Mancini 'worried' about injured Balotelli

Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini has admitted he is seriously concerned about Mario Balotelli after the striker suffered yet another injury setback in his disjointed first season in England.

Balotelli is set for a month on the sidelines after a recurrence of a knee injury originally suffered during his debut against Timisoara in August. Balotelli, 20, was forced to have an operation that kept him out for two months, although he was quickly sidelined again through suspension after collecting a red card at West Brom.

However, Balotelli has not been seen since scoring a hat-trick against Aston Villa on December 28 and now Mancini has revealed the controversial front-man has suffered a recurrence of his knee injury. City medical staff have advised Balotelli to rest for four weeks and then resume training, in the belief that will rectify the problem. However, Mancini is not happy at the situation.

Europa League Qualifier

Super Mario might be worth all those headavhes he is bound to cause for Manchester City in the future. 15 minutes into his debut for City, Balotelli scored the game winner in a 1-0 victory over Romanian squad FC Timisoara.
"He had a great debut and I am happy that he scored," Mancini said. "He is a good player. He needs to improve of course and get to know everybody. It was the first time he had played with the team.''
It was not all sunshine and rainbows for Mario. A mere two minutes after his goal, Balotelli lost his cool and got his first of many bookings he will get in his English career. "We must work on this with him because it will be different in the Premier League than in Italy," Mancini warned.
FC Timisoara will travel to Manchester for the follow up leg this match and the chance to play in the Europa League.

Mario is here...

Manchester City has officially announced the transfer of former Inter Milan striker Mario Balotelli. This has been expected for weeks from the free spenders from Abu Dhabi. Mario is an incredibly talented player that could end up as one of the top 5 players in the world or could self destruct and bring everyone down with him. Is the otherworldly talent worth the headaches of a persona of Balotelli's caliber?

City already has Santa Cruz, Adebayor, Tevez, Bellamy, and for now, Robinho on the roster as fowards. Where will Balotelli fit in and will he have enough composure to wait his turn in musical strikers at City.

On a personal tangent, will the new 25 player list be a problem for any teams other than City. It seems as though City has close to 40 players that are EPL caliber players on their roster. If all are not loaned or transferred in time, how can City's hoarding of talent be a good thing. I am happy that the EPL has instituted the 25 player policy and left a loophole of the 21 and under age rule, but I personally hope that these decisions by City to add more players the the point of being just flat out ridiculous, bites them in the ass.