Balotelli - What was he thinking?

[Stretford Born Blue]

Complete disrespect for every player on that pitch, Dzeko was furious.

Edit: For those who are not currently watching the stream: He was clean through on goal and out of the blue turned around and tried to back heel the ball in to the net.

Mancini subbed him straight away and Balotelli had a go as he was going off.


Well played Mancini as soon as he saw it he subbed him straight away but extremely unprofessional and unsporting conduct from Balotelli.

From what I saw he clearly slowed down and in now way looked focused on any intent to score, he obviously thought he was offside and tried a bit of trickery in giving the ball back for a free kick....
Play to the whistle I hear you shout, well he didn't, so in that respect he was wrong, I just think this has been blown up out of all proportion.................

 

[ello_jo]

Even the players do not like him, he is a liability...get rid.

Stop taking sense you'll get hammered by the blinkered on here.

The same people who are defending Balotelli would be hammering the granny shagger if he had done something similar.

And thats wrong because?? Closet rooney fan here!

The lad genuinely looked like he thought he was offside, stop whinging you mad asses.

 

[sneakitawc]

probably said by half the people in these 68 pages, but the entire thing is a storm in a teacup.

whistle or no whistle, it was mario's choice how he wanted to try and hit the back of the net. selfish? maybe. disrespectful? not in a million years. messi or rooney would be praised to high heaven if they pulled something like this off, which says it all really.

joe hart's trending on twitter right now with the top tweet coming from fox soccer's derek taylor, which goes thusly:

Mancini talking out both sides of his mouth...Balotelli pulled for hot-dogging, but then Joe Hart kicks the winning penalty? Give me a break

 

[Josh Blue]

Even the players do not like him, he is a liability...get rid.

Stop taking sense you'll get hammered by the blinkered on here.

The same people who are defending Balotelli would be hammering the granny shagger if he had done something similar.

If Granner shagger did it would he of been subbed? No. Would sky and the radios talk about it? No. He may of even been credited for being creative..

 

[Pingu the Penguin]

I can't be arsed reading the previous 69 pages as it's probably full of reactionary crap from some.

We are lucky to have this lad. In an oasis of mediorcrity, with journeymen commanding 20mill transfer fees and getting paid 80K/wk, we have him. A maverick, someone who will try something different, dare I say to entertain.

Without him we'll all be posting about how we need someone creative, or with the X factor. I love him, and can't wait to see how he develops this season.

 

[Paylor_Shade_Of_Blue]

One of the best bits on soccer am is the showboat segment, and thats because everyone who watches football, watches it because football is all about entertainment. Maybe Balo did hear a whistle, maybe he didnt, but either way, Mancini fucked his man management up big time, he should have waited for half time, subbed him, and then had a word in private.

 

[skillman]

Whether you like Balotelli or hate him for what he did, the reaction is funny.

Type in 'Mario Balotelli' on youtube and the suggestions are 'Mario Balotelli vs LA Galaxy' and 'Mario Balotelli backheel'.

As they always say, there's no such thing as bad publicity. Because of that, people from around the world will watch our games in hope he does something extraordinary again. It's all good.

It's also got over a million and a half views on one video.

 

[PaleBlue]

With Mancini all the way here - Balotelli is paid to do a job not p1ss about. Where do you draw the line - "it was only a friendly", "it was only QPR, "we were 1-0 up at the time". Balo's job description is Professional Footballer, unfortunately he'll go down with Charlie Corroli as Talented Clown if he don't buck up.

Too many on here are in love with the idea of Balotelli the Rebel, rather than backing the manager and the club - the cult of celebrity strikes again.

 

[BobKowalski]

Quote from de Jong from tomorrows papers

'Everybody's seen it, it wasn't a great action and the coach took a decision to take him off. That's a decision that's been made and that's a statement that the group is behind him.

'If you are near the target, you should make an attempt to score. Everybody knows that, and Balotelli too. I hope he learns from this moment and that we as a group to emerge stronger.'

Apologies if already posted

In short. Players are pissed at Mario and subbing him was the right thing to do. Its been said earlier that irrespective of what fans, media etc think what was important for Mancini was the team reaction. Letting it slide was not an option.

 

[Berkovic_blue]

LOL a 70 page thread on this (leaving aside the ridiculous 10 posts per page limit)

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