
Bitter and Blue Falcao, Edison Cavani and Robert Lewandowski appear to be the hottest properties on the wanted lists this summer and City could be well placed to land one, although it does appear as though two of those could soon be scratched from the wanted list. With Mario Balotelli now in Milan and Edin Dzeko appearing as though he is on the way out City will need to add in this area. They may well have the money too depending upon any fee recouped for Dzeko to add to the £20m for Balotelli and seemingly would be willing to pay in the region of £40million for the right player. City do need goals ho...
Manchester City May 30, 2013
Daily Mail Mario Balotelli and Robin van Persie scored two goals each for their national sides in Tuesday's World Cup qualifiers, with Van Persie's strikes in Holland's 4-0 victory over Romania liftingthe Manchester United striker above Johan Cruyff in the Oranje's all-time scorers table.
Chelsea March 26, 2013
Daily Mail David Beckham is set to take on Joey Barton in his Paris Saint-Germain debut, Mario Balotelli looks to continue his incredible goalscoring start in Milan and Bradford could lift the first major trophy of the season.
Chelsea February 21, 2013Evening Chronicle DAVIDE SANTON insists even the lure to team up with close pal Mario Balotelli at AC Milan would not persuade him to quit his beloved Newcastle United.
Newcastle United February 13, 2013The Guardian • Italian media claimed striker confronted police at airport• Milan insist 'there was no argument' over illegal parkingMilan have denied reports in Italy that Mario Balotelli was fined after becoming involved in an argument with police having parked illegally at the city's Linate airport on Thursday.Balotelli, who was collecting friends, was told to move his car by traffic wardens when he stopped in a no-parking zone. He initially appeared to do so, but, say reports, "he was only pretending", and immediately parked illegally again – leading to a "heated row" with two passing police officers.Mi...
Manchester City February 7, 2013The Guardian • Former Manchester City player says Premier League 'the best'• 'It's always been a dream for me to play for Milan'Mario Balotelli admitted he will miss Manchester City after his deadline-day move to Milan but the Italian has taken a swipe at English culture."I have to say thanks to all the City fans because they've been very nice to me and they always supported me in the good and in the bad moments. And I have to thank my team-mates and the manager. Everything else, I'm happy that I left England," the 22-year-old said."Good things – only when I get to Carrington to train. So my team-mates and...
Manchester City February 1, 2013The Guardian Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini tells reporters at a press conference that with Mario Balotelli no longer at the club they will have nothing to talk about
Manchester City February 1, 2013
Bitter and Blue Following the confirmed departure of Mario Balotelli the expectation is that the final hours of the 2013 January transfer window will be a quiet one as far as City are concerned. Perhaps there may be a late, unexpected big money signing or a David Pizzaro short term arrival, but the likelihood is Roberto Mancini and co opt to play out the season with the current squad as is. Similarly, in terms of departures not much is anticipated with some of the younger players perhaps moving out on short term loans. Still, it should be a busy day as far as the Premier League is concerned so thro...
Manchester City January 31, 2013The Guardian Hundreds of fans waited outside a Milan restaurant to welcome latest signing Mario Balotelli to AC Milan on Wednesday
Manchester City January 30, 2013The Guardian • City confirm controversial striker's return to Italy• Balotelli made 80 City appearances since 2010• Live: follow transfer deadline day as it happens Mario Balotelli's turbulent Manchester City career is over after the club confirmed the controversial striker has completed his move to Milan on a four-and-a-half-year contract.The initial fee is understood to be €20m (£17m), with another €5m of potential add-ons depending on appearances.The 22-year-old, who pulled out of the City squad on Tuesday evening before the 0-0 draw at QPR as the deal neared fruition, joined City in 2010, making 80 app...
Manchester City January 30, 2013The Guardian • Italy striker underwent medical on Wednesday• 'It's been a long time that I've wanted to play for Milan'The Italy striker Mario Balotelli arrived in Milan to finalise his move from Manchester City to Milan on Wednesday. Milan announced on Tuesday that they had reached an agreement with City and that Balotelli would sign a four-and-a-half-year deal following a medical.Balotelli flew from Manchester on a private plane along with Milan's vice–president, Adriano Galliani. "It's been a long time that I've wanted to play for Milan, but I was playing for other clubs so I couldn't come here," Balote...
Manchester City January 30, 2013The Guardian Manchester City fan James Hopkin followed the mercurial striker to Euro 2012 – and even then he acted weird. But things were to get a whole lot worseAt Manchester City, my club, we are used to battling, unglamorous strikers – Rösler, Dickov, Quinn, Walsh, Goater, Dzeko. But Balotelli was an athlete, towering above the mini-maestros, Tevez and Agüero; a winning combination of muscle and skill (even if the concentration and commitment were often lacking).However, his presence at City can be summed up by the two home matches I attended over Christmas. At the Reading match, in which Mario did not ...
Manchester City January 30, 2013The Guardian The Premier League is said by many to be predictable but more than half its participants veer wildly from the scriptIt will soon be time to laugh and cry and cry and laugh about it all again, but before that we might reflect for a moment on how wildly unpredictable is football itself, and not only its highest-profile, best-paid, most infuriatingly inconsistent performers.The young Italian whose stunning goals propelled his country to the Euro 2012 final could have lit up the Premier League this season had he shown even a flicker of that form. The stage appeared set for Roberto Mancini to unlea...
Manchester City January 30, 2013The Guardian Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini says Mario Balotelli was loved at the club and he 'deserves' to have the chance of Serie A football with Milan
Manchester City January 30, 2013
Bitter and Blue So what may be the best method in order to evaluate Mario Balotelli's two and a half year career with City? For me it's best to look at league performance. That provides us with the largest sample size, and it has been, arguably, City's number one priority over the previous 2 years. So let's look at Mario's 3 seasons with the club, with a focus on minutes played, time on pitch %, shots, shots on target and goals. Naturally any purely statistical evaluation will not include details on the ability of Man City's strikers to make intelligent runs, clever passes, display excellent build up ...
Manchester City January 30, 2013