He has no work ethic and was elevated way to quickly for a team that had no one better at the time....I think the blame is way too harsh...they are acting like Balo is the team yet not faulting the other 10 players or the guy who brought 2 strikers who lack movement and left home our two best forwards in Rossi and SES who work their asses off albeit they were injured they still provide more than what was selected.

The truth is that mario never had that much talent. Why is it so hard for people to understand? He's always had a shitty attitude as well, nothing new here.

Well, there were quite a lot of photos going around that showed Balotelli fooling around while his colleagues were training hard and which commented on his laziness in training. Somehow I can't believe that each of them was a fake, so obviously his working ethic was at least somewhat dubious.

What about Immobile?

Mourinho agreed when he put Balotelli as winger in 4-2-3-1 and not as CF . He had continuing to play in that role

BUT BUT BUT ... but Mourinho understands nothing about young players

Balotelli doesn't have enough work rate for a CF... and you want him to work hard enough to be a winger????

sportsczy wrote:Mourinho doesn't have enough work rate for a CF... and you want him to work hard enough to be a winger????

Agreed, Mou has no business playing as a CF or a Winger


But in all seriousness, Balo shouldn't be locking down any starting position for Italy at all. If his workrate is too shit that's his problem and he's far from good enough to warrant building a team around to make up for his deficiencies (of which there are many)

sportsczy wrote:Mourinho doesn't have enough work rate for a CF... and you want him to work hard enough to be a winger????

now it is late. he has changed role after his transfer to City.
But I couild say winger or SS, same thing .

He is limited in any role you put him , of course,

but as CF probably he values ​​even less his qualities

But the problem with Balo as a winger is that you're basically dooming your fullback to NEVER overlap and Balo will offer no width... in essence, the defense only needs to worry about 2/3 of the width of the pitch.

Maybe it's just my bad luck but i watch more then half his games and he's never impressed me.. and out of the blue someone will link me his youtube video of some amazing longshot that never looked like it'd happen watching him previously.

Donuts wrote:Maybe it's just my bad luck but i watch more then half his games and he's never impressed me.. and out of the blue someone will link me his youtube video of some amazing longshot that never looked like it'd happen watching him previously.

That's because more often than not he's not impressive lol

Wenger is a man manager. If anyone can get this guy to grow up, it's him...
Also, he just got engaged and (by extension) will probably be having kids soon... That's how players mature - seriously, look at Ronaldo.
Add that to an Arsenal team with an in-form Özil feeding assists, Mario can easily take the world by storm...

balotelli is overrated.

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/furious-balotelli-italy-racist-world-cup-backlash-negroes-would-never-dump-brother-1454175

Fill me in Serie A/Italians..

My opinion... racism (particularly against black people) is a problem in Italy. Although he is more so responding to a minorities racist tweets... I can't help but feel he does not have any form of backing from Italians or his team mates..

Is it purely about his character.. or do you believe race comes into it?

Was the media and fan reaction similar after Totti's first world cup flop-out in Korea/Japan '02? Or after his spitting incident in Portugal '04? Or did they defend him a little bit more?

Seems to me like this scapegoating goes beyond his mediocre performances.. I really think it could be racially motivated.

And believe me I am the biggest opponent of political correctness gone mad.

@ peccadillo, i'm not sure i can answer your question, (i'm not italian) but with regards the question relating to "totti's treatment", the blame for the world cup 02 debacle was mainly on the referee, his linesmen, and how they officiated the game. as far as i remember, totti did little wrong in that game....you had the feeling that, no matter what italy did that day, the ref and linesmen were going to screw them over....it doesn't help that the referee in question had a very poor track record after that mundial, was suspended for some other poor decisions and had run ins with the law in relation to cocaine smuggling or something of that sort.....can't remember dude's name, but with this google age and all the controversy that guy was involved with, he should not be easy to find....so yeah, can't really compare that totti scenario with balotelli

@ peccadillo, to add to the above, something totti might have had that really helped him was probably club allegiance. i'm not saying he wasn't good in his younger days, but the fact that he put in great performances for roma, never left even when big offers from madrid, milan and others came in, you always felt that no matter what he did, he would still have a large contingent of people backing him....and btw totti has made a lot of bone-head plays, unnecessary red cards and issues with coaches; but the fact he would never leave roma even when it would have been better for him to do so, as well as his on-pitch performance and titles won, he has become a mythical figure there and as such has even won the respect of his peers outside the club....with balo he hasn't built such a relationship, i don't think inter fans like him much after the thing he did where he put on milan socks to training and openly admitted to liking milan whilst he was at inter...also, from a performance standpoint, he hasn't done half as much at milan as totti did for roma, and has been very inconsistent and sometimes downright poor as well.....so once again its tough to make that comparison. as far as race-relations go, i think people who live in italy or follow the azzurri fervently will be able to shed more light on that question....

LoL. are we really serious? comparing balo to IBRA? LOL!!!! for a start balo never really had that much talent in him and never will he. neither did he posses that catchy type of talent like IBRA and he has never being anything spectacular aside from a few odd moments here and there..ffs he's goals against Germany has served him no good in the long run. as he's hype really went into overdrive after that. *poor mans Fabiano*
wonder if some people have ever watched IBRA anyway, past and present, *facePalm*.
classic gil thread!.

@ titosantill - I hear you about the Roma factor. I also understand that Totti cannot be entirely blamed for Italy's failings in 2002.
.. But neither can Balotelli for the 2014 failure.. yet the level of abuse and criticism he has received has been overwhelming.. It looks to me like nothing more than a classic case of scapegoating.

I just chose Totti as an example - I know they aren't that comparable.. but I think the comparison is better than you realise. Although they had differing personalities, Totti, like Balo, was also a massive wank.

You are blaming the referee for Korea, but the fact is Italy were sub-par.. Serial diver Totti's diving got him sent off for a second yellow, end of story - I have no time for those who claim it was not a dive. You can say what you want about Moreno.. but it will remain that it was the right decision to book Totti on BOTH occasions which led to his sending off.

Sometimes you get poor referees, Italy can blame the ref all they want, but really there is no excuse for losing to Korea. Italy were just so butthurt from that game that any excuse would do.. yet I don't remember anyone apportioning any level of responsibility on Totti? The fact remains Totti was supposed to be Italy's talisman in his first world cup - and he failed to deliver throughout the entire tournament.

In fact you can almost compare Italy's denial, evident in the blaming of Moreno, the conspiracy theories and even the treatment of poor Ahn Jung-hwan by Perugia.. to the delusion Uruguay have for Suarez in the current debacle.

Jump to 2004 - which is much worse than the 2002 example - The spitting incident that saw him sent off and banned for 3 games, contributing massively to Italy failing to qualify.. Maybe it's just because social media wasn't quite as mature in those days but I really don't remember seeing the same kind of backlash against Totti as Balo is getting now. Despite the fact he clearly deserved it more than Balo does.

Maybe I don't have my facts right on how Italy truly reacted to Totti's misdeeds.. which is why I will stand corrected if anyone who read Italian newspapers at the time can tell me differently.

Seems to me that Italy have a culture of scapegoating, even worse than.. wait for it.. England    .. And this time it appears to be Balotelli.. It also seems to me that Italy only scapegoat in a way that fits their romantic footballing narrative, maybe Balotelli doesn't fit that narrative.

So to add to my essay.. maybe my question is why doesn't Balotelli fit the Italian footballing narrative? Is it because of his super ego? We've seen that before, the Italian public do not appear to have a problem with players who live the party life and have an ego bigger than their head.

I suspect it may well be because of the colour of his skin, some of his less pleasant critics are quiet candid about this.. however are some of the more intelligent critics potentially ignoring their subconscious?

Maybe this seems far fetched... but in a country where some people chant "a negro cannot be Italian"... is it really?

arsenal fan sticking up for potential transfer balo because youtube highlight/potiental is so high, smh have some shame man

 I don't even know what to say to that

lol DAT lie. He got his first yellow in the 20th and his second in the 60th minute. Mou.

http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/season=2010/matches/round=2000028/match=2000390/index.html

I didn't remember the exact minute but I reminded we played pratically all the whole 2nd time to defend the tie because we were playing in 11 vs 10  . Mourinho had my same sensations probably. it was 30 minutes so long for us , they seemed even more for the suffering . it was an awful match by us for this reason , I remind so many critics for Mourinho after that match , some Italian journalists (Mourinho never loved ) said it was better to keep Mancini than this called Special One, many Interisti rated shameful to have tied in Kazan ( indeed Rubin Kazan showed to be a a team enough respectable in future , it won even at Camp Nou ... but it was their first CL played in Rubin history and so it was excessively denigrated . Noone knew it ) , basically I was satisfied because we couldn't get of better in those conditions ...but I was an exception . We tied all the first 3 matches of CL group 2010 , Rubin won even to Barcellona, it was a hard group , I don't dare to imagine if we would have lost at Kazan for Balotelli . Probably we would have done as Juve this year. Won league with 100 points but knocked out to CL group.

The Interisti began to be irritable for Balotelli after that match , because he did really an idiocy ( tackle Totally  useless ) who could cost a loss .
The irritation became intolerance during the following months .
Balotelli 's behaviour worsened definitely when  he assumed Raiola as agent , in March 2010.

I admit that I was among the few Inter fans who defended Balotelli at that time
Not even insulted after Inter-Barca semi-final when he threw Inter kit (or when he wore Milan kit on March 2010 )  because I didn't want to sell him. I was  sad when we sold him to City. I think he would be improved

I can saying I was (totally) wrong

Rob. DEM war time stories from the good ol' days.