So, Mario Balotelli and Rober to Mancini have a fight and the Manchester City boss says ‘I’ll give him another 100 chances’ – the Italian certainly is lenient, especially when it comes to the 22 year-old he has previously admitted to loving like a son.
After more negative media attention around Balotelli I got thinking, how many chances has the forward already since arriving in Manchester from Inter Milan in 2010. The list was too hard to remember everything so I consulted my City supporting friend and we came up with quite a list.
First of all, the red cards.
Mario Balotelli’s first Premier League game didn’t get off to a great start, he didn’t even last the full 90 minutes against West Brom. He was a match winner, scoring 2 goals in a moody performance before becoming embroiled in a spat with Yousouff Mulumbu resulting in the Italian seeing red.
A second red card followed in a Europa League game against Dynamo Kiev for a dangerously high tackle.
A third red card came against Liverpool although this time it was two booking Balotelli picked up after coming off the bench.
The latest red card came at the end of last season against Arsenal, although Balotelli escaped punishment for a knee high challenge it was two bookings, again, that combined to see Balo taking an early bath.
It isn’t just on the pitch Balotelli has let Mancini down, there are previous training ground bust ups too.
The first bust up Balotelli took part in was against man-mountain Micah Richards. Although Mario is pretty big himself he must be stupid to take on Richards.
Then there’s the ‘miscellaneous’ incidents.
Balotelli threw darts, and missed, at players from City’s youth team, set fireworks off inside his own house and we’ve all seen the back-heel against LA Galaxy.
Just how much is Mario going to get away with in his career?
Sam Jewell