How annoying...

[Bert]

Leicester City old boy Roberto Mancini gave his stamp of approval to the Craig Levein revolution last night.

After watching his Inter Milan side emerge 2-1 winners from a tough pre-season work-out at the Walkers Stadium, the 40-year-old coach was complimentary about his hosts.

"Leicester, I believe, are a good team," he said. "Everything's changed since I was here. However I believe they have a good chance of winning promotion."

On a couple of occasions, especially in the first half, the affair was hardly friendly.

However, Mancini, who played just five times for City in the 2000-01 campaign but has fond memories of his brief spell at the club, was "absolutely not" surprised by the strength of some of the home challenges, two in particular earning bookings for full-backs Peter Canero and Alan Sheehan.

He said: "The match served this purpose as well - it was a physical game. For Leicester, these are true games. Even when they are friendlies, the games here are real games."

The match - which was on, off, then on again in the space of 48 hours at the weekend following the London bombings - was the first of four during Inter's week-long English tour.

Mancini said that the club's initial concern about undertaking the tour was that they did not want to cause any more extra worries for security forces who were already under pressure.

"But from the moment that we found out that this wouldn't be the case, I personally and the others were happy to come and play in England because that was our initial objective," he said.

And, asked whether tomorrow evening's match against Crystal Palace in London would present any particular fears, he said: "The fear we've got is the same fear that people in cities all over the world have.

"There's no difference for people who live in Milan or Rome or London - it's the same for everyone and we haven't got any special concerns ourselves."

He said four of Inter's bigger-name players would be joining the tour today - Obafemi Martins, Adriano, Javier Zanetti and Esteban Cambiasso - in time for the match against Palace tomorrow.

But he said the late arrivals had been scheduled and were not connected in any way to the security situation.

Inter captain Marco Materazzi said he was pleased to be in England.

And he added that he did not believe Continental teams would be afraid to visit Arsenal or Chelsea in the Champions League following the bombings.

Materazzi, the former Everton defender, also had his thoughts about City. "They are a good team - it was a very hard-fought game.

"But I think Inter are better, no? We scored two goals!"

how annoying that the four big name stars are coming after WE have played them eh?

[rossporterlc]

yeh i heard this but i didn't go so i'm not particularly bothered

[Scow]

I think it's because Palace have purchased a few players from Inter last season, and therefore receive preferential treatment.

[Hazza]

Very annoying, though i was wanting to see their main 4 yesterday, regardless of what sort of team they bought.

[Stuliasz]

I find it slightly annoying as I was particularly looking forward to the chance of seeing Adriano, however the game has passed now so it doesn't really bother me as it doesn't matter.

[Katy]

If they are that bothered about security then why the hell are they taking their first team line-up to LONDON to play Palace, when Palace is in LONDON and LONDON is where the bomb blasts were! Sounds like a pathetic excuse to me and once again Leicester gets the piss taken out of it. Their reasoning just doesnt make sense.

[Guest]

Let them get on with it, I can't be doing with their petty attitude.