Mario Balotelli is at the centre of another bust-up with one of
his own team-mates.
Calm down: James Milner struggles to stop Richards as
things get heated at Carrington
Clash: Micah Richards and Mario Balotelli (right) go
head to head at Manchester City's training ground
Why always me? were the words written across
Mario Balotelli’s T-shirt when he celebrated scoring in October’s
Manchester derby.
His club must be asking the same question after
their young striker was caught up in yet another unsavoury incident
on Thursday.
Whether Manchester City’s ‘fight club’ reputation
is deserved or not, they know it will not be helped by photographs
of Balotelli clashing with team-mate Micah Richards in the latest
training-ground bust-up at Carrington.
It is the fifth incident of its kind caught on
camera in the space of a year. Balotelli has been involved on four
occasions.
This time, he and Richards were on the same team
in a practice match at the end of training, when Balotelli is
believed to have reacted angrily to a comment from the England
defender that he was not pulling his weight.
The two men squared up but James Milner, Yaya
Toure and Vincent Kompany quickly dragged them apart.
Richards was later said to be joking about the
incident and wrote on his Twitter account: ‘Me & mario are all
good! these things happen in training & we shook hands after.
it shows passion!’
City say such incidents are commonplace on
training grounds up and down the country, and that flare-ups at
Carrington are only highlighted because photographers have a clear
view from a public footpath.
But there is a growing concern that it is
happening too often and that Balotelli is once again the man in the
thick of it.
Stepping in: City captain Vincent Kompany does his best
to hold back Balotelli
Nothing to see here: Roberto Mancini attempts to play
down the incident as he spots the photographers
The 21-year-old was involved in a scuffle with
former City team-mate Jerome Boateng last December, a month before
Kolo Toure had a set-to with Emmanuel Adebayor.
In April, Balotelli was photographed jabbing his
finger at Kompany as team-mates intervened when he reacted angrily
to a tackle from the Belgian.
It happened a few weeks after Balotelli was
pictured receiving a ticking off from manager Roberto Mancini for
his rash challenge on Carlos Tevez, while in August there were
photos of another confrontation with Aleksandar Kolarov.
There have been many other controversies
surrounding Balotelli since his £24million move from Inter Milan in
2010. This season alone, two of the more unusual episodes have
involved him travelling to Naples to give evidence to prosecutors
in a Mafia trial, and there was a blaze at his Cheshire mansion
started by a firework being let off in the bathroom.
