Turkish giants Besiktas are the latest club linked with our flop forward Mario Balotelli, reports Turkish paper haberturk.
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Everyone was terrifically excited for his arrival last summer, when we gambled £16m on the controversial Italian, hoping he could directly replace Luis Suarez – who joined Barcelona and subsequently won a treble…
While Suarez flourished, Balotelli did not – scoring just Premier League goal all campaign and falling woefully out of favour with manager Brendan Rodgers.
Besiktas are going to sell former Newcastle and Chelsea forward Demba Ba back to the Premier League for £7.2m, claims the report, and want to reinvest the money to bring 24-year-old Balotelli in as a replacement.
There’s been no word from the club as to Balotelli’s future, but if Rodgers is keeping his job, it seems implausible that the two could remain working together. Towards the end of the campaign Rodgers froze the striker out of the first-team, even picking young Jerome Sinclair ahead of him on the bench.
Balotelli’s agent claimed in May that his client would ‘definitely stay’ (via Guardian), but in truth – why would he want to?
He’s not getting minutes, and his static style doesn’t suit the way we play. Surely it’s best for both parties to part way?