Blues staff have been in fire-fighting mode today, coming out strongly in defence of Mancini, following a newspaper claim that he has lost the dressing room at Eastlands with many players wanting rid of the Italian.

After a dreadful seven days, which started with that home hammering to Arsenal, ended with an even more startling defeat at Wolves, both matches featuring arguments between Mancini's players, and also included that ill-advised golfing trip to St Andrews, life at City could hardly be viewed as peaceful.

But attempts to liken the present situation to that of Mark Hughes, who had only lost one game compared to Mancini's present three when he was ousted as City boss just before last Christmas, have been flatly rejected.

In such circumstances, it will be pointed out that similar assurances were made about Hughes' position last year, only for the Welshman to end up out of a job.

But, for his part, Barry is trying to put a lid on a succession of regrettable events, confirming he had said sorry to Mancini, before widening his apology to the City fans for the dreadful performance at Molineux, which the manager was at a loss to explain.

"I regret that, it was naive of me. It shouldn't have happened," Barry explained to www.mcfc.co.uk of the trip to Scotland with Joe Hart, Shay Given and Adam Johnson that ended with a raucous singing session in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

"I have apologised to the manager; we were in the wrong.

"We were also very disappointed to lose at Wolves but we know we are not in a desperate position. It is important. As a group of players we let the club and the fans down at Wolves.

"We are sorry for that but it is only one result and as a team we are now desperate to put that right. The best way of doing that is on the pitch with wins, starting on Thursday in the Europa League."

For his part, Mancini branded reports of behind-the-scenes rifts as "rubbish", and Barry said: "The truth is that there is a group of players working together, working hard and working for the manager, trying to do the right things."

Yet Mancini must know that the type of negative headlines that seem to be accompanying his team as they try to gatecrash England's elite thanks to the largesse of owner Sheikh Mansour cannot continue without them having a hugely detrimental effect on the club as a whole.

It is only a matter of weeks since Hart was caught on camera in a Spanish bar. James Milner and Yaya Toure are said to have engaged in words in the tunnel during the Arsenal game, while Emmanuel Adebayor and Vincent Kompany openly rowed at Wolves on Sunday as City threw away a first-half lead.

Reports of tensions between Mancini and Adebayor have appeared at regular intervals and the same is also true of Carlos Tevez, who is currently back home in Argentina having treatment on a calf injury.

Stephen Ireland spilled a large amount of bad blood when he left for Aston Villa in August, while Craig Bellamy was distinctly unimpressed with the Italian before he left for a loan spell at Cardiff.

Add in his patchy relationship with record signing Robinho before the Italian quit for AC Milan and Mancini is clearly not having the easiest time dealing with the huge personalities City's extreme wealth has attracted.

In addition, he was also criticised for the weakened side he sent out in the Carling Cup at West Brom, and should the Blues suffer a second successive defeat at the Hawthorns on Sunday, the pressure on the Italian will be huge ahead of the Manchester derby at Eastlands on November 10, which always promised to be a high-octane affair.

Prior to both of those fixtures, City must tackle Lech Poznan in the Europa League, although given their relatively secure position in that competition and the tests that lie ahead, it has turned into a virtual irrelevance.