Sunderland boss Paolo di Canio has slammed Manchester City players for getting Roberto Mancini the sack. Di Canio has taken a swipe at "big egos'' like Carlos Tevez and the ­"hot-heads'' who he feels Mancini found hard to handle.

The Sunderland boss said: "It's not easy when you have big egos like Tevez.

"It's difficult when you have hot-headed players. Mancini found a simple difficulty. He had seven hot-heads.

"One or two you can handle but not five, six, or seven. Last season there wasn't speculation about the situation there, only Tevez.

"But it wasn't easy this year because Mancini didn't continue what he did with his team. Also, the players are piranhas. They can smell if you are weak. They were far away from Man United in the league and they went out of the ­Champions League early.

"Mancini started something political with the board. The players know - they saw a fault. It's tough to find devotion for the manager in the modern ­generation.

"I don't want devotion. I want players to follow me and we will smile together one day.''