Former Tottenham and Barcelona boss Terry Venables believes the in-fighting at Manchester City is all down to money.
Commenting on the current morale problems facing City manager Roberto Mancini, Venables wrote in The Sun: "It is a huge issue and Mancini is taking the flak for it but nobody can blame it all on him.
"And that includes the Sheikhs, who should look closer to home if they want to discover the main cause of the unrest in the squad.
"They may have invested hundreds of millions of pounds in the club and the blue half of Manchester will rightly not have a word said against them.
"But it is their cash that is the fundamental cause of all this upset.
"Their unprecedented and unparalleled spending power resulted in them paying way over the odds for certain players.
"And if the transfer fees for those stars were too high, it is a fair assumption that their salaries are as well, which will have inevitably sparked pangs of resentment and jealousy among lower-paid team-mates.
"Footballers, no matter how vast their income, are always upset if they think a colleague is earning more.
"But it is not just the green-eyed monster who causes friction.
"When a player is rightly or wrongly paid top dollar, he expects to be an automatic first choice, regardless of form, tactics or rotation.
"City have so many world-class stars on top money in their squad, Mancini cannot start them all, which means those on the bench are going to be unhappy."
