Super Mario? Not quite yet

If you choose to play football for a living you need to have a good deal of self belief –arrogance even.

Unlike most of the players I have dealt with over the years who show a good deal of respect and humility off the pitch (even when talking to journalists who they may not have a great amount of time for), Mario Balotelli appears unable to leave this arrogance in the dressing room.

The Italian striker missed Manchester City’s parade of the FA Cup to the fans and also left for Italy rather than attend City’s end of season dinner with fans where they had hoped to present him with the Young Player of the Year award.

Balotelli is 20 years old, but needs to grow up fast and start taking on some of the responsibility that comes with the big money he earns. There’s no doubt that he is a talented guy, but the game’s history is littered with wasted talent and players who haven’t achieved what they are capable of purely because they let their egos get the better of them.

Football is a team game and the team extends beyond the eleven players on the pitch to the punters in the stands – or even armchairs – who pay for the exotic lifestyles. Successful teams are made up of individuals who work hard for, and respect, each other. This attitude is picked up by the fans who then give their full vocal backing. The combination is irresistible and the recipe for sustained success.

Unfortunately when you have a key player who appears to place himself above both the club and his teammates, it can, it turn, have a corrosive effect. There is a very real possibility that young Mario – despite all of his natural gifts – could damage City in the longer term rather than help them add to that great FA Cup Final win. Someone needs to take the lad to one side and spell out his responsibilities to him.

He has stated how much he respects his manager and so I can’t help, but feel that Roberto Mancini has missed a trick by reportedly giving Balotelli permission to miss City’s end of season celebrations to fly back to Italy. I can’t help but feel that the game’s great managers – Clough, Paisley, Shankly and, dare I say, Ferguson – would have forced him on to the open top bus or to the dinner table rather than give him his head.

I’ve enjoyed the rise and rise of City in recent years. The fans have deserved better than the treatment that saw them tumble down the divisions and, now that they are on the up, they need to make sure that no one individual undermines all the good work that has been done.