Juventude wrote:

zarola wrote:Cassano was never a bad guy causing problems amongst his teammates and opponents like Balotelli is doing now, in fact, Cassano is the exact opposite. The only true setbacks I've seen with Cassano are his eating habits, Fabio Capello and Marcello Lippi, but we all saw what a moron Lippi truly is and Capello had problems even with the likes of ADP.

Balotelli in my opinion was doing fine in Italy, it's when he started grabbing all of the English media's attention that crap was going bad for him. Refs are particularly strict on him, they will not hesitate to give him a red card because they know all the attention will be transferred to Mario and not the referee's decision. I honestly didn't have too many issues with Balotelli until he started playing like a *bleep* moron against Arsenal, and now I don't know whether to trust him or not. He's VERY lucky Prandelli is still taking him. I still hope he lights Euro on fire (not literally , please for the love of God) this summer, alongside Cassano... but he really needs to try extra special now because every little thing he does he's going to get penalized for.

AS for Destro, that would be a great signing although: I don't think Conte would trust him, I think he would ride the bench, and in the champions league you still need someone to thrash those big teams (I don't know if you guys think he's actually ready for that sort of stuff yet or not). I hope Destro comes to inter instead ;D

Cassano had way more problems than eating habits. That's a ridiculous statement. Cassano fought with coaches, teammates, and management at Roma, Real Madrid, and Sampdoria. He had on-field conflicts with referees leading to multiple match bans. Cassano didn't clean up his act until he started settling down with his family and realizing that his career was going to be marred by his stupid actions.

Cassano and Balotelli are very similar. Balotelli's problems are a bit worse because he faces the backlash of both the English and Italian media. Also, athletes are becoming bigger and bigger ego-maniacs as time goes on. So, it doesn't shock me that Balotelli does a few stupider things than Cassano. The media and fans start hailing players as the second coming of [name football legend] when these kids are 16 now. So, it's no wonder that Balotelli acts like an idiot.

The guy is 21. That is way too young for him to be branded a "problem player" for the rest of his career. Most of you guys on this board are around the same age or younger than Balotelli and you're saying he's a permanent problem that you wouldn't take a chance on. As one of the older guys on here, I find it to be laughable that you think a 21 year old with ego issues can't be saved. I am nowhere near the same person I was when I was 21. People need to relax and give the kid an opportunity to change.

And I don't know what you're talking about with Capello. He didn't have major problems with Del P, he just preferred Ibra and Trez as his first choice forwards and could you blame him for that? I don't.

zarola wrote:

Juventude wrote:

zarola wrote:Cassano was never a bad guy causing problems amongst his teammates and opponents like Balotelli is doing now, in fact, Cassano is the exact opposite. The only true setbacks I've seen with Cassano are his eating habits, Fabio Capello and Marcello Lippi, but we all saw what a moron Lippi truly is and Capello had problems even with the likes of ADP.

Balotelli in my opinion was doing fine in Italy, it's when he started grabbing all of the English media's attention that crap was going bad for him. Refs are particularly strict on him, they will not hesitate to give him a red card because they know all the attention will be transferred to Mario and not the referee's decision. I honestly didn't have too many issues with Balotelli until he started playing like a *bleep* moron against Arsenal, and now I don't know whether to trust him or not. He's VERY lucky Prandelli is still taking him. I still hope he lights Euro on fire (not literally , please for the love of God) this summer, alongside Cassano... but he really needs to try extra special now because every little thing he does he's going to get penalized for.

AS for Destro, that would be a great signing although: I don't think Conte would trust him, I think he would ride the bench, and in the champions league you still need someone to thrash those big teams (I don't know if you guys think he's actually ready for that sort of stuff yet or not). I hope Destro comes to inter instead ;D

Cassano had way more problems than eating habits. That's a ridiculous statement. Cassano fought with coaches, teammates, and management at Roma, Real Madrid, and Sampdoria. He had on-field conflicts with referees leading to multiple match bans. Cassano didn't clean up his act until he started settling down with his family and realizing that his career was going to be marred by his stupid actions.

Cassano and Balotelli are very similar. Balotelli's problems are a bit worse because he faces the backlash of both the English and Italian media. Also, athletes are becoming bigger and bigger ego-maniacs as time goes on. So, it doesn't shock me that Balotelli does a few stupider things than Cassano. The media and fans start hailing players as the second coming of [name football legend] when these kids are 16 now. So, it's no wonder that Balotelli acts like an idiot.

The guy is 21. That is way too young for him to be branded a "problem player" for the rest of his career. Most of you guys on this board are around the same age or younger than Balotelli and you're saying he's a permanent problem that you wouldn't take a chance on. As one of the older guys on here, I find it to be laughable that you think a 21 year old with ego issues can't be saved. I am nowhere near the same person I was when I was 21. People need to relax and give the kid an opportunity to change.

And I don't know what you're talking about with Capello. He didn't have major problems with Del P, he just preferred Ibra and Trez as his first choice forwards and could you blame him for that? I don't.

first I will address the ADP issue, with this quote, take it for what it is:

" Del Piero never had a calm relation with Fabio Capello though, evident from the quote on his official site, saying, "If Capello had stayed as coach of Juventus, I would have left Juventus." " . Seems like the most loyal player of the club almost wanting to leave his team is a major problem to me.

As for Cassano, he has, in the past, had some problems with referees but many top players do, and he has never had problems with referees to the extent that Balotelli has (at least to my knowledge, I would've been very young and hard to remember that sort of stuff back then). On the otherhand, someone like Totti had a lot more issues with the officials but Cassano gets all of the attention because he was left out of the squad due to Lippi's biasedness. I haven't heard of Cassano having any problems with teammates, so if you have an actual proof of that let me know. At Sampdoria, I can hardly blame any of the situation on him, the fans were behind him the whole time, and look at how Sampdoria are doing now lol. And then at Real Madrid, and Roma the problems were mainly with Capello, only one man.

In Cassano's lengthy career he's had 18 yellows, 1 yellow/red , and 1 straight red.

Balotelli has 45 yellows and 4 yellow/reds and 1 straight red already...

[statistics from soccerway.com]

See what I mean by how Cassano is extremely exaggerated, that's a HUGE DIFFERENCE. You can hardly compare the disciplinary problems between the two!

zarola wrote:pretty sure that I am an Italia fan before an Inter fan, so I would not prefer to see Balotelli fail. I'm just calling stuff as it is.