Mario has endeared himself to the majority of blues for his madcap petulance and bizzare genorosity towards Manchester's homeless as well as being super cool whatever he does. He oozes charisma and is a natural entertainer. I even admire his cocksure arrogance on the pitch, and it's become genuinely hard to dislike the guy. I even read a thread on united forum 'Red cafe' and many reds wrote that they'd love him at OT. He's certainly a character lighting up the league from commonplace soulless greed.
However, Mario was a naughty boy on sunday who needs to learn a hard lesson that he cannot get away with a mad moment of grotesque wanton thuggery towards a fellow profesional. He is lucky IMO that he only got away with a four game ban, i'd of banned the barmy bastard for at least six!
As much as i like Mario, i think it maybe time to find a reliable replacement, as he is a 'Bartonesque' head fuck ticking timebomb that could even cost us the league, and the club cannot be a circus stage for any more idiotic clowns to perform on!
Having rewatched the incident again for the umpteenth time, my opinion is even more decided than before. I could not see what all the fuss was about from where i was in the ground as there were players blocking my view. Real time on TV from the main match camera shows nothing sinister, but when the other camera angles show it, particularly in slow motion, then and only then does it look like intent.
As Mario strikes the ball, the impelling momentum of his right(shooting) leg spins him round 180 degrees so his back is away from a grounded parker. As he(Mario) lands, he then backs into him and it then appears like he innocently trod on parkers hand. From this, Mario knew Parker was on the floor but couldn't possibly have known how he lay or what position his head was as he was looking away from him. The moment that he landed(take another look gents) he appeared to have enough balance in steadying himself to stay on his feet. If not, he would of tried to put his right leg forward to steady balance, but he didn't. He craftily back heeled/stamped with his right foot on Parker in a deliberate and intentional way IMHO. The split second he realises guilt, he then threw himself to the floor as if to try and confuse Webb in a cunning magician like(sleight of hand) way.
He's now been yellow carded 16 times and seen red 3 times, but had it not been for Mancini taking him off when on a yellow, he would no doubt of lost his head to be sent off more. Like Cantona could, his sheer brilliance can and does change a game in an instant. He also has a hothead like cantona had and both walk/walked a very thin line of genius/madness.
At times Mario looks to be learning to keep his cool and learning from previous mistakes which is fine and it is a pleasure to see his football brilliance in a City shirt. I want us to keep him as he has world class ability. But, if he cannot learn then Mancini has to let him go. His card is marked even more than it was so he surely must learn this time, or it's game over for him at City i think.
