Mario Balotelli seemingly has no future at Liverpool, with manager Brendan Rodgers leaving him out of the match-day squad which defeated Stoke on Premier League opening weekend.
To be fair to the 24-year-old Italian, he’s not made too much of a fuss yet – having been known for kicking off on social media in the past – but countryman Paulo di Canio has still found time to criticise the controversial striker.
“I’m talking as a coach,” Di Canio told Fox Sports Italia, cited in the Echo.
“I think at some point you have to realise what it means to play with your team-mates, sharing good and bad moments and it doesn’t seem like he is doing that
“Many coaches have tried to change him. (Roberto) Mancini has been like a father to him, but even he won’t reunite with him at Inter.
“(Jose) Mourinho understood immediately, he’s good at understanding players, and he realised that he could change him. Now he hasn’t got anyone to rely on.
“He’s still young, he’s physically strong, and he’s an incredible athlete, but he’s never taken advantage of his great potential.
“Sometimes in football you think you can just hog the ball, show off in some way and let your team-mates run for you, but you can’t, football is about sacrifice, and a bond with your team-mates.
“That doesn’t mean off the pitch in a bar, but being generous on the pitch. I hope he’ll recover, but I can imagine it’ll be very difficult, as he spends too much time on social media.
“It seems like he uses football to be a celebrity, rather than the opposite.”
Balotelli’s time with us is over, simply. We just need to find a club who’ll meet our £7.1m asking price (via Daily Mail). So far, the striker has turned down a move to Dubai (via Mirror), while the continual links back to Serie A with Fiorentina and Sampdoria have yet to bear fruit.
He’s been a failure at Anfield, undeniably – bagging just the one Premier League goal during his debut season.
Before the end of the transfer window, we need to do all we can to offload Balotelli, Fabio Borini and Jose Enrique – all of whom have been told to train away from the first-team squad (via Guardian).
If we get decent money for the trio, our net spend this summer will be very small, but our squad will have dramatically improved.