Ok, so this thread has gone from slagging Balotelli for this bust up, which when turned out to be false, just went into slagging Balotelli.
Anybody who thinks we should get rid of Balotelli should be shot. In the face with a shotgun preferably, but I'll take the old "out of a cannon, directly into the heart of the Sun" cliche if we can spare the funds for it.
Either way, do his off the field antics ACTUALLY matter? Not even in the slightest bit. It has no effect on his football or on the team. It has absolutely nothing to do with how he performs, how he trains or how he prepares. And that's all I'm interested in. You guys can follow his every move like some weird Big Brother fascination, sat in your ivory towers explaining how a young footballer should behave (because you lot have LOADS of experience of this obviously) but I prefer to let him do his talking on the pitch as that's actually what we pay him for and that's actually his job.
Balotelli on the pitch has been very good. Not great, but very good. He's scored 15 in 27 this year and every time Dzeko starts, it just shows how much we miss his movement and technique. He also consistently wins fouls for us in dangerous positions, which is great for a team as big physically as ours. He also is great defensively and works hard for the team. We're a better team with him in it.
Those who "can't remember a good game since the 6-1" have the memory of a goldfish. He was transcendal against Blackburn at home and was the key to our victory, he also played a very good game against Bolton. He was disappointing against Stoke, Chelsea and Sporting but to be fair, who hasn't been?
The threads on here are laughable. Some of you sound like housewifes bitching about people because you have nothing better to do. Either that, or his image in the media has warped your fragile little minds. I saw him get slagged off on here the other day because he went on holiday instead of doing extra training (mainly because every player went on holiday). There's no defence for that; none, it's utterly ridiculous. They are basically holding him up to a higher standard than anybody else and slagging him off when he does not meet these requirements. That's creating your own argument, you can do that with anybody in the world including Messi. The justification for this is that he "lacks form". I don't see criticism of Dzeko, Aguero, Silva or Nasri for this reason though and they are all attacking players who lack form (many of them playing much worse than Balo).
Those "liability" people are also smoking fecal matter from the devils arse. Balo has had 4 yellow cards and 1 red card this season. This makes his disciplinary record about the same as Fernando Torres and much, MUCH less than violent criminals like Gareth Barry, Johnny Evans and Robin Van Persie. As far as giving away fouls, he gives away the same amount as recently paroled Antonio Valencia and is just behind possible serial killers David Ngog and Tim Cahill. I can see why you're all worried.
If Balotelli was never mentioned in the press, these criticisms would be far less. That alone should show you the value of the argument against him. The absolute BEST line I've read on here though, the one that had me simultaneously cracking up and facepalming, was when someone said "we should get rid of him, he creates too much press attention to the club". Yeah, City hate press attention. We're going to grow our international brand purely through sending chain letters on Facebook.
