Mario Balotelli Reinstated In Manchester City Squad After Eventful Fortnight

Roberto Mancini has indicated that Italy striker Mario Balotelli will be reinstated to the first squad this weekend as Manchester City face off against Sunderland - despite Balotelli never actually being dropped. The 20 year-old has had a turbulent fortnight, having been shown a straight red card in City’s Europa League clash against Dynamo Kiev and then being caught throwing darts at member of the youth team from his window after being passed over for selection by Italy national team coach Cesare Prandelli.

Despite the incident-packed two week spell, Mancini is totally confident - and I’ll have to assume that this isn’t an April Fools’ joke - that Balotelli will be better behaved:

Mario Balotelli has been advised by the Italy setup to become more mature before he regains his place in the national team, although they weren’t quite as severe as they could have been following a bizarre incident which saw the 20 year-old striker throw darts from his window at members of the Manchester City youth side, apparently out of sheer boredom. Italy Football Federation president Giancarlo Abete slammed Balotelli for his behaviour, which came just a week after he had been sent off for serious foul play in City’s 1-0 home win over Dynamo Kiev.

Manchester City are still apparently investigating the incident, although since nobody was hurt they’re treating the dart-throwing as a prank rather than as something more serious. Roberto Mancini is in a difficult position here - he needs to turn Balotelli into someone less volatile and prone to acts of violent idiocy, but he also needs to take care not to alienate the young forward permanently.

Being dropped from the Italy squad led to Balotelli calling coach Cesare Prandelli and apparently asking him for help, which many had hailed as potentially a major step forward for his maturity. Unless Prandelli is a far more sarcastic man than anyone previously believed, it doesn’t really sound as though his advice penetrated Balotelli’s skull, as the striker is now being disciplined for throwing darts out of his window at members of Manchester City’s youth team.

Fortunately, nobody was injured in the affair, but that’s still fairly horrifying and could easily result in a child being badly hurt. When asked why he would do such a thing, Balotelli’s only answer was that he was bored. While his idiocy may be funny at times, this sort of behaviour is starting to look remarkably sociopathic. Nobody doubts that the talent is there for Balotelli to become one of the world’s formost strikers, but good grief he’s got to stop doing this sort of thing.