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 Post subject: Re: Super Mario
PostPosted: Mon Dec 30, 2013 3:41 pm 
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Seems he's on his way out of Milan though http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/news/seri ... --sow.html

Fucker can't even take a penalty and score anymore.

As Bastard says, no thanks.

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 Post subject: Re: Super Mario
PostPosted: Mon Dec 30, 2013 7:27 pm 
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I prefer negs, a hell of an upgrade imo
Dzeko needs to do one now though tbf
Can we replace him with someone with a great attitude as well please?

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 Post subject: Re: Super Mario
PostPosted: Mon Dec 30, 2013 8:02 pm 
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neggers is more of an upgrade on dzeko, just wer didn't show him the door. balotelli and teveth weren't directly replaced because there's not, respectively, any other player that mental or that much of a troll. jovetic is filling in that much maligned and oft-underlooked spot previously occupied by bojinov, rsc and skol johnson - the cripple, aka injury sponge.

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 Post subject: Re: Super Mario
PostPosted: Sat Feb 08, 2014 10:11 pm 
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Being reported he was in tears tonight after some racial behaviour towards him.

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 Post subject: Re: Super Mario
PostPosted: Tue Jul 29, 2014 2:14 pm 
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Quote:
Mario Balotelli poses for selfie with pitch invaders• Pitch invaders posted picture on Twitter
• Manchester City went on to defeat Milan 5-1Share 67
inShare.0Email Guardian staff
theguardian.com, Monday 28 July 2014 12.43 BST Two fans take selfies with Mario Balotelli after running on the pitch in Pittsburgh. Photograph: Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images
Mario Balotelli is rarely shy of a selfie but he had rather less say in his latest snap, taken by a couple of pitch invaders during AC Milan’s pre-season friendly with Manchester City on Sunday.

A pair of supporters darted on to the pitch during the match – won 5-1 by City – and headed straight for the Italy striker, who at first did not seemed amused. Balotelli soon saw the funny side however and posed for the picture with the Milan fans, who were soon escorted away by security.

The fans then posted their selfie on Twitter while bragging that they escaped punishment for their brazen act.

Stevan Jovetic was on target twice at Pittsburgh’s Heinz Field stadium while Scott Sinclair, Jesús Navas and Kelechi Iheanacho also scored for City. Sulley Muntari was Milan’s scorer while Balotelli had a goal disallowed.

Image

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 Post subject: Re: Super Mario
PostPosted: Tue Aug 26, 2014 8:34 am 
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Must be thinking that this is probably the most stupid, dumbest thing he's ever done


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 Post subject: Re: Super Mario
PostPosted: Tue Aug 26, 2014 12:09 pm 
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ThunderinScitters wrote:
Must be thinking that this is probably the most stupid, dumbest thing he's ever done


He's prolly just happy to be away from the greasy, racist wops. :D


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 Post subject: Re: Super Mario
PostPosted: Tue Aug 26, 2014 3:27 pm 
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and has instead lumped in with the sweaty, racist scousers...

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 Post subject: Re: Super Mario
PostPosted: Wed Aug 27, 2014 6:55 am 
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Can we please terminate this particular thread as there is nothing Super about the cock !


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 Post subject: Re: Super Mario
PostPosted: Wed Aug 27, 2014 6:59 am 
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Fuck off, no.

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 Post subject: Re: Super Mario
PostPosted: Wed Aug 27, 2014 9:14 am 
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gibbonicus_andronicus wrote:
Fuck off, no.


This.


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 Post subject: Re: Super Mario
PostPosted: Thu Oct 02, 2014 10:25 pm 
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poor mario, you do look so wrong in red. and dear brendan is maybe trying to motivate him in a cack handed and public manner. almost sounds written off already.

Quote:
Mario Balotelli was the best Liverpool could get, admits Brendan Rodgers
• Manager says it was impossible to replace Luis Suárez
• ‘Mario was the one right at the very end who was available’
• Rodgers says Balotelli is not scoring enough
• Basel sink Liverpool to extend Champions League jinx
• Hodgson leaves Sturridge out of England squad
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The Guardian, Thursday 2 October 2014 22.30 BST
Liverpool Training Session
Brendan Rodgers made his first public criticism of Mario Balotelli after Liverpool’s defeat in Basel. Photograph: Andrew Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images
Brendan Rodgers has defended Liverpool’s efforts to replace Luis Suárez yet conceded that Mario Balotelli represented his last viable option when signing the forward from Milan for £16m.

The Liverpool manager made his first public criticism of Balotelli following the 24-year-old’s meagre contribution in the Champions League defeat by Basel on Wednesday, admitting the Italian’s creativity and strike rate must improve. He has scored one goal in seven appearances for the club since arriving in August.

Balotelli’s suitability to Liverpool’s style, and vice versa, has been called into question by the team’s faltering form without Suárez and the injured Daniel Sturridge. Rodgers described the former Manchester City player as a calculated risk at the time of his transfer and, in a less than glowing explanation for proceeding with the deal, now claims there were no available alternatives with deadline day approaching.

“I always said it was about availability and affordability of players,” said Rodgers, who considered the merits of Samuel Eto’o before the 33-year-old’s move to Everton. “Mario was the one right at the very end who was available for that. I said when he came in that it was a calculated risk and it’s something I have to work on to try to make it work for the team.


“You assess what the group had. We brought in Rickie Lambert as someone who can play some games for us and come off the bench and be an impact player for us in certain games. Daniel is a top Premier League player but has shown during his time here that he does get injuries so we needed to prepare for that. Obviously Fabio Borini looked like he was on his way out [to Sunderland].

“We had attempts for other strikers that didn’t materialise for one reason or another so it left us right at the end of the window with a decision on whether just to go with what we had, when experience told us we were too light, or take a calculated risk on a player who has quality and then could we get it out of him consistently?”

Balotelli did not have a touch in the Basel penalty area as Liverpool succumbed to their fourth defeat in nine matches in all competitions this season. He also headed straight down the tunnel at the final whistle despite Rodgers’ request for his players to applaud the team’s supporters at St Jakob Park.

“In terms of his behaviour he is consciously trying to work hard at what we demand here, the intensity and work rate,” said Rodgers. “I think in terms of goals, he needs to improve. It is as simple as that. At this moment he has not hit the numbers he will have wanted. I encourage the strikers to get into the framework of the goal, wide players to come in and get into the framework of the goal and to break the lines. The quality of our service [against Basel] wasn’t up to the standard it should be. You also have to make and create goals yourself and he didn’t do that. But we win and lose as a team, and against Basel we were not good enough.”

Suárez’s exit, for £75m to Barcelona, did not come as a surprise to Liverpool, who responded by trying to get Alexis Sánchez as part of the deal only for the Chilean to opt for Arsenal, and then saw a move for Loïc Rémy collapse on medical grounds. Rémy ultimately joined Chelsea from Queens Park Rangers and, despite going for the last resort in Balotelli, Rodgers denies that Liverpool’s strategy for replacing last season’s leading marksman was flawed.

“I wouldn’t say that,” he responded. “There are very few players who can replace Suárez. Actually there are no players who can replace Suárez. When you look at the availability of other players during the summer it was difficult for us. It’s no good now, I know, but we took a player in Divock Origi [for £9.8m from Lille, who insisted on keeping the Belgium international on loan for the season] who we believe will be world class and we’ll get him next summer.

“He is a top player. He has everything – the speed, the profile and he can play now – but our deal was that we couldn’t bring him in now. That was unfortunate because he can run in behind, he can keep the ball and he can press but that was the deal. There were very few who are top class who were available and Mario Balotelli was a calculated gamble that we had to try to work with.”

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 Post subject: Re: Super Mario
PostPosted: Fri Oct 24, 2014 11:28 am 
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Quote:
Brendan Rodgers is misguided in singling out Mario Balotelli for criticismThe Liverpool manager should not be surprised by his striker – and has more to ponder than the swap heard around the world
• Balotelli’s half-time shirt swap leaves Rodgers fuming
• Madrid and Cristiano Ronaldo teach Liverpool a harsh lesson
• Mario Balotelli at Liverpool: the story so farShare 97
inShare.0Email It was another tough evening for Mario Balotelli, who was replaced at half-time of Liverpool's defeat to Real Madrid. Photograph: Carl Recine/Action Images
Funny things, football shirts. It is apparently OK to reinvent, redesign and aggressively retail your club’s shirt from season to season. Or to cover it with adverts and market it as an object of desire at a price that is beyond the sensible reach of most fans. This is to respect and value and cherish the shirt.

On the other hand taking the shirt off at half-time in order to conduct an ill-timed exchange: this is entirely unacceptable, a debasing of the hallowed fibres, a knee to the guts of the hard-working fan, and a crime to be punished at the earliest opportunity by a convenient post-match public shaming. Ideally, a public shaming to be a carried out by the same manager who had no idea – Mario: who knew? – that this kind of thing might happen when he signed a player to whom this kind of thing pretty much always happens.

And so here we are. If we really have to do this – and apparently we really, really do – it is probably best to start off by pointing out the disjunct between the bare facts of Liverpool’s 3-0 home defeat by Real Madrid and the post-match furore over Mario Balotelli making the dunderheaded decision to swap his shirt with Pepe at half-time.

For a start the latter has no causal relationship with the former. The future ownership of Balotelli’s shirt had no bearing on Liverpool’s understandable inability to compete, beyond 20 minutes of high-tempo pressing, against the most expensively assembled squad ever, garlanded with an all-time great player at the peak of his powers.

The looming spectre of Balotelli’s shirt removal – or even the listlessness of Balotelli’s pre-removal performance – did not force Glen Johnson to lose the flight of the ball for the second Madrid goal. There is no correlation between Balotelli’s insufficiently inspiring body language and the persistent structural and personnel problems in Brendan Rodgers’ defence.

Similarly Balotelli carries a collective rather than personal responsibility for Liverpool’s inability to close down that princely but still – surely against the very best – vulnerable central midfield. Toni Kroos was a commanding presence in the first half at Anfield. But he did seem to have a lot of space within which to stroll about doing his commanding once Liverpool’s adrenal, fast start had begun to lag.

From a certain angle it seems clear enough why Rodgers made such a fuss over what is essentially an emotive, peripheral issue. Balotelli has already stretched his manager’s patience thin. This was the night Rodgers decided to cut him loose a little, to cash his player in against a disappointing performance, harnessing rather than fighting against Balotelli’s distractingly overblown presence in order to avoid having to linger on a one-sided home defeat.

Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers comments on forward Mario Balotelli’s shirt-swap
This is simply the kind of thing managers do, although in this case there are a few problems. For a start Rodgers may have gone a little early on this one. It was hardly a disastrous result. Anybody can lose 3-0 to Real Madrid and Liverpool still have a decent chance of getting out of their Champions League group. Better perhapssimply to concentrate on talking up a fine opponent while admitting that his team needs to work on defending crosses and set pieces.

If only. Whatever happens from here Balotelli is surely going to be watching much of it from the outside. This is a player who for all his preening extroversions is clearly a fragile soul and for whom, right now, playing football appears to be a painfully abrasive experience. Perhaps the correct response might be concern rather than censure. Pity, sympathy, indulgence: these are not qualities that sit easily in football, which generally concerns itself with being infuriated at signs of weakness and disregarding the emotional wellbeing of players on the grounds that they earn a lot of money and get to kick a ball every day. But even the rich are allowed to be a little vague, a little unhappy, a little misguided. And Balotelli, for all his infuriating neediness, simply looks lost right now.

Which brings us to the broader point. What did Rodgers really expect to happen here? Balotelli is often described as unpredictable. He isn’t. He’s entirely predictable. Predictably enigmatic, predictably unpredictable, predictably troubled. This is a player who, while he was at Internazionale, had to be ordered to stop wearing a Milan shirt around the city, having apparently failed to grasp that this would annoy some fans. To rail against this otherworldliness, to adopt a posture of shocked surprise that Mario – no, not Mario – has done something silly or drifted grandly to the fringes at just the wrong moment is a bit like buying a papier mâché top hat and then becoming inconsolably enraged when it fails to keep the rain off.

In a wider sense Balotelli embodies a long-standing confusion in sport between the precise extent and meaning of talent. Ultimately it is the ability to harness, express and exploit a natural gift that defines the extent of that gift. Talent is as talent does. A level-headed, fearless player has a talent for being level-headed and fearless: a player who lacks these qualities lacks a certain aspect of what represents genuine sporting talent.

There have been some sublime performances: Germany in Warsaw two years ago; Manchester United at Old Trafford three years ago. But perhaps in the end Balotelli’s inconsistency is not a sign of a mystery waiting to be unwrapped but simply the measure of what he can achieve. Here is a striker with four goals in his last 30 games for Liverpool and Manchester City. This may or may not be enigmatic. But it’s definitely not enough.

Rodgers has an excellent record in improving attacking talent and perhaps he can still engage profitably with his listing No9. But for now, blaming Mario for being Mario – having signed Mario in the full knowledge that Mario is Mario – is unlikely to lead anywhere profitable.


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 Post subject: Re: Super Mario
PostPosted: Sun Oct 26, 2014 2:15 am 
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mario is fast becoming unemployable. for a geezer with so much talent, we might never see what he is capable of if he doesn't get interested soon.

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 Post subject: Re: Super Mario
PostPosted: Sun Oct 26, 2014 5:04 am 
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Danny's Studs wrote:
mario is fast becoming unemployable. for a geezer with so much talent, we might never see what he is capable of if he doesn't get interested soon.


I've heard he's all hype. Can't remember where....


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 Post subject: Re: Super Mario
PostPosted: Sun Nov 02, 2014 10:05 am 
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He's not super anymore


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 Post subject: Re: Super Mario
PostPosted: Tue Jul 28, 2015 9:55 am 
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If I were Mario I would move to the USA now.
He would demand a huge pay packet and be a superstar out there on and off the pitch.

:TopHat2

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 Post subject: Re: Super Mario
PostPosted: Tue Jul 28, 2015 10:38 pm 
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Jesus O'Nazareth wrote:
If I were Mario I would move to the USA now.
He would demand a huge pay packet and be a superstar out there on and off the pitch.

:TopHat2


That's a really good shout. No racism there either. :8ball: It's a win-win!

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 Post subject: Re: Super Mario
PostPosted: Wed Jul 29, 2015 5:20 am 
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Good film that.


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 Post subject: Re: Super Mario
PostPosted: Wed Jul 29, 2015 11:38 pm 
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It really is. My favourite director he is.

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