The proposed transfer of Mario Balotelli to Manchester City from Inter has caused quite a kerfuffle on these shores. The tabloid Press have quickly turned on the youngster, labelling him ‘unproven’ and intimating that he is not worthy of the reported £180,000 a week salary he is requesting.
First of all let me clearly state that he is NOT worth that amount, but my reason for saying that is that quite clearly no man deserves to receive the annual salary equivalent to that of six nurses in one week just for kicking a ball about.
However, that is – sadly – the football world which we live in now. If a football club is stupid enough to offer that kind of money, and having already agreed a weekly wage in excess of £200,000 for Yaya Toure then City clearly are, then who wouldn’t push for the best deal possible?
The thing that has irked me the most though is the ignorant labelling of Balotelli as ‘unproven’. True he has not been a first team regular at Inter but he has still racked up 86 appearances for Inter before hitting the age of 20 – and that is in a squad that has had Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Samuel Eto’o and Diego Milito to call upon.
Add to that three Serie A championship medals and a European Cup medal and I think it is fair to say that he has more than proven himself. I think you would struggle to name another player in the last 20 years who has achieved as much before hitting the age of 20.
Lionel Messi had begun to show his potential but did not yet have the medals. Turn to England and there is obviously Wayne Rooney, but he too had not yet started his medal collection as a teenager. And while he had the advantage of international experience that has to be countered by the fact that most national tacticians aside from Marcello Lippi would have called upon SuperMario by now. Plus, he was not even eligible until he turned 18.
Going back to those contentious wages and the transfer fee, let’s compare Balotelli and Rooney. When Rooney moved from Everton to Manchester United he cost £30m and was on a reported starting wage of £50,000. Balotelli is set to come in cheaper at £24m, although his wages are far higher.
Nevertheless, only a fool would believe that if United had had the funds back in 2004 to offer that kind of wage that Rooney’s agent would not have pushed them to their limits. The simple fact is City have much deeper pockets to delve into. Plus he was signed from a smaller club that could be brow-beaten into selling on the ‘cheap’, how much would a club like Inter have asked had they had Rooney to sell? Of course there was no concerns expressed about United buying an ‘unproven’ teenager back then.
As usual it is a case of English ignorance. So what if Balotelli has won three Italian championships and a European Cup? How many goals has he scored in the Premier League? I look forward to seeing the ‘unproven’ teenager finally get the experience he has obviously been so deprived of in Italy when he arrives at Eastlands.
Neville Kneville said:ste.sully said:Looking at this signings, you begin to understand the total shit Hughes invested the money in.
Adebayor was a leftover wantaway player, Kolo Toure was and is past his best, Crocky Cruz was a ridiculous signing when we got him and so it proved and the Lescott saga was an embarassing joke. Only Tevez was a good buy and the others signings showed how much Hughes was out of his depth.
Whereas Mancini - David Silva, Yaya Toure, Jerome Boateng, Aleksandar Kolarov, Mario Balotelli, James Milner* - genuine class talent, all in the prime of their career or at least coming up to it.
We have the players, now the real work starts as they've got to gel...hopefully fairly quickly
At the start of last season we were a club who'd just scraped top 10, this season we're a side who's narrowly missed the Champions league & finished above Liverpool. Different level. We had no chance of getting the likes of Silva or Toure then. We did very well to attract Tevez & Adebayor, nobody outside City would have expected them to come.
If we progress further, we'll be challenging for signing players on the level of the Messis etc next season. That's how it works.
Chippy_boy said:Jimma said:so is the feel at the moment:
this will happen. just need to play the waiting game?
I'm not so sure about this.
People seem to assume that we can keep buying better and better players and with a decent manager, and as the team gels, we will win things, then start to dominate and win everything.
But this view completely ignores what will happen to our competitors, and when.
The fact is there are currently a number of teams in the premiership that are ahead of us. Not only in footballing terms, but also as worldwide presence with significantly more appeal to the top players. Clearly Chelsea, the rags and arsenal fall into this category, but Liverpool do too, and even spuds might debate it.
Currently, of them only chelsea can even try to match our spending power. But what wbout the others? The replacement of the blazers with massively more wealthy owners is in my view inevitable. Likewise at Liverpool. And maybe even arsenal.
If this happens before we have "arrived" we could be looking at being only one of several clubs with enormously deep pockets, but without the appeal that some of the others have. Even if we are on parity with them, who's to say we will win everything. With an equally good manager and equally good players, we might expect to be in there competing, but not winning everything.
The way I see it panning out over the next 5 years is that there will be a top 5 consisting us, Chelsea, the rags, Liverpool and arsenal, all scrapping it out each year. Clealry a huge and refreshing change from the past 34 years, but not the world domination some people are expecting.
yakzson_ctid.Si said:The Daily Fail but quotes are on OS. I was surprised Bob thought Carlos was a hard person to work with. Mostly Milner bit Mario mentioned
<a class="postlink" href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1301024/Get-James-Milner-Manchester-City-chairman-flies-push-deal-Aston-Villa-star.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footba ... -star.html</a>
James Milner was dramatically left out of Aston Villa's squad on Friday night as his £26million transfer to Manchester City neared completion.
The England midfielder was scheduled to be part of Martin O'Neill's side that drew 0-0 with Valencia in a friendly at Villa Park but was withdrawn at the 11th hour as City closed in on a deal to take their summer spending through the £100m barrier.
On his way: James Milner looks set to complete his £26m move to Manchester City
O’Neill admitted: ‘We didn’t play James primarily because there could be something happening in terms of the transfer. There is the possibility of something happening over the next few days. There has been renewed contact between the clubs.’
City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak is due to fly into Manchester on Saturday morning to seal the signings of Milner and Inter Milan's £24m-rated teenager Mario Balotelli.
He intends to sign Milner first in a deal worth £26m, with Villa receiving £18m in cash and City midfielder Stephen Ireland, who is valued at £8m. Villa had demanded £30m but believe Ireland could prove a bargain.
City and Inter are haggling over a fee for Balotelli, and manager Roberto Mancini said yesterday: 'Milner is like Balotelli. We are close. We are speaking. Probably Milner is closer than Balotelli.
Money man: City Chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak
'We want to buy Balotelli at the right price. We are close, but we have time. When we want to buy a player the price is not normal, but we want to improve quickly and to do this we must often buy players that will cost more than normal.'
Mancini insisted he has no fears over Balotelli's reputation as a difficult character. Asked whether he expected to find Balotelli troublesome, Mancini joked that the teenager's disruptive streak is nothing on City players Craig Bellamy and Carlos Tevez.
He said: 'I work with Bellamy and Tevez so it's easy (to work with Balotelli).'
Mancini hinted Bellamy, a long-term Tottenham target, and Roque Santa Cruz will be allowed to leave before the end of the transfer window. The City manager will also seek a meeting with record signing Robinho.
He said: 'We have to pick 25 players and we have 31. Some will have to stay off the list.'
City have already signed David Silva (£24m from Valencia), Yaya Toure (£28m from Barcelona), Aleksandar Kolarov (£16m from Lazio) and Jerome Boateng (£11m from Hamburg) this summer.
Read more: <a class="postlink" href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1301024/Get-James-Milner-Manchester-City-chairman-flies-push-deal-Aston-Villa-star.html#ixzz0vvCQqk1i" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footba ... z0vvCQqk1i</a>