web.

‘Mario Balotelli was involved in another unsavoury incident yesterday just hours after Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini claimed that the wayward striker had promised to clean up his act,’ he wrote.

Balotelli went into a heavy and poorly-timed challenge on top-scorer Carlos Tevez in training and was confronted by Mancini, who was seen wagging his finger angrily at the 20-year-old as he reprimanded him for his latest loss of control.

Tevez stayed out of the row and City sources suggested that the flashpoint would have been largely ignored had it not involved a clash of the club's most controversial figure and their most important player.’

Finally, also in the Mail, Mike Walker reports on the travails of David O’Leary whose Dubai-based Al Ahli team was this week on the end of a 5-1 thrashing from Sheikh Mansour’s Al Jazira.

The Abu Dhabi side are league leaders leaving the Sheikh hoping for a double celebration in a few weeks’ time.