So Mario Balotelli’s desperately disappointing and surprisingly uneventful stint at Liverpool has come to an end after he rejoined AC Milan just one year after making the move in the opposite direction.
Of course it’s only a one year loan and when it expires he’s technically a Liverpool player again unless a permanent buyer can be found, but let’s face it, he’s not coming back is he? Even if there are no takers Brendan Rodgers would surely just tell him to remain in Italy and not bother showing his face at Melwood for pre-season.
No sooner had the controversial frontman landed in Italy than the dirt was being dished back on Merseyside by the club via the local press about the tiresome behind the scenes antics that led to Balotelli’s position at the club becoming virtually untenable.
The list of misdemeanours included:
* Smoking at the training ground
* Deliberately scoring an own goal from the halfway line against Brad Jones in a practice match
* Allegedly feigning injury in training so he could have one of his entourage nip out and pick up the latest iPhone after he’d spotted a team-mate with one,
* Not knowing who Joe Allen was despite having played with him for four months.
There were other allegations too, all designed to portray the Italian in a bad light and justify Liverpool’s reasons for sending him packing back to Milan. All well and good, except it wasn’t the decision to send him packing that required justifying. It was the decision to sign him in the first place that was the problem and there is literally nothing Liverpool can say that will ever justify that. It was a terrible blunder to sign him and it has cost the club millions. That’s on them though, not on Balotelli, despite these latest “revelations".
However they want to dress it up, Liverpool paid £16m for a player who did not fit in -- either on or off the field -- and within 12 months they were not only sending him back where he came from, they were even paying part of the cost to make it happen. No amount of smear stories can alter that fact. They messed up and there’s no point in blaming the player, regardless of how questionable some of his behaviour may or may not have been.
So Balotelli wasn’t exactly a model professional during his time on Merseyside, hardly earth shattering is it? In truth it would have been more shocking if he had been, but in fairness to Mario the stories that have emerged in the local press (via the club) are relatively tame in the context of some of his prior behaviour. If not being sure what Joe Allen is doing with the first team squad is a crime then half of the Kop stand accused alongside him. Not me, I like Joe, but I bet plenty of you reading this don’t.
I’m not trying to excuse the reported unprofessional behaviour from Balotelli. If even half of the stories are true then it’s understandable that Rodgers appeared to reach the end of his tether rather quickly, particularly as he wasn’t keen on the deal to begin with. The fact remains, however, that Balotelli has done nothing on Merseyside that he hadn’t done at every other club he has been at, so sympathy for Rodgers and the club is thin on the ground on this one. You play with matches, you get burned.
The only real difference this time is that he didn’t score goals. Part of that is on him - - as he has himself admitted - - and part of it is on Liverpool for signing a player who was a terrible fit for what they look for in a centre forward. That was the biggest problem, not Balotelli’s eccentric behaviour. If he had been successful on the pitch and scored goals, would anybody really care whether he knew who Joe Allen was or not, or that he embarrassed Jones with a spectacular and deliberate own goal?
If he’d been finding the net regularly in the first team, most of us would have found it funny (I still do if I'm being completely honest), perhaps even Rodgers himself would had raised a chuckle, shook his head and gone “typical Mario!”. That’s it though, you can get away with a lot when you’re delivering the goods. When you’re struggling, the leash tends to be a lot shorter, and rightly so.
Balotelli came with a great big “Buyer Beware” sticker on his forehead and Liverpool knew exactly what they were getting, so complaining about his antics now seems rather spiteful and petty. All he is guilty of really is being who he has always been. You can’t hand feed a tiger and then complain when it bites you.
If James Milner suddenly started smoking on the team coach, loafing around in training and producing disinterested performances then Liverpool would have a legitimate grievance and every reason to feel let down and misled, because nothing in his past would suggest he’d act like that and therefore no-one could have seen it coming. With Balotelli, however, Liverpool knew what they were getting and still went ahead and signed him despite the obvious risk. To now be bitching about an admittedly long list of (relatively minor) discretions, just seems a bit snide to me.
There is plenty of blame to go around as to why Balotelli was not a success at Anfield, but only some of it lies at his door. To his credit he appears to have accepted his share of blame for the move not working out, while also (correctly) pointing out that Liverpool’s style did not suit him. Not an excuse, more of an explanation. He also wished the club well and said he’d be rooting for them as long as they are not playing AC Milan. All very classy and dignified, regardless of whether he was being sincere or not.
It’s perhaps surprising that he hasn’t lashed out at Rodgers or LFC, but it’s somewhat refreshing that he hasn’t. Of course there’s still time, and the “big hitting” interview may just be around the corner, but let’s hope not as Mario has handled his departure in a mature and dignified manner so far.
Interesting, funny characters are becoming increasingly rare in modern football which makes Balotelli a likeable enough figure to many. That said, he’s an awful lot more likeable when he’s somebody else’s problem and his antics can be laughed at without the knowledge that it’s your team suffering because of them.
The last 12 months of his career have been completely wasted but hopefully Balotelli can get back on track back in the familiar surroundings at the San Siro. I wish him no ill, I’d like to see him perform well and finally show this “huge talent” that he’s supposed to have but was not seen - even in small glimpses - in a red shirt. I'm not mad at him, I'm mad that the club chose to put themseves into this situation.
Ultimately he was just the wrong player at the wrong time for LFC and although he didn’t help himself, the truth is he never really had any chance of succeeding on Merseyside.
Arrivederci, you mad bastard.
Dave Usher
@theliverpoolway
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