I bet you would have handled it differently on Champ Manager.

You say that Mancini should have kept it behind closed doors. Maybe Mancini has tried every approach possible but they are not working effectively. I think this is an instance when you need more information before jumping to conclusions.

Has the most successful manager in the PL (i.e. Ferguson) ever done this before?




If the world was full of Michael Owen’s and Alan Shearer’s, it would be a very dull place. Regardless of what you think about him, he is a character. Football is in the era of the cliché and soundbites. Balotelli at least takes us out of that occasionally. May be some people lack a sense of humour.

Sometimes he annoys me, but more often than not I find him funny.

When George Best dribbled around a keeper and lent on the post with the ball underneath his foot, people referred to it as ‘classic, ‘genius’ etc.. Not forgetting him getting on his knees to head a ball over the line. Someone else does something similar (in a friendly) it and it is regarded as ‘disrespectful’.

He has a bit more to prove before he can be referred to as a 'great capture'.

He's a vile creature though (NB I am not referring to the penalty incident).

Bwahahahahahaha

Was it not him going mad at him? That happens in football. You may perceive it as a public humiliation whereas others e.g. me (and for all we know Balotteli) may perceive it as a run of the mill disagreement in their world. What makes you so sure that the first view is the right one when it's pure conjecture?



Not yet but the action I described is not exclusive to great managers. I said it was something that great managers know how to do which doesn't mean other managers cannot do it, more that it's a common trait among the great managers.

United linked with Mirko Vucinic. Is another forward really necessary? I've seen him play just off the forwards before but it's not his best position. Haven't seen a price but I'd guess at around £20 million.

Birmingham City to go into administration tomorrow

That could explain Ben Foster to West Brom on loan (so I've been told).

Another overseas owner, who at the time of purchase was seen as the man to lift a club up into the top clubs of the league, exposed as the fraud that most of them are.

Everton fans moan about Kenwright, but at least they know the guy has the true interests of the club at heart....Imagine if he just sold out to the first foreigner offering big bucks, which I'm pretty sure he could have done.

True. There has been some good takeovers though, it's easy to highlight the bad ones and say looks what happens but increasingly more and more of these new owners are being exposed and putting the club in all kinds of trouble.

Well I'm sure we can all look on it and say it's worked, as Mario will now be a reformed character and was clearly delighted with the way Mancini reacted towards him, as he walked off and obediently apologised to Mancini on the sideline. Mancini overreacted to a simply piece of showboating in a friendly. It meant nothing, but Mancini has now turned it into something far bigger than it actually should be. Masterstroke.

Vucinic to Spurs?

It obviously meant something to Mancini and the team. Masterstroke indeed.

If your looking at it as an isolated incident. Then yes, your probably right, Mancini overreacted.

But it isn't an isolated incident, Balotelli has been getting in trouble over cr@p like this for years, and Mancini still has to tell him time and time again to grow the feck up. That's why Mancini reacted like he did, Balotelli hasn't earned any sort of right to showboat.

If a 20 year old youngster who hadn't played for the first team before did that in a friendly, do you not think the manager would haul him off for taking the p iss and not taking the opportunity to impress?

Like the young Qatari(?) lad who back-heeled that penalty.

No, he probably wouldn't. I remember Robbie Keane trying to flick in a chance for us against Atletico Madrid a few years back, if he just took it like normal, he would have scored, but he tried something fancy and missed. Wasn't hauled off.

Let's put it this way, if Tevez tried that, would he have hauled him off? Would he have hauled Toure off?

The fact he hauled Balotelli off is what makes it so bizarre. Balotelli is renowned for his fragile temperament, he can lose it in a blink of an eye and he can hold a grudge. He isn't like your model pro, he doesn't get on with it, he sulks and he loses his frustration regularly on the pitch. Me personally, if I'd have seen something like that happen in a pre-season friendly, I'd have just laughed, because it's a time for exhibition stuff. If Balotelli got sent off, then I'd have bollocked him in the dressing room, but publicly losing it and publicly humiliating a player does nobody any favours, especially over a meaningless game.