MANCHESTER City may be able to buy the best players in the world but we can see from the events of the past week that money cannot buy team spirit.

Beating Wanderers at Eastlands on Saturday kept City in the top four and they are looking good for the Champions League, which you would expect from a team that has been assembled for £300million. But it doesn’t look as though they are a happy bunch.

Pictures of Mario Balotelli and Jerome Boateng trading punches on the training ground are not what you want to see plastered all over the back pages while Carlos Tevez’s reaction to being subbed was disgraceful behaviour for a man who wears the skipper’s armband.

Now I don’t read too much into the fact that there’s been a bit of skirmish between a couple fo players in training. Believe me, that sort of thing happens at every club.

But the Tevez business . . . what sort of a message does it send to the rest of the players when the captain questions the manager’s authority in such a public way?

You certainly would never see Kevin Davies behaving like that. It’s just not in his make-up. Davo’s a team player, he believes in the team ethic and he is supportive of all those around him.

Of the two, he is undoubtedly the man I would choose if I needed someone alongside me in the trenches.

Obviously, City can point to the scoreline and argue that they are still in a position to mount a challenge for the Premiership title, but I know which camp I would rather be in . . . give me Bolton any day.

From my position at the Reebok, I have a close-up view. I witness it first-hand and, as an ex-pro, I can see we’ve got the best team spirit in the Premiership, bar none.

I wouldn’t want to take anything away from City because they played well and deserved the win but I thought we were unlucky not to get something at the end when a few chances came our way.

City were rattled and when they were a man down late on I thought it said everything about their manager that he took a striker off and tried to shut up shop.

But you have to accept that sometimes it’s just not going to be your day and that was one of them.

Okay, that enocuraging five-match unbeaten run has ended but the measure of a team is how they react to a disappointing result and I expect them to bounce back with a win at the Reebok on Sunday. What a great opportunity to get back on track – at home to local rivals Blackburn in front of what should be a bumper crowd attracted by the offer of cut-price tickets.

These are the situations when Owen Coyle comes into his own. You couldn’t ask for a better game to get your teeth into and I’m sure the gaffer will have drawn a line under what happened at the weekend and ensure everyone’s sights are set on going on another good run.

*****

THE kids were gutted after losing to Crewe in the FA Youth Cup last week, and understandably so.

We were all disappointed but handling defeat is part and parcel of growing up.

These young players are learning the game and a key part of their development is how they react to disappointments and as coaches it is part of our job to make sure they react in the correct way.

Youth development is not all about winning trophies like the FA Youth Cup, although that’s not to say we wouldn’t want to win it. It’s about getting players through to the first team and there are certainly a few who will have a chance of doing just that if they carry on the way the are going.

It takes time and before they can be considered for the senior squad they are going to have to show they can handle the move up to the reserves.

But at least the lads who are coming through the academy should be encouraged to know that under the current management, if they do have the potential, they will get a chance.

They have seen for themselves that Owen Coyle does not just show an interest, he actually takes a hands-on role.

He came into the dressing room at half time last week and had a bit of a go at them for their first-half performance – in the right way of course – and managed to get a positive reaction from them. It was not enough to rescue the tie but it definitely gave the kids a taste of what life is like playing under such a passionate manager.

If they take all this on board, they will be all the better and all the stronger for the experience.

I must say, though, that young players these day don’t know they are born.

The artificial pitch at the fantastic academy facility at Lostock has made sure that, despite the terrible weather, we haven’t missed a day’s training.

I spent many a winter’s day as an apprentice at Liverpool playing head tennis under the old Kemlyn Road stand because the training ground was frozen solid.

I even remember in my Bolton days training on the Burnden car park when we couldn’t get on the training pitches. Kids today just don’t know how lucky they are.