Stevan Jovetic targeted by Napoli manager Rafa Benitez
When Stevan Jovetic came to England for £22 million last summer, a lot was expected of the Montenegrin, however due to a series of injuries the striker has been unable to show his worth for Manchester City as he’s watched Sergio Aguero, Alvaro Negredo and Edin Dzeko secure the Citizens second title in three years.
TalkSPORT reports how the 24-year-old is now rumoured to be wanted by former Liverpool and Chelsea boss, Rafa Benitez, at his new club Napoli.
The Spaniard has long been an admirer of the player, dating back to his Liverpool days, but now he is stepping up his chase for Jovetic to return to Italy where he had a five-year stint in Florence, scoring 40 goals in 134 games, leading the side to Champions League qualification for the first time in a decade.
The teenage sensation that shot onto the scene with Partizan Belgrade - where he made club history by captaining the side at only 17 years of age, could be looking for regular first team football while Manchester City may be looking to re-coup some of the money paid so a move may be beneficial for both parties
Liverpool Beats Man. City in English Soccer League Money-Making
Liverpool lost English soccer’s Premier League title to Manchester City this season, although the Reds earned more from the sport’s richest competition.
City finished with 86 points after the 38-game campaign, two more points than Liverpool. Still, the second-placed team earned a league record 97.5 million pounds ($163.6 million), about 1 million pounds more than City, according to information released by the Premier League today.
The blue Manchester team, the world’s sixth-richest soccer club, won the league on the final day of the season. It did the same in the 2012 season, and then lost the title to Manchester United last season. United, which finished seventh this season, earned 89.2 million pounds.
Third-placed Chelsea earned 94.1 million pounds, while fourth-placed Arsenal got 92.9 million pounds, according to an e-mailed statement from the league.
All 20 teams in the league received payments of 21.6 million pounds, 26.3 million pounds in overseas broadcast income and 4.3 million pounds from shared commercial revenue.
Other revenue is linked to league place and the number of times a team’s matches are broadcast live. Liverpool had the most games broadcast, 28, making up for City’s larger payment for finishing first.
Last-placed Cardiff earned 62.1 million pounds, while Fulham got 63.3 million pounds, and the third relegated club, Norwich, received 64.6 million pounds.
Manchester City's Abu Dhabi tour: Fun, frolic and some football
City to clash with Al Ain on Thursday
Manchestery City team arrived in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, on Tuesday morning. (Twitter/Etihad Airways)
The players, fresh from their title parade through the streets of Manchester, arrived in the capital of the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday morning, before being immediately greeted by a swarm of autograph-hungry fans eager to greet the newly-crowned English champions.
The club to host an open training session for fans in the capital on Wednesday, before playing Al Ain - the team of former Sunderland and Ghana star Asamoah Gyan - a day later.
City will be playing the Arabian Gulf champions at their newly opened Hazza Bin Zayed stadium.
It seems as though the tour will be a fitting end to an excellent season for Manchester City, after adding the Premier League - which they regained following a 2-0 victory over West Ham on Sunday - to the
Capital One Cup they won after beating Sunderland at Wembley in March.
Manchester City FC captain Vincent Kompany and manager Manuel Pellegrini are urging fans to come and join in the title winning celebrations at an open training session in Abu Dhabi.
The free open training session at Al Jazira FC stadium in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday night from 6.30pm.
Both trophies will be on display at the event.
The City squad has been congratulated on their domestic cup double by the club’s owner in Abu Dhabi.
Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Presidential Affairs and owner of the Manchester City Club welcomed the players, manager and staff for a special night of celebration at the St. Regis Hotel on Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi.
Just two days after winning the Premier League title, Sheikh Mansour took time to congratulate Manuel Pellegrini and each player individually on this season’s success.
Sheikh Mansour also met with all city staff that have travelled to Abu Dhabi and spoke at length with the Chairman, City Board Members and Chief Executive Officer Ferran Sorriano and Director of Football Txiki Begiristain.
City make light of "spinal" problems to take title
The Blues success has been based on their four central players - and they have hardly played together!
Manchester City are the champions of England despite playing most of the season with backbone problems.
When the Blues were able to pick the world-class talents of Joe Hart, Vincent Kompany, Yaya Toure and Sergio Aguero in their starting line-up, they won every domestic game.
As soon as they lost two or more of that quintessential quartet, the quality of the Blues’ performance, and the hard statistics, drop off dramatically.
It has long been an accepted truth in football that any successful team needs a strong spine, and that the rest of your football “body” works off it.
Get your central players right, and build the team around it, and you have a powerful, functioning unit – get it wrong and your team will wobble its way through a season, flaccid and unreliable.
Of course, Manuel Pellegrini can be grateful for the fact that he inherited the spine of his team.
Kompany was brought in by Mark Hughes and transformed from a midfielder into a world class central defender by Roberto Mancini, who was also behind the signings of Toure and Aguero.
The Chilean would have to thank Stuart Pearce and his scouts for bringing in Hart for £100,000, one of the greatest football bargains of all time.
But what Pellegrini has done is built on the legacy of Mancini, and stiffened the spine with some cute moves of his own.
Not least, he brought in Fernandinho as a partner to Toure. Gareth Barry was a great servant and a good foil for the big Ivorian, but his ageing legs began to look a tad too slow when it came to competing at the highest level.
Brazilian ace Fernandinho made his name as a dynamic, box-to-box midfielder at Shakhtar Donetsk, and he was asked to curb his attacking instincts and sit deep.
That has given Toure free rein to bomb forward, and the consequences have been devastating for the rest of the Premier League, as he has scored 20 goals in the competition, laying defences to waste.
There are no finer sights in football than Toure switching on the turbo and powering away from markers and tacklers, the ball apparently tied to his improbably delicate feet.
Toure is the archetypal big-game player – he consistently produces something when it is most needed.
This season has seen him score in both derby matches and fire in a remarkable goal to turn the League Cup final on its head.]
But it was in the match at Crystal Palace, the pivotal moment of the entire season, that he showed his capacity for picking up a game by the scruff of its neck, and shaking it down.
After City’s travelling fans had watched Liverpool lose at home to Chelsea, they nervously anticipated that they might blow it at Selhurst Park, a touch of typical City.
Instead they got typical Toure. His cross from a deep position onto Edin Dzeko’s head gave City the edge, and he then produced a jaw-dropping charge from deep in his own half, playing two wall passes and then showing exquisite control and a striker’s finish to make it 2-0 and place the title destiny back in City’s hands.
Hart has not had the best season of his career, but the way he has responded to his mid-season wobble, and Pellegrini’s handling of the situation, has been exemplary.
Every player goes through difficult spells in their career, and when it happens to a goalkeeper, it can feel like the heavens are falling on your head – a mistake usually means a goal. And when you are the England keeper, the pressure and the criticism grows out of all proportion.
The manager handled Hart’s mid-season problems impeccably, taking him out of the firing line, and allowing him the time to get himself right mentally, going back to basics.
Only the foolish thought that was the end of Hart, as class is permanent, and he is too dedicated, too professional, too strong in the mind, to have let it slip from there.
He came back as strong as ever, and played a major part in City;’s defensive strengthening in the second half of the season – his save from Steven Naismith at Everton was stop of the season, in terms of both stunning quality and importance.
Kompany’s importance to City is tangible. You don’t need any statistics to prove it, although, for the record, this season City lost three of the 28 league games in which he played, and lost three of the ten in which he was absent.
Pellegrini’s shrewdest move was bringing in Martin Demichelis, a veteran defender who was ridiculed in some quarters earlier in the season but who became a mainstay of the defence during the title run-in.
But Kompany’s influence extends beyond stopping the opposition from scoring goals – he is a born leader, an eloquent spokesman and a ferocious competitor.
City are blessed with four good strikers, three of them topping the 20-goal mark for the season, and the other, Stevan Jovetic, giving some tantalising glimpses of what is in store next season if he can avoid the injury curse that blighted his campaign.
But the jewel of the foursome is undoubtedly Aguero, perhaps the only one who has established himself as truly world-class.
He has the low centre of gravity that helped to make his erstwhile father-in-law Diego Maradona arguably the greatest player that ever lived.
“Kun” does not have the other-worldly control and dribbling abilities that set Maradona apart, but he has the power, the pace over short distances and a deadly eye for goal.
That City won the title when their main goalscorer was injured for 15 matches, almost half of the season, is testimony to the way Alvaro Negredo and Dzeko stepped up to the plate, and to Pellegrini’s capacity to extract the best from any given situation.
But Aguero scored great goals at crucial moments, not least his equaliser at Everton, when it looked like the title was slipping away.
City have those four wrapped up – Hart until 2016, Toure and Aguero until 2017 and Kompany until 2018.
The spine is strong, and enduring.
CITY’S LEAGUE RECORD WHEN HART, KOMPANY, TOURE AND AGUERO STARTED 2013-14
P7 W7 D0 L0 F23 A 5
GOLDEN BOLLOX 14-5-2010
Robbies been busy ...
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Manchester City to pursue Hamsik, Napoli offer new deal
According to Italian daily Corriere dello Sport, Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini will continue his pursuit of Marek Hamsik , with Napoli hoping he will sign a new contract before the World Cup.
Despite missing out on Champions League qualification, Mancini still believes that he can attract big names to Eastlands and signing Hamsik, who has been linked to Chelsea for some time would be a statement of Manchester City 's intent.
22 year-old midfielder Hamsik has been a consistent star performer in Serie A over the past several years and has scored 12 goals in 36 games for Napoli this season. The Slovakian is expected to star at this summer's World Cup.
Hamsik is yet to sign a new deal with Napoli, but Corriere dello Sport reports that his agent is negotiating an extension which will take his contract up to 2015. It will include a release clause of 40 million Euros and an agreement over the player’s image rights.
However, Corriere dello Sport reports that Mancini still believes Manchester City can offer Hamsik a financial package hard to turn down. Mancini has also reportedly consulted Hamsik’s Slovakia team-mate Vladimir Weiss, a Manchester City player himself. Apparently, City would have to offer Napoli at least 30 million Euros to have any chance of capturing Hamsik.
Samir Nasri's girlfriend Anara Atanes in foul-mouthed Twitter rant after City star is snubbed by France
Anara Atanes, who has been dating Nasri since last year, blasted Didier Deschamps in an expletive laden Twitter tirade
Manchester City star Samir Nasri’s girlfriend launched a foul-mouthed Twitter tirade - after the midfielder didn’t get chosen for France’s World Cup squad.
Antares Atanes, who has been dating Nasri since last year, tweeted: “F**k France and f**k [Didier] Deschamps! What a s**t manager!”
She then added: “Lets just get this straight! I’m not mad I get my bf for 2 months... I just think theres a level of respect to be had!”
The Victoria’s Secret model, who previously dated Arsenal player Freddie Ljungberg, then also tweeted ‘#ShouldOfBeenSpanish’.
She was reacting to the news that Nasri - who stepped out last night with other City players to celebrate the club’s second Premier League win - had been left out of France’s squad for this summer’s World Cup in Rio de Janeiro.
French coach Didier Deschamps instead gave the nod to midfielders including Newcastle’s Sissoko and Juventus player Pogba.
Last November Antares, 26, had re-tweeted a photo of her bundled up in a hat and coat, seemingly sat in a dug-out with the girlfriends of other French international players with the message ‘Brasil here we come’.
Man City trio in Argentina squad
Argentina head coach Alejandro Sabella has named a 30-man preliminary squad for next month's World Cup in Brazil featuring three players from Premier League champions Manchester City.
Pablo Zabaleta, Sergio Aguero and, perhaps surprisingly, Martin Demichelis are all included in the party which will be trimmed to 23 names before the tournament.
As expected, former City and Manchester United striker Carlos Tevez was not summoned despite a prolific season with Serie A champions Juventus.
Tevez has not been considered by Sabella in the national team of late and had already said he would be at Disney World with his family, rather than in the squad.
Demichelis is not the only surprise selection, with River Plate defender Gabriel Mercado and Catania midfielder Fabian Rinaudo also selected.
Aguero is joined in a typically fearsome array of attacking options by Barcelona's Lionel Messi, Paris St Germain's Ezequiel Lavezzi, Gonzalo Higuain of Napoli, Inter Milan's Rodrigo Palacio and Franco Di Santo of Werder Bremen.
Brendan Rodgers doesn't deserve manager award says Patrick Vieira
Liverpool boss won the overall LMA Manager of the Year gong but Patrick Vieira is not impressed.
Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers scooped the LMA Manager of the Year Award on Monday night, voted for by his peers across all four divisions.
Rodgers led Liverpool to a second placed finish, improving dramatically on their finishing position of seventh a year ago.
He came agonisingly close to delivering a first league title in more than two decades at the club, and simply by making the club's supporters dream it was possible, he has delivered above expectation, and secured Champions League football.
Yet not everybody is impressed with the decision. For his award overlooks the achievement of Manuel Pellegrini, who actually won the Premier League.
Former Arsenal midfielder and Manchester City head of development Patrick Vieira believes Rodgers' award went to the wrong man.
Pellegrini follows in the footsteps of Jose Mourinho and Carlo Ancelotti by winning the Premier League in his first year in English football.
Yet in those years neither won it either. In 2010, Ancelotti was beaten to the award by Sir Alex Ferguson despite going onto lift the double, and in 2005, Mourinho watched a certain David Moyes walk award with the top prize.
[spoiler]Magda Gomez, Pippo Inzaghi's Girlfriend
[/spoiler]Southampton midfielder Adam Lallana, 26, may have to put in a transfer request if he wants to complete a move to Liverpool before the World Cup. Guardian
Chelsea want to sign Hoffenheim attacker Roberto Firmino, 22, this summer to team up with fellow transfer target Diego Costa, 25. Daily Express
Swansea boss Garry Monk warns Arsenal and Everton that striker Wilfried Bony, 25, will only be sold for an "astronomical" fee. TalkSHIT
Hull boss Steve Bruce is considering a move for 35-year-old former England defender Rio Ferdinand, who will leave Manchester United at the end of the season. DSSC
Norwich keeper John Ruddy, 27, says England boss Roy Hodgson has made "a bad call" by leaving him out of the World Cup squad. Daily Telegraph
Celtic boss Neil Lennon is ready to quit the Scottish Premiership champions to take charge at Norwich as they prepare for the Championship. Daily Mirror
Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers says Raheem Sterling, 19, will be a star of the World Cup if he is given the freedom to perform for England as he does for his club. Daily Telegraph
Former England midfielder Joe Cole, 32, will take his time to think over his next move after being released by West Ham. TalkSHIT
Louis van Gaal may ask Ryan Giggs, 40, to stay on as a player and as his assistant manager should the Dutchman, as expected, be appointed as Manchester United boss. Daily Mirror
Former Manchester United captain Roy Keane thinks defenders Chris Smalling, 24 and Phil Jones, 22, have regressed over the last two years. Guardian
Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho is keen to offer midfielder Frank Lampard, 35, a new contract at Stamford Bridge. DSSC
Aston Villa striker Christian Benteke, 22, hopes to return to action at the start of next season despite fears that a ruptured Achilles could keep the Belgian sidelined until 2015. Birmingham Mail
Aston Villa boss Paul Lambert insists he will not resign despite uncertainty over his summer transfer plans after owner Randy Lerner put the club up for sale. Daily Mirror
Sunderland boss Gus Poyet is set to offer Argentine defender Santiago Vergini, 25, a permanent deal following his spell on loan from Estudiantes. Daily Star
Hamburg will not sell 20-year-old midfielder Hakan Calhanoglu despite strong interest from Bayern Munich, Chelsea and Real Madrid. L'Equipe
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger would be willing to pay £24m to beat Juventus to the signing of Barcelona forward Alexis Sanchez, 25. AS
Roma have joined Fiorentina and Chelsea in the race to sign Real Madrid midfielder Sami Khedira, 27. Bild
AC Milan want Eusebio Di Francesco, boss of Serie A rivals Sassuolo, to replace Clarence Seedorf as manager. Tuttosport
Djibril Cisse's eight-year-old son, Cassius, has rejected Liverpool, Manchester United and Everton in favour of Crewe Alexandra. Daily Express
GOLDEN CUP FINAL DAY BOLLOX 14-5-2011
Silva planning for Manchester City gold rush
David Silva is convinced FA Cup glory for Manchester City today can be the springboard for them to join Europe's elite clubs.
With their Champions League place for next season now secured, Roberto Mancini's side have their sights on beating Stoke at Wembley to end the club's 35-year wait for a trophy.
But for Silva and his City team-mates, this is just the beginning of a process they believe can eventually see them rival the likes of Manchester United and Barcelona.
"We're starting to do things now and to achieve things," said Silva. "Let's hope it's the start of bigger things to come. The aim is to be fighting for all titles, as soon as possible.
"We are on the right lines, because what we've done this season is very positive. We've got to the FA Cup final and reached the Champions League by securing fourth spot.
"This is the plan we need to be following in the next few years, that same upward curve. We aim to be fighting for trophies on all fronts, and why not?
"It's normal for people to be talking about Manchester United on a European level because of what they've achieved over the last few years and the trophies they've won.
"But it would be a good sign towards what we're achieving now and the future if City was the name on the lips of people in terms of European football.
"What you have to notice about a team like Barcelona is that it hasn't happened overnight.
"They've been working in the same style for a good number of years. Everyone knows their job when they go out on that field and has confidence in what they want to achieve. They all work hard.
"It's certainly something we have to be aiming for."
Silva said City's emergence as a team capable of challenging the very best in Europe had not gone unnoticed by his Spain team-mates, particularly the Barca trio of Andres Iniesta, David Villa and Xavi.
"When we get together in the national side, one of the last things we talk about is football," said Silva. "When you're with your mates, there's loads more personal stuff you chat about.
"But they have mentioned that City are on the way up, growing and moving in right direction.
"We've chatted about facing each other in the Champions League one day."
Were it not for the glut of goals from Carlos Tevez and the defensive reliability of Vincent Kompany, Silva would surely be in with a shout of being named City's player of the season.
Signed from Valencia for £24million last summer, World Cup and Euro 2008 winner Silva arrived with a big reputation; his slight frame the only doubt over his suitability to the physical nature of the Premier League.
But the winger has been one of Mancini's best buys, his guile and creativity a key factor in City clinching Champions League football and being on the brink of a long overdue trophy.
"The fact there are lots of small footballers in English football shows that size doesn't matter," said Silva. "We know Stoke are a big side who play with a lot of aggression.
"We know they'll be hard to beat, but at the same time it's a final and we feel we can beat them."
Although he has won the game's top honours with his country, Silva is desperate to win the FA Cup, not least because of what it would mean to City's success-starved fans.
"It would be just as meaningful for me in the sense that it's been a long time since City won a trophy or even got into a final," he said. "So I know how important it is for the people who follow this club.
"Because I've had such a good time here and been treated so well by the fans, it's important I give something to them - a trophy."
If Tevez is unhappy he should leave - Mancini
Roberto Mancini has told Carlos Tevez he can quit Manchester City if he is not committed to the club.
Tevez will start today's FA Cup final against Stoke but his future is in doubt, with the City skipper said to be keen on a move this summer.
And City boss Mancini has told £40million-rated Tevez - who handed in a transfer request earlier this season - he should leave if he is unhappy.
"Carlos has got a five-year contract, but in my opinion a player should stay here because he believes in the project and he's happy to stay at the club," said Mancini.
"If I'm not happy to stay, then I'll leave. It's the same for the players. If they aren't happy to stay, it's better they leave.
"When you start your job you should be happy, because the season is long and there could be a thousand problems.
"I have never said that Carlos wants to leave - I said that it would be his decision. At the moment, he has a five-year contract here.
"He's scored 22 goals and that's very important. But we've got this far because all the players have contributed.
"I would say all the players here at the moment are happy to stay because this season they've worked well together and we've got into the Champions League."
Real Madrid and Inter Milan are both keen on signing Tevez, and the City board have now accepted it may be in their best interest to sell their captain this summer.
City fear a repeat of last October's unseemly saga over Tevez's future, with his representatives understood to be keen on a fresh, lucrative move for the 26-year-old.
The latest clash between the pair coming during Tuesday's 1-0 win over Tottenham at Eastlands, which secured their Champions League place.
Tevez, keen to prove his fitness following a hamstring problem ahead of today's final, was angry Mancini kept him waiting to come on and gave his boss a volley of abuse when told to carry on warming-up.
Mancini claimed he gets on with Tevez, but said he could not guarantee if the forward would be at City next season.
"I don't know," he said. "We have a good team this year but we need to improve.
"To win the title is harder but if we can buy good players with experience of winning with other teams, that would be good for everyone."
Mancini also warned his players they face a major test of their will and strength of character against Stoke, whom they have not beaten in the last four meetings.
"We've played against Stoke four times in the past year and we've had a problem in every game," he said. "They are not easy to play against.
"We have to focus on every situation. Their set-pieces could be difficult for us. We must be patient and work hard.
"Stoke are different from any other team.
"They are a physical team and the game will be 95 minutes, maybe more if there's extra-time."
MANCHESTER CITY v STOKE: PROBABLE LINE-UP FOR TODAY
Manchester City (4-2-3-1) Hart; Richards, Kompany, Lescott, Kolarov; Barry, De Jong; A Johnson, Yaya Toure, Silva; Tevez
Stoke (4-4-2) Sorensen; Wilkinson, Huth, Shawcross, Wilson; Pennant, Whelan, Delap, Etherington; Jones, Walters
MANCHESTER CITY v STOKE: LAST TIME IN THE LEAGUE...
Stoke 1 City 1 November 27 2010 - City, who had just won handsomely at Fulham, thought they had banked another three points on the road when Micah Richards fired them ahead with just nine minutes remaining. But in the end they had to be content with a point after Matthew Etherington latched on to a Tuncay back-heel to slot home an equaliser two minutes into stoppage time.
MANCHESTER CITY v STOKE: LAST TIME IN THE FA CUP...
Stoke 3 City 1 February 24 2010 - There was little between the two sides until it all kicked off in extra time of this fifth round replay. The first game ended 1-1 at Eastlands and that's how it finished after 90 minutes in the Britannia Stadium rematch, with Dave Kitson on target for the Potters and Craig Bellamy supplying a leveller. Then Emmanuel Adebayor was sent off for elbowing Ryan Shawcross, who subsequently headed Stoke in front five minutes into extra time. A clincher from Tuncay set up a last-eight meeting with eventual Cup winners Chelsea.
THE DAY CITY AND STOKE BECAME FA CUP RECORD-BREAKERS
Manchester City and Stoke attracted a crowd of 84,569 for an FA Cup sixth round tie in 1934 - an English attendance record outside Wembley, which still stands today.
City won 1-0 when an intended cross by winger Eric Brooke floated into the Stoke net.
But the Mirror report was critical of errors by 19-year-old Stoke winger named Stanley Matthews, whose was to enjoy his own Cup glory 19 years later when he lifted the trophy with Blackpool.
It also said City’s right-half Matt Busby was “the cleverest player on view”.
GOLDEN WAG
[spoiler]
Zlatan Ibrahimovic transfer to Manchester City is a no-go, says agent
Manchester City have been warned off moving for Zlatan Ibrahimovic because the striker wants to win the Champions League with AC Milan.
The super Swede, who’s just won his eight league title in eight years with four different clubs, is currently on loan at the San Siro with an agreement in place to take the striker permanently from Barcelona for £22million.
However, Roberto Mancini recently fueled speculation that he’s prepared to hijack the deal when he said ‘he would always find a place for Ibrahimovic in the City team’.
With Carlos Tevez believed to be headed for an Eastlands exit, it seemed plausible that Mancini may be tempted to make his move for the striker he had at Inter Milan.
But Ibrahimovic’s agent, Mino Raiola, has dampened any speculation, saying: ‘Of course now that Mancini is in a place to want Ibra, because Zlatan brings with him not only his technical knowledge but a winning mentality.
‘The manager of City is well aware (of his quality) because he had him at Inter. When the Swede arrived at Inter, they had not won anything yet and then we saw what happened.
‘Ibra could make the final leap for Manchester City, but Roberto must not talk to me, but to Adriano Galliani (Milan CEO).
‘I believe it’s not easy to take Ibra away from AC Milan, and he does not want to leave, he wants to win in Europe with the Rossoneri.’
Balotelli: I owe it to Mancini and myself to change
He already has a reputation as a bad boy with a screw loose, just one season after arriving in English football.
But Mario Balotelli has vowed to change his ways to justify the faith placed in him by boss Roberto Mancini.
The Manchester City striker said: “I’m trying to change. I wouldn’t even be here if it wasn’t for Mancini. He’s really important to me.”
So far this season the 20-year-old star has...
Been lambasted for joking he is better than Wayne Rooney.
Lunged at by Mancini himself after being sent off as City crashed out of the Europa League to Dynamo Kiev.
Lampooned for that YouTube video in which he struggles to put on a training bib.
Laughed at because of his allergy to grass.
Landed punches during training ground bust-ups with team-mates.
And had a suitcase lobbed at him by his exasperated boss as the relationship between the pair reached breaking point.
The litany of footballing crimes and misdemeanours will not have been lost on his former boss, Jose Mourinho, who claimed Balotelli would be a world-beater if he even trained at 50 percent, instead of just 25 percent.
But now Balotelli is determined to stay on the road to redemption to ensure Mancini, who launched his career at Inter Milan, ends up vindicated.
His attempts at reinventing himself and showing a new maturity are likely to be tested today when he has to accept a role off the bench at Wembley.
But Balotelli said: “I started to play in Serie A under [Mancini] so I have to give to him a lot.
“Also I’m trying to change some of my behaviour. On the pitch sometimes I have not behaved badly, but wrongly.
“I respect everybody but sometimes when I lose the ball I go back to the other player, but sometimes I lose the ball and I don’t follow him.
“Now I’m starting to do all these things because Mancini is very important for me.
“I have to listen to him and if I want to become a big player, I need to do stuff I don’t like.”
Balotelli arrived in England from Inter Milan last summer for £24million – staggering given the striker could not get a game with last season’s Italian Treble winners.
And for long periods of this campaign the price tag has been a millstone around Mancini’s neck with Balotelli’s antics attracting a stack of unwanted headlines.
To be fair, they are tempered by the touching tale of him accompanying a random youngster to his school to confront a stunned bully recently.
But that sort of story has been offset by his regular trips to Manchester’s Deansgate to eat at his favourite restaurant, San Carlo.
The jaunts, just half a mile from where he lives, have seen him park his Maserati illegally, incurring up to £10,000 in fines, just because he can afford to pay.
Balotelli added: “Do you know how many times I park the car and there is a queue of cars and they give a parking ticket only to my car?
“I don’t know if it is because they want to talk bad about me. I don’t know why. But one day it’s going to change, I hope.
“I think I’m a normal guy of 20 that loves football, loves his family, loves his friends.
“The one thing I have different from the other guys my age is I have money, but money is not really important for me.
“My life was difficult but the more important thing is when your family and your friends love you and stay with you – that’s the really important thing.
“People say: ‘Oh Mario, he thinks only about money and he’s lazy’ and everything. Because I drive a Maserati. But if you are 20 and you can buy a Maserati you’re going to buy one, aren’t you?
“I don’t think I’m bad because I own a Maserati or a Q7 or because I have 10 parking tickets outside San Carlo.”
Balotelli has more yellow and red cards than goals, with 10 strikes for City compared to 11 cautions and two sendings-off.
His training-ground fight with team-mate Jerome Boateng only confirmed many people’s perceptions of him as a trouble-maker but he insisted: “I like to do my own things. I know you don’t believe me, but I’m really shy.”
He claims the best is yet to come from him and that next term supporters will see more of the player for whom City shelled out their now customary king’s ransom.
“This year was not really good because when I came here I was injured,” he said, “then I played some games, and was injured again so I’ve been a bit unlucky.
“But next year I will try and I’m going to improve my performance.”
* Mario Balotelli was talking to ITV's Ned Boulting. See the full interview in ITV’s coverage of the FA Cup final today on ITV1 from 1pm
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