Balotelli then.

[Beeks]

40 odd pages on bluemoon..full of hatred..sad as fuck

Regardless of if he thought it was offside or not..it was a friendly against a nothing side

If it had gone in everyone would be creaming their knickers

Bob was WRONG to take him off..now we are going to have a media wankfest for a few days about splits in the camp

[ant london]

40 odd pages on bluemoon..full of hatred..sad as fuck

Regardless of if he thought it was offside or not..it was a friendly against a nothing side

If it had gone in everyone would be creaming their knickers

Bob was WRONG to take him off..now we are going to have a media wankfest for a few days about splits in the camp

^^^^^ THAT

there is no way on god's earth that that was him shooting.....it was totally him pulling up as he thought the ref had blown

if you think otherwise....you need help

totally wrong to pull him off and talk about it. if he'd been left on fuck all would've been said. As he comes off he clearly puts a whistle up to his mouth to tell Mancini he thought the ref had blown. Fuck me some of you cunts are too stupid for words and very willing to get on the back of one of your own players on the basis of some overblown media shite and a terrible bit of management.

Mancini got this dead wrong

[King Kev]

Show boating in a pre-season friendly eh?

He should be shot.

[ant london]

Show boating in a pre-season friendly eh?

He should be shot.

I agree it is a heinous crime if he had been showboating...;-)

BUT HE WASN'T EVEN SHOWBOATING!?!?!??!?!

[dazby]

So Ant are you getting on the back of the manager that won us the FA Cup and got us to the Champions league?

[Bear60]

The bloke has obviously got loads of talent , but he such is a loose canon and I am not sure about him I know its only a pre season friendly but we all know the press are going to have a field day with this. He needs a stern talking to from someone like Nige or Vinnie and then forget it and move on.

[ant london]

So Ant are you getting on the back of the manager that won us the FA Cup and got us to the Champions league?

I'm not on his back, I'm saying he got something very wrong. Him giving us some success does not insulate him from valid criticism.

I will get on your back for asking such a silly cunt question though

[dazby]

I'm just highlighting the hypocrisy in your statement Mr London.

[Hazy2]

40 odd pages on bluemoon..full of hatred..sad as fuck

Regardless of if he thought it was offside or not..it was a friendly against a nothing side

If it had gone in everyone would be creaming their knickers

Bob was WRONG to take him off..now we are going to have a media wankfest for a few days about splits in the camp

^^^^^ THAT

there is no way on god's earth that that was him shooting.....it was totally him pulling up as he thought the ref had blown

if you think otherwise....you need help

totally wrong to pull him off and talk about it. if he'd been left on fuck all would've been said. As he comes off he clearly puts a whistle up to his mouth to tell Mancini he thought the ref had blown. Fuck me some of you cunts are too stupid for words and very willing to get on the back of one of your own players on the basis of some overblown media shite and a terrible bit of management.

Mancini got this dead wrong

No way, Dzeko's reaction said it all, Balo walking to the last place on the Bench, all that said Mancini, should have dealt with that in the dressing room and no story.

[Ted Hughes]

It was obvious from the reaction of Dzeko, that the offside story is bullshit. It's an excuse brcause he's realised he fucked up. You see players do that all the time when they miss open nets etc. Mancini is dead right on this & those of you who can't see it are living in the old world where these things were a jolly piss up. If you're going to do that, you do it when you're 5_0 up & there's 5 to go. It went down like a sack of shite with most of the worlds football fans who saw it. That's not because they're killjoys, it's because they saw it for what it was; shite.

[john@staustell]

Are you all fucking mad? (edit: not you Doug)

Clearly trying to showboat and even managed to fuck that up.

Kudos to Mancini.

I agree, there's no way he thought he was offside, he was just trying to be clever and fucked it up.

In the words of Mancini - Mario knows all the tricks, he knows he was not offside.

I'm starting to lose hope for the fool now to be honest.

[guv111]

The Telegraph reports this:

The Italian, 29 minutes into the final game of his club's North American tour and having already scored with a penalty kick, only needed to touch the ball to Edin Dzeko to allow the Bosnian the easiest of strikes from no more than two yards.

Instead he attempted an outrageous back-heel after turning the full circle that also involved a drag back, the only problem that he missed the target.

His circus trick brought a furious verbal assault from Nigel de Jong and much worse from Mancini, who immediately signalled James Milner to prepare himself for action.

Three minutes later, as Milner replaced him, Balotelli made a petulant gesture to his boss indicating his surprise and annoyance that he was substituted, it apparently not having occurred to him that his action was viewed as selfish disrespectful.

In response Mancini gave him a mouthful, pointing to the Galaxy goal as he did so, and when the tempestuous 20 year old tried to answer back as he headed for a seat on the bench, Mancini followed him, shouting all the way.

I'm fully aware that there are elements in the media desperate for City to fail, but if the above is accurate then there are some deep seated problems at City which need addressing, not least Mancini's fits of anger. Balotelli can be a major pain, but in the Cup final he showed himself to be deserving of the man of the match award for his good humour in the face of provocation, alone. What concerns me is the way Mancini treats certain players while being almost deferential to others. No one has messed City around like Tevez, yet he is still, inexplicably, the captain. Balotelli messes up a trick in a friendly and gets shouted at and taken off. Adebayor is another example of Mancini treating players like pariahs. It's all very strange - and distasteful.

[Rag_hater]

Thought it was funny.
To me it looked like he was having a laff and doing something you don't see very often.Entertainment.
Something in a friendly that has no serious consequences.
All the dinosaurs like our Bobby and some of the fans on here who think you should score every chance you get whether its an important game(be professional)or not need to realise that entertaining the crowd is more important in matches like this.
He has got us in the papers again for trying something outragous on a football pitch not what he has been doing with his nob

[Dubciteh]

The Telegraph reports this:

The Italian, 29 minutes into the final game of his club's North American tour and having already scored with a penalty kick, only needed to touch the ball to Edin Dzeko to allow the Bosnian the easiest of strikes from no more than two yards.

Instead he attempted an outrageous back-heel after turning the full circle that also involved a drag back, the only problem that he missed the target.

His circus trick brought a furious verbal assault from Nigel de Jong and much worse from Mancini, who immediately signalled James Milner to prepare himself for action.

Three minutes later, as Milner replaced him, Balotelli made a petulant gesture to his boss indicating his surprise and annoyance that he was substituted, it apparently not having occurred to him that his action was viewed as selfish disrespectful.

In response Mancini gave him a mouthful, pointing to the Galaxy goal as he did so, and when the tempestuous 20 year old tried to answer back as he headed for a seat on the bench, Mancini followed him, shouting all the way.

I'm fully aware that there are elements in the media desperate for City to fail, but if the above is accurate then there are some deep seated problems at City which need addressing, not least Mancini's fits of anger. Balotelli can be a major pain, but in the Cup final he showed himself to be deserving of the man of the match award for his good humour in the face of provocation, alone. What concerns me is the way Mancini treats certain players while being almost deferential to others. No one has messed City around like Tevez, yet he is still, inexplicably, the captain. Balotelli messes up a trick in a friendly and gets shouted at and taken off. Adebayor is another example of Mancini treating players like pariahs. It's all very strange - and distasteful.

ive always thought Balotelli got a good deal from Mancini, the opposite to what your saying above really.

[Chinners]

mancini says this:
"If you are serious, you can play 90 minutes. If not, you can come and sit by me on the bench."

That line really made me chuckle ...

[john@staustell]

The Telegraph reports this:

The Italian, 29 minutes into the final game of his club's North American tour and having already scored with a penalty kick, only needed to touch the ball to Edin Dzeko to allow the Bosnian the easiest of strikes from no more than two yards.

Instead he attempted an outrageous back-heel after turning the full circle that also involved a drag back, the only problem that he missed the target.

His circus trick brought a furious verbal assault from Nigel de Jong and much worse from Mancini, who immediately signalled James Milner to prepare himself for action.

Three minutes later, as Milner replaced him, Balotelli made a petulant gesture to his boss indicating his surprise and annoyance that he was substituted, it apparently not having occurred to him that his action was viewed as selfish disrespectful.

In response Mancini gave him a mouthful, pointing to the Galaxy goal as he did so, and when the tempestuous 20 year old tried to answer back as he headed for a seat on the bench, Mancini followed him, shouting all the way.

I'm fully aware that there are elements in the media desperate for City to fail, but if the above is accurate then there are some deep seated problems at City which need addressing, not least Mancini's fits of anger. Balotelli can be a major pain, but in the Cup final he showed himself to be deserving of the man of the match award for his good humour in the face of provocation, alone. What concerns me is the way Mancini treats certain players while being almost deferential to others. No one has messed City around like Tevez, yet he is still, inexplicably, the captain. Balotelli messes up a trick in a friendly and gets shouted at and taken off. Adebayor is another example of Mancini treating players like pariahs. It's all very strange - and distasteful.

ive always thought Balotelli got a good deal from Mancini, the opposite to what your saying above really.

Yep. And Tévez had that warm-up business where he was made to look small a little while ago. Balotelli behaves like a child, so he is scolded like one. Sounds reasonable to me, and went down well with the commentators!

[ant london]

the commentators were fucking idiots

[ashton287]

Balo is a twat alot of the time. But his finishing is amazing and infront of goal he mostly scores.

He thought he was offside.

You can't really judge him too harsh for messing about in a friendly anyway. Come wembley in 2 weeks he will get his head down and do his job like he was towards the end of last season.

[lincoln blue]

The media at it again - couldn't believe this was the leading story on BBC sport football page
Like previous poster/s have said there was a whistle he thought offside - I think you could tell by his actions after the ball went out of play
Even if he meant to do it, it was a friendly that meant absolutely nothing, just because B*****m plays for them doesn't make them a good team its MLS for christ sake
Lazy journalism - typical of the UK press
Give Balotelli a break
As for Bobby's decision to take him off - he can - because he is the manager and thats what he does

[Wooders]

he's a bit prone to making himself look like a twat but he's still alright in my book - was only a friendly