Patrick Vieira has been vocal in the press again this week and I think his comments about referees supposedly showing favouritism to Manchester United are embarrassing for the officials and supporters of Manchester City.
I think Vieira must have forgotten his time at Arsenal. I think he has forgotten that penalty Robert Pires won at Highbury against Portsmouth that helped Arsenal protect their unbeaten record.
I don't think Vieira has done Manchester City any favours by coming out with these comments like he has. Perhaps you could understand it if he was a member of the coaching staff, but he isn't. He is supposed to be some kind of ambassador for a club he spent 18 months on the subs' bench for.
Given he had a less than stellar playing history with Manchester City, it is strange to see him acting as an ambassador for the club in this way. Football development executive? I don't know what he is supposed to be developing. At the moment all it seems that he wants to develop is a war between two clubs.
He has got involved in something he doesn't even know about, to be honest. If he had done his homework he would have seen that there are some clubs around who have had less penalties against them than Manchester United in recent seasons.
The old adage is that things even themselves out over the season and City have had a lot of good fortune in some ways as well. So you hope Patrick can look back on some of those incidents and realise that maybe he got it a bit wrong.
I think he has been mixing with bitter Blues and has got caught up in that whole mentality. I don't think he knows enough about the Manchester rivalry to be wading in like this. He hasn't used any common sense and he has been a bit thoughtless and ignorant.
He has been a bit of an embarrassment to City fans, who don't even relate to him anyway because he only started a handful of games as a City player. I don't think he did enough in that time to endear himself to supporters. They won't see him as one of their own, but one of Roberto Mancini's mates.
Perhaps if one of their older former players - Gary Owen, Peter Barnes or Dennis Tueart - had made the same complaint it would have had more substance to it but you just don't associate Vieira with Manchester City. You still associate him with Arsenal because that is where he had his best years.
Yes, of course he knows all about the Arsenal-Tottenham rivalry, but when you come up north the derbies are very different. The people around these two clubs live and breathe football every single day. In London there are lots of competing interests for a supporter's attention.
The point he made - however clumsily - was valid in one respect as those who shout loudest are often heard, and having 60,000-odd fans in your corner can help to put pressure on visiting officials. But the way in which Vieira got his comments across has only put more pressure on Mancini, who has been doing quite well in putting pressure on himself anyway.
It is not the first time of course. Only a couple of weeks ago he was claiming United's decision to bring back Paul Scholes reeked of desperation. Well that was picking the wrong target, as you may as well insult Sir Alex Ferguson's wife if you are going to insult Scholes. If you look at the stats since Scholes has returned you cannot deny the influence he has had. On that occasion Vieira also failed to do his homework and was hasty in what he said.
I think he could end up living to regret these little outbursts.
City's response to the controversy was also quite sad. Banning a respected reporter like Dan Roan is a bit weak for a supposedly big club. They might be big in name but they are still small in achievement and doing something like that, and especially against the BBC, works against them. They are trying to sell themselves as a club on a global scale but behaviour like this will not help.
It is sad to see City coming out with things like this. They should just keep quiet and do their talking on the pitch. They are not handling the situation well and sometimes you just need to bite your tongue and remember that silence is golden.