***Official Balo Watch Thread***

[ant london]

Having said all that, we can't forget that City is a competetive football club and not a nursing home.

and for me, that's the point john.

I don't disagree with either of you in the least on that point.

However, fact is, we've spend twenty odd million quid on this playing asset. So we can either spend some time and a bit more money trying to get his head into a useful state or we effectively write off the investment.

He should not get preferential treatment in terms of a place in the team but a tailored approach to dealing with his character flaws requires minimal additional investment and has potential huge incremental benefits

[Nigels Tackle]

Having said all that, we can't forget that City is a competetive football club and not a nursing home.

and for me, that's the point john.

if that's the case then we'd better kick all our injured players out..... ;-)

balo needs help, support and understanding. to what extent he needs these things i don't know but it is the clubs duty to provide it for him.....

[Spurge]

I will always have Biblotelli Love..where others see him as a twat..I see him as a comedy genius

I just can't get angry with the lad

He cost us the EUFA Cup match and 9 yellows and 2 red yet you cant get angry with him?.. there's something wrong with you Bish !

Why aren't you acknowledging his 10 goals in 15 starts? Why focus on the bad stuff?

Because the bad stuff far out ways the good stuff IMO.

What he said

[Slim]

balo needs help, support and understanding. to what extent he needs these things i don't know but it is the clubs duty to provide it for him.....

He needs a kick up the arse and a good solid smack with the buckle end.

[ant london]

balo needs help, support and understanding. to what extent he needs these things i don't know but it is the clubs duty to provide it for him.....

He needs a kick up the arse and a good solid smack with the buckle end.

ah yes this is the cure to Broken Mental Balotelli


haha

[Ted Hughes]

It's an excellent post by Ant but the key point imo is making the choice to do something about behaviour which you regret. Unaided, I recon it'd be 10 years before Balotelli chose to do that. The big response by his fellow players, by Mancini & by the fans may make him realise he has to do it now. If that is what happens & this incident truly makes him realise he has to change, then the fact that he realises it, is a big step. It could also lead to him becoming a harder working player.

It can't possibly be cured overnight & we will get more 'Eric C****na' moments where he loses it & we end up with 10 men but the key is to minimise that & to make sure his contribution over the season is worth putting up with the shit which will inevitably happen.

So far his contribution on the pitch is nowhere near worth the other shit.

P.S. Apparently the NOTW is claiming Bob stormed into the dressing room & threw a suitcase at him after the game. If only that could be trusted as true, Bob would go from being someone I quite like, to my favourite person, in an instant. I mean where did he get the suitcase? Was it full & he emptied it furiously, throwing socks & underpants round the room whilst shouting abuse in Italian then stormed off into the dressing room & threw it at Balotelli?

Please, please let it be true.

[BobKowalski]

...

P.S. Apparently the NOTW is claiming Bob stormed into the dressing room & threw a suitcase at him after the game. If only that could be trusted as true, Bob would go from being someone I quite like, to my favourite person, in an instant. I mean where did he get the suitcase? Was it full & he emptied it furiously, throwing socks & underpants round the room whilst shouting abuse in Italian then stormed off into the dressing room & threw it at Balotelli?

With you on this...I know from personal experience that there is never a conveniently placed suitcase to hand when I want to go into one. Really takes the wind out of my sails it does..:)

[Ted Hughes]

...

P.S. Apparently the NOTW is claiming Bob stormed into the dressing room & threw a suitcase at him after the game. If only that could be trusted as true, Bob would go from being someone I quite like, to my favourite person, in an instant. I mean where did he get the suitcase? Was it full & he emptied it furiously, throwing socks & underpants round the room whilst shouting abuse in Italian then stormed off into the dressing room & threw it at Balotelli?

With you on this...I know from personal experience that there is never a conveniently placed suitcase to hand when I want to go into one. Really takes the wind out of my sails it does..:)

Khaldoon just arrived from a ten hour flight, puts down his suitcase, goes for a piss...

[Rag_hater]

I think with young Balotelli, we should look at the difference between rational and emotional.

When in rational mode, he is undoubtedly a quality footballer and probably quite a nice young lad. Now the red mist has vapourised, i am not suprised that he is full of remorse. Now that his heart rate has settled and he can look at his behaviour in the cold light of day, he understands he has behaved like a twat and possibly it was his actions that cost us the game and our place in the Europa League next round.

The problem he has is his lack of ability to stop the red mist descending, his lack of ability to keep his head when the pressure is on. Sadly for him and possibly his future career, the game at the top is about pressure, stress, tension and how well you can handle it.

There is much talk about him learning lessons but learning is all about rationality. he loses it emotionally and learning plays no part of that. his reactions are not rational they are emotional and thought has no control over them. I have deep worries that it is something in his personality that is hard wired and deep seated.

The fact that even after the game, even after being told by the club and his own team mates, despite his being remorseful and regretful in the dressinfg room and despite having the understanding about the implications of his actions, HE STILL COULDN'T STOP HIMSELF REACTING EMOTIONALLY TO A FEW FANS. HE HAS NO CONTROL OF THAT SIDE OF HIS CHARACTER.

Like I said..he fucking cost us the match and a possible EUFA cup to boot.

Hes a cunt and he wont change....as has been said..the sill fucker got out of his car to remonstrate with fans.

UNBELIEVABLE.

John I agree with the above post of yours entirely. I also don't disagree with Carl's.

The thing I think we need to understand is what John says. He clearly has no control over his emotional management/impulse control and it is 100% part of his character. This will always blight his career until something is done to help deal with it.

CARL: what gets me about your reaction towards him is that (I'm sure I can't be alone) I can so see a parallel between Mario's on field reactions and your online reactions (and this tallies with tales you have told about how difficult you can be to deal with after, say, a City loss). I don't know what you are like in person these days and you may have mellowed but I wouldn't be surprised at all if you told me that you, especially when younger, had a very short fuse.

I say this as I know that I absolutely do suffer from exactly the same types of issue with "red mist" as Mario. I really do wish that I could turn the other cheek and walk away like most people can but, quite simply, I cannot. Once I have tipped over the edge I, quite frankly, am impossible to control/reason with and am a fucking nightmare. Just like Mario, afterwards I am remorseful and feel usually hugely guilty but that does not change the fact that I quite frequently will lose it.

I have mellowed as I have got older and have also "done some work" on the issue to try and understand and control it myself but I can tell you that even after that I have a massively shorter fuse than pretty much anyone I know.

Expecting Mario to "sort it out" himself is just pie in the sky. It simply is not going to happen. Yes he does have "issues" but unless he gets some assistance in dealing with those issues (which are entirely in his head) then nothing will change.

Mario does not have "anger management issues" a la Joey Barton. He is not inherently a scumbag who likes to hurt people as I believe Barton to be. He just cannot control the way he reacts to perceived injustice (be it poor refereeing, fouls going unpunished, racist abuse from fans or his own fans on his back) and that won't change unless he is assisted in dealing with his emotional reaction.

What I do hope, as a consequence of all of this, is that the club has the necessary leverage to make him start to work with people to help him dial his reactions down. The reactions will never go away but he is capable of getting to a point where they are more capable of being regulated.

I'm sure I cannot be alone on here in being capable of relating to Balotelli in this regard. I'm not expecting people to forgive him when he does stuff like that, I'm not expecting anyone to forget it. But I'm sure that there will be other posters who can see some of their own emotional personality in his.

....and I still like him

What a load of Hippy shit that was.
Like Slim said give him a buckle or some electric.

[ant london]

ah the view from our man in Benidorm. Insightful as ever

[Tokyo Blue]

I'd be all for helping Balotelli if he at least showed on the field that he was willing to try and improve.

[ronk]

I will always have Biblotelli Love..where others see him as a twat..I see him as a comedy genius

I just can't get angry with the lad

Remember the movie Big. Tom Hanks wakes up one day to find that he's grown up. For me this is Balotelli, he's a kid, an actual tantrum throwing emotionally undeveloped child who's been given his wish or becoming a professional footballer.

He gets confused, he's led and he wants to make people happy but somehow he always ends up pissing people off. Fans want him to to tackle more, he sees loads of fouls being made, especially on him, he copies, he gets sent off, he doesn't understand. What really confuses him is hypocrisy, he doesn't know how to respond to it.

His ability to apply himself is actually very good, once he understands what he should be doing. I think he was trying to win the ball, not kick his opponent in the chest. He's been told not to dive in England, fans don't like it, so he's stopped. He gets booked for decent, he doesn't show any emotion next game, if (and only if) he's focused on behaving that way. He got a red card on Thursday, so his response today was not to commit a single foul. It's how he makes sure he doesn't make the same mistake and get sent off. Balotelli's concentration when it comes to being caught offside is excellent, really really good. When he learns to do something, he can be very good at it.

I think that's why you don't get pissed off at him, it's like when a kid makes a huge mess trying to make you breakfast. They were trying to do something nice and altruistic but getting everything all wrong.

[carl_feedthegoat]

I think with young Balotelli, we should look at the difference between rational and emotional.

When in rational mode, he is undoubtedly a quality footballer and probably quite a nice young lad. Now the red mist has vapourised, i am not suprised that he is full of remorse. Now that his heart rate has settled and he can look at his behaviour in the cold light of day, he understands he has behaved like a twat and possibly it was his actions that cost us the game and our place in the Europa League next round.

The problem he has is his lack of ability to stop the red mist descending, his lack of ability to keep his head when the pressure is on. Sadly for him and possibly his future career, the game at the top is about pressure, stress, tension and how well you can handle it.

There is much talk about him learning lessons but learning is all about rationality. he loses it emotionally and learning plays no part of that. his reactions are not rational they are emotional and thought has no control over them. I have deep worries that it is something in his personality that is hard wired and deep seated.

The fact that even after the game, even after being told by the club and his own team mates, despite his being remorseful and regretful in the dressinfg room and despite having the understanding about the implications of his actions, HE STILL COULDN'T STOP HIMSELF REACTING EMOTIONALLY TO A FEW FANS. HE HAS NO CONTROL OF THAT SIDE OF HIS CHARACTER.

Like I said..he fucking cost us the match and a possible EUFA cup to boot.

Hes a cunt and he wont change....as has been said..the sill fucker got out of his car to remonstrate with fans.

UNBELIEVABLE.

John I agree with the above post of yours entirely. I also don't disagree with Carl's.

The thing I think we need to understand is what John says. He clearly has no control over his emotional management/impulse control and it is 100% part of his character. This will always blight his career until something is done to help deal with it.

CARL: what gets me about your reaction towards him is that (I'm sure I can't be alone) I can so see a parallel between Mario's on field reactions and your online reactions (and this tallies with tales you have told about how difficult you can be to deal with after, say, a City loss). I don't know what you are like in person these days and you may have mellowed but I wouldn't be surprised at all if you told me that you, especially when younger, had a very short fuse.

I say this as I know that I absolutely do suffer from exactly the same types of issue with "red mist" as Mario. I really do wish that I could turn the other cheek and walk away like most people can but, quite simply, I cannot. Once I have tipped over the edge I, quite frankly, am impossible to control/reason with and am a fucking nightmare. Just like Mario, afterwards I am remorseful and feel usually hugely guilty but that does not change the fact that I quite frequently will lose it.

I have mellowed as I have got older and have also "done some work" on the issue to try and understand and control it myself but I can tell you that even after that I have a massively shorter fuse than pretty much anyone I know.

Expecting Mario to "sort it out" himself is just pie in the sky. It simply is not going to happen. Yes he does have "issues" but unless he gets some assistance in dealing with those issues (which are entirely in his head) then nothing will change.

Mario does not have "anger management issues" a la Joey Barton. He is not inherently a scumbag who likes to hurt people as I believe Barton to be. He just cannot control the way he reacts to perceived injustice (be it poor refereeing, fouls going unpunished, racist abuse from fans or his own fans on his back) and that won't change unless he is assisted in dealing with his emotional reaction.

What I do hope, as a consequence of all of this, is that the club has the necessary leverage to make him start to work with people to help him dial his reactions down. The reactions will never go away but he is capable of getting to a point where they are more capable of being regulated.

I'm sure I cannot be alone on here in being capable of relating to Balotelli in this regard. I'm not expecting people to forgive him when he does stuff like that, I'm not expecting anyone to forget it. But I'm sure that there will be other posters who can see some of their own emotional personality in his.

....and I still like him

Of course I had issues when I was younger....I still do butI am a different animal in business Ant..I have to be and I do not lose it...ever.. whereas Balotelli is the same on and off the pitch..this is what is fucking him up.
Balotelli has had the best people around him to show him the "way" ever since he got a professional contract in Football and up to now he has not listened to a word they have said.....what have we seen that makes us think he will change now?

And on a footballing note I honestly do not think he is as good on the field as lots of people think he is...actually I dont rate him highly at all footballing wise up to now..gets dispossessed fairly easy and his passing is pretty shit to shite.

I still want him gone mate.

[Fesan]

This is what I was waiting for regarding Balo:

http://www.dagbladet.no/2011/03/21/spor ... /15901865/

Translation:

«I need help. I always ruin everything»

Italy manager Cesare Prandelli told the press monday that Manchester City striker Mad-hatter Balo contacted him to get help controlling his on-field anger.

Prandelli did not include the youngster in the squad to face Slovenia and Ucraine. The boss was not happy about the red card vs Kiev in the Europa League.

"I talked to Balotelli, he realised that he was acting a fool. He told me: I need help, I always ruin everything", Prandelli told the press.

The Italy manager runs a tight ship, De Rossi was also left out after hitting Darijo Srna in the Champions League

[Ted Hughes]

This is what I was waiting for regarding Balo:

http://www.dagbladet.no/2011/03/21/spor ... /15901865/

Translation:

«I need help. I always ruin everything»

Italy manager Cesare Prandelli told the press monday that Manchester City striker Mad-hatter Balo contacted him to get help controlling his on-field anger.

Prandelli did not include the youngster in the squad to face Slovenia and Ucraine. The boss was not happy about the red card vs Kiev in the Europa League.

"I talked to Balotelli, he realised that he was acting a fool. He told me: I need help, I always ruin everything", Prandelli told the press.

The Italy manager runs a tight ship, De Rossi was also left out after hitting Darijo Srna in the Champions League

So he tells the Italian manager, in confidence & he tells the press.

[ashton287]

Remember the movie Big. Tom Hanks wakes up one day to find that he's grown up. For me this is Balotelli, he's a kid, an actual tantrum throwing emotionally undeveloped child who's been given his wish or becoming a professional footballer.

Balotelli is 20 not 14.

When i was 20 i was working 60 hours a week to pay bills and live. There was plenty of times i could of smacked the fuck out of someone when i was angry but i didnt because there would have been serious consequences.

There are none for balotelli, he knows this and thats why he acts how he does. He is a spoilt brat and its past the supernanny stage because he is a grown man who needs to grow the fuck up.

[kinkylola]

This is what I was waiting for regarding Balo:

http://www.dagbladet.no/2011/03/21/spor ... /15901865/

Translation:

«I need help. I always ruin everything»

Italy manager Cesare Prandelli told the press monday that Manchester City striker Mad-hatter Balo contacted him to get help controlling his on-field anger.

Prandelli did not include the youngster in the squad to face Slovenia and Ucraine. The boss was not happy about the red card vs Kiev in the Europa League.

"I talked to Balotelli, he realised that he was acting a fool. He told me: I need help, I always ruin everything", Prandelli told the press.

The Italy manager runs a tight ship, De Rossi was also left out after hitting Darijo Srna in the Champions League

came on to see if anyone else had seen this ... this is a great sign, imo. I don't expect immediate results, but if he is serious about getting help and people in the sport actually care enough to help him get it, we could start seeing some positive improvement. I hope Mancini takes note.

[ant london]

brilliant stuff......


Football365's Top Ten Forwards..

It's tin hat time for Nick Miller, who completes his look at the top players in the Premier League by looking at the forwards. Please address any suspect parcels to P.Gill - he deals with the post...

10 - Mario Balotelli
Perhaps this list should be called 'F365's Top Ten Favourite Forwards', because while there are obviously several strikers with more experience in the Premier League, more goals and are frankly less mentalness than Balotelli, few are quite as entertaining. Balotelli veers between the brilliant, the indifferent, the stupid, the woeful and the just plain mental, often in the same game. If nothing else, he is terrific value, a maverick in a football world that contains any number of bland characters. He's also quite clearly a troubled character, and one could make all sorts of cod-psychological assessments about why - from the horrendous racial abuse in Italy to his adoption at the age of three when his Ghanaian parents agreed that they couldn't raise him properly.

Balotelli is only 20, but already in his short career he has appeared on Italian TV wearing an AC Milan shirt while still an Inter player (which p*ssed some Inter fans off so much that one scumbag loosened the wheel nuts on his car), earned a ticking-off from the Old Bill after he wandered into a women's prison in Brescia, and when he crashed his car shortly after arriving in England, police asked him why he had £5,000 in cash in his back pocket and he quite reasonably replied "Because I am very rich." If that's not entertaining enough for you, then just give up now.


http://football365.com/story/0,17033,87 ... 90,00.html

[Slim]

So the only way he makes a top 10 list is because he is a carcrash and everyone is just craning their necks and waiting for the thud?

[ant london]

So the only way he makes a top 10 list is because he is a carcrash and everyone is just craning their necks and waiting for the thud?

possibly yes....but I wouldn't exclusively the reason why

oh and FYI....

1 - Carlos Tevez
As with Rooney, Tevez is a player that one can build a team around. And as with Rooney, when that player is absent then problems start. Roberto Mancini's cautious strategy at Manchester City is built around Tevez's tireless running, attitude and skill. There are few other players in the world who can fill his boots, never mind anyone in the City squad. Tevez has the ability to drag a team through virtually on his own - just ask Neil Warnock. Tevez's adaptability is underrated too - as well as being a focal point to an attack, he can play wide of a central striker too as well as a second 'drop-off' forward.

Oh, and then there are the goals - seven in 19 starts for West Ham, 19 in 49 at Manchester United (where he usually had to play second fiddle at best to Rooney, Ronaldo and Berbatov), and a whopping 41 in 58 for City. Goal stats like that suggest a selfish player, but Tevez also tops the goals/assists chart for this season. In short, he's a pretty useful man to have in your side.