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WTF is the point???

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redhorizon2

redhorizon2

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Liverpool FLOP Mario Balotelli offered Anfield escape by THIRD TIER side





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Liverpool striker Mario Balotelli has been offered a fresh start back in Italy, but the team in question is in the third tier.
Balotelli scored just one Premier League goal last season after his £16m switch to Liverpool, and his return to England hasn’t been as successful as he had hoped.

Given that he continues to receive criticism and is seemingly wasting his talent, former Milan teammate and current president of Lupa Castelli, Marco Amelia, has confirmed that he wants his friend to join him at the minnows and get the joy for playing football back.
“Our intention is to bring our friend, Balotelli, here, a player who at this time needs to start afresh because we see that he does not want to play anymore, has fans opposing him and is no longer able to show his quality,” he told Sky Sport Italia.
“For Balotelli, this could be the first step towards cleaning up his act, taking two steps back and showing everyone what he is capable of doing.”
The 24-year-old is currently training at Melwood while the rest of his teammates continue their pre-season tour, and boss Brandan Rodgers stopped short of guaranteeing his spot in the squad earlier this week.
As a result, a return to Italy could appeal for Balotelli as he considers his next move in a disappointing career so far.
A move down to the third tier will undoubtedly be a big issue given his wages and general star attraction, so Amelia is more than likely set to be left disappointed.
 
Classy response from Mario/Mario's PR team though:

“At Milan over two years we had a great rapport of admiration, friendship and respect. Seeing as you are the President of Lupa Castelli, I thank you for the invitation to come and play with you.
“I cannot accept this challenge for many reasons and factors that you know well, taking nothing away from your club. I thank you, I will follow and cheer you on.”
 
Windom: agreed. Balotelli's a decent lad at heart, as well as being - when the mood takes him - a talented footballer. Regrettably he's stuck somewhere in his teens emotionally and - though I'd like to be wrong for a variety of reasons - I have little hope that he'll ever rise above that now.

Fabs: there is an answer to your point about doing something wrong, but we've all had that debate ad nauseam already. All I'll say in answer to you now is that the problem is far more what Balotelli hasn't done, as opposed to what he has.
 
Judge Jules said:
Windom: agreed. Balotelli's a decent lad at heart, as well as being - when the mood takes him - a talented footballer. Regrettably he's stuck somewhere in his teens emotionally and - though I'd like to be wrong for a variety of reasons - I have little hope that he'll ever rise above that now.
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Yeah, everyone had heard of his antics at past clubs but since signing for Liverpool we've had none of it. He's been gracious and well behaved, it's a real shame that he hasn't fitted in on the pitch for whatever reason because his attitude off it has been pretty spot on. It's been an experiment that's failed, but for me not quite in the way I would have expected. Reputations eh.
 
To quote King Lear, I think Balotelli is " more sinned against than sinning". Ill used by our club for one reason or another. Of course he must be difficult to manage, but would still love to see him get a fair chance here.
 
I have to disagree with that. He did get a run in the side when he first arrived, and failed miserably to make it count.
 
What has Balo done wrong ?

Hmm how about being crap ? A lazy git. Disobey team orders. Not a team player. 18 million.

Makes the likes of Borini and Enrique look like saints.
 
My_Blood_Bleeds_Red said:
What has Balo done wrong ?

Hmm how about being crap ? A lazy git. Disobey team orders. Not a team player. 18 million.

Makes the likes of Borini and Enrique look like saints.
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1) he's not crap, we didn't use him how he's been used for a majority of his career

2) can't argue

3) when? If it's the penalty bollocks that'd bollocks, because it's been confirmed that he was Rodgers choice to take the pen. He followed orders.

4) he's as much of a team player as others
5) price wasn't his fault
 
Also, Borini was a cunt for knocking back 14m deal

Enrique is just a preening bellend
 
He could at least have put a shift in.

And despite my attempts to steer away from it, others keep bringing the penalty incident up again, so here's my tuppence worth. Rodgers' choice or not, you do not diss your skipper like that in a game. Once Hendo took the ball it should have been left with him. Some of Balotelli's teammates were clearly disgusted with him and had every right to be.
 
Point 2) is enough to sack an 18 Mil signing. Especially at this level and with his history, and all the warnings he was given when he signed for us.
 
Had a conversation recently about him with someone who has some connection to the club.

Seems a few people are a bit perplexed by the current situation.

It'll be hard to find anyone to take him on, and Rodgers has clearly decided he doesn't want him - but he's apparently been putting in extra training shifts and doing what's been asked to get back in favour.

The suggestion being, he was told what he needed to do to get back in favour, has been doing it, but has still been ignored.

Does sound like the sort of mismanaged way we'd deal with the situation.
 
StevieM said:
Had a conversation recently about him with someone who has some connection to the club.

Seems a few people are a bit perplexed by the current situation.

It'll be hard to find anyone to take him on, and Rodgers has clearly decided he doesn't want him - but he's apparently been putting in extra training shifts and doing what's been asked to get back in favour.

The suggestion being, he was told what he needed to do to get back in favour, has been doing it, but has still been ignored.

Does sound like the sort of mismanaged way we'd deal with the situation.
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What, so two weeks with some extra training gives him a free pass for last season?
Don't think so.
Let's see if he keeps it up till the season's begun, at least. If we haven't gotten rid of him by then.
 
Hes an odd one certainly, but we knew it was a massive gamble when we got him. A 23 years old Italian international striker for £16m is too good to be true for a reason, and no other top clubs were remotely interested in paying his wages then, they are even less interested now. It hasnt worked on any level, hes never looked like he wanted to be here, Rodgers clearly never wanted him. Thats not to see he isnt talented, he has shown enough in his career so far to make that suggestion look foolish but there has got to be a reason successive managers have effectively decided hes not worth the hassle. His career is going backwards at an alarming rate and if hes not careful he will soon be finished at the top level in his mid 20s, the thing is I dont get the sense that he would be bothered in the slightest if his contract was bought out tomorrow and he never played again. He could easily do a Winston Bogarde and spend the next 3 years training with the reserves.
 
RedStar said:
Hes an odd one certainly, but we knew it was a massive gamble when we got him. A 23 years old Italian international striker for £16m is too good to be true for a reason, and no other top clubs were remotely interested in paying his wages then, they are even less interested now. It hasnt worked on any level, he's never looked like he wanted to be here, Rodgers clearly never wanted him. Thats not to see he isnt talented, he has shown enough in his career so far to make that suggestion look foolish but there has got to be a reason successive managers have effectively decided hes not worth the hassle. His career is going backwards at an alarming rate and if hes not careful he will soon be finished at the top level in his mid 20s, the thing is I dont get the sense that he would be bothered in the slightest if his contract was bought out tomorrow and he never played again. He could easily do a Winston Bogarde and spend the next 3 years training with the reserves.
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Disagree with the bolded bit. I think Mario wants to be here, his agent convinced him this is his last chance to be a top player and he's done everything that's been asked of him: staying out of trouble - check, tracking back and helping out on defense - check, not moaning when manager left him on the bench - check, training hard - by accounts he does. It's just a shame that on the pitch things didn work out for him at all, his style indeed doesn't fit the team and I guess being somewhat out of the comfort zone (due to being asked to work harder on the pitch) made him miss even some of the easiest chances he would normally bury. Only 3 goals from open play in all competitions - just a trainwreck of a season for him and for us.

Not sure what's the solution. He probably will not agree to go to a mid-table team, even for a loan and bigger teams will not want him. I guess we might have to begin the season with 5 strikers and maybe use him for some cup games and Europa league.
 
rurikbird said:
Disagree with the bolded bit. I think Mario wants to be here, his agent convinced him this is his last chance to be a top player and he's done everything that's been asked of him: staying out of trouble - check, tracking back and helping out on defense - check, not moaning when manager left him on the bench - check, training hard - by accounts he does. It's just a shame that on the pitch things didn work out for him at all, his style indeed doesn't fit the team and I guess being somewhat out of the comfort zone (due to being asked to work harder on the pitch) made him miss even some of the easiest chances he would normally bury. Only 3 goals from open play in all competitions - just a trainwreck of a season for him and for us.

Not sure what's the solution. He probably will not agree to go to a mid-table team, even for a loan and bigger teams will not want him. I guess we might have to begin the season with 5 strikers and maybe use him for some cup games and Europa league.
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I dont think he did much in the way of tracking back and helping out defensively, that was the reason he got dropped in the first place
 
He worked about as much as Sturridge on the pitch. Not everyone is Luis Suarez or Dirk Kuyt.

Rodgers didn't want him but I am never in favour of letting expensive assets rot for no good reason.

We could've done more to make it work. For one reason or another we chose not to. Balotelli is who he is but we have managed the whole thing badly.
 
Judge Jules said:
He could at least have put a shift in.

And despite my attempts to steer away from it, others keep bringing the penalty incident up again, so here's my tuppence worth. Rodgers' choice or not, you do not diss your skipper like that in a game. Once Hendo took the ball it should have been left with him. Some of Balotelli's teammates were clearly disgusted with him and had every right to be.
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Hendo shouldn't have been such a bitch about it if that was the case and Balotelli was clearly the best penalty taker we had on the pitch. I'm far from a Balotelli fan but he made the right call there. Just because Henderson was captain it doesn't mean other players have to accept bad decisions from him.
 
If (and only if) Rodgers made his instructions clear before the game Hendo made the wrong call, but so did Balotelli in the manner of his response. Having a word would have been fine. Grabbing the ball off your skipper in front of a packed house was not fine, not by a long chalk.

And someone being captain *does* mean players have to accept his bad decisions, if that's what they are and the others don't persuade him to change them. It's the same situation as with referees, who have to be treated as right even when they're wrong, or everything unravels.
 
I don't disagree with you, but it's not enough evidence to suggest he's a disruptive influence on a day to day basis and we need to do anything we can to cut ties with him. His Liverpool career has been surprisingly uneventful for which he deserves a small amount of credit and points to a guy who is trying and maturing. Having said that, I'd still be trying to offload him, but only for footballing reasons. Considering we were his last real chance at a 'big club' I expected a higher work-rate on the pitch and a greater willingness to adapt to our game, but we haven't seen it. Also his shooting has been absolutely shite, which was arguably his best asset before he arrived. He'll end up in Turkey or China on big money, but the game will always be wondering what might have been. I expect he one day will, too.
 
It was a bad idea to sign him, Rodgers handling of the situation has been fairly poor too.

We took a decent striker, whose talent has a vastly overblown reputation, and made him worthless.
 
Judge Jules said:
I have to disagree with that. He did get a run in the side when he first arrived, and failed miserably to make it count.
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To be fair, everyone who was required to play up front last season failed to some extent, because the team failed to supply any real service to the striker. That was true for players who knew the other players and Rodgers' preferences inside out, like Sterling. To bring in a player who knows nothing of that, and hasn't played like that at all, and then just poke the ball at him with his back to goal and expect him to 'make it count' was just naive, or, more likely, pretty cynical.
 
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