The Mario Balotelli to Arsenal saga has been going on since early February, when rumours were afloat that Arsenal’s new kit sponsor PUMA planned to fund the transfer of the Italian to Arsenal themselves.
Since then this transfer story has taken all kinds of twists and turns: rumour had it that by June Balotelli had already signed and Arsenal were only waiting to unveil at the same time the new PUMA kit would be unveiled; PUMA moved into the titillation stage when, on the official PUMA Football Twitter account, they commented on a YouTube video about Balotteli’s move to Arsenal, saying how good a player he is. Suddenly, however, the rumours died down and the move seemed less and less likely to happen; Wenger even announced recently that he had no plans to sign a new striker. However, Mario Balotelli recently posed with his girlfriend outside an official PUMA Arsenal store, which can surely be interpreted as him being keen on a move to North London.
Most Arsenal fans have been divided on the prospect of Balotelli to Arsenal. Some believe that Arsene Wenger can work his magic once again and change Balotelli from a “Loose Cannon” to a club legend; others believe that Balotelli’s unpredictability will make him too much of a distraction to his teammates, particularly considering his record is hardly more impressive than that of Olivier Giroud.
Indeed, Balotelli’s goalscoring record for AC Milan last year wasn’t much better than Giroud. Balotelli scored 18 goals in 41 matches in all competitions last year; Giroud scored 22 goals in 51 matches. However, it is worth mentioning that AC Milan only managed to finish eighth last season and Mario Balotelli did not have the likes of Aaron Ramsey, Santi Cazorla, Jack Wilshere and Mesut Ozil (to name but a few) behind him, setting up chances.
At Inter Milan, Manchester City and AC Milan Balotelli has had some truly incredible moments. From brilliant one-touch finishes, to ice-cool penalties in the dying minutes, to glorious overhead kicks and even some wondergoals from miles outside the box, such as his wonderstrike against Bologna. Balotelli has shown his ability to score any kind of goal, including an arrogant tap-in with his shoulder against Norwich City a few years ago.
However, Balotelli has had some dreadful moments as well. He’s fallen out with both Jose Mourinho and Roberto Mancini, disrespectfully thrown his shirt on the ground in response to boos from Inter Milan fans- the only thing he regrets in his life, so he claims- he’s petulantly got himself sent off on a number of occasions, thrown darts at youth players, stamped on opposition players heads and been fined £250,000 for going to a strip club on the night before a game. That doesn’t even scratch the surface with his mad moments; he’s done stuff like setting off fireworks in his own bathroom (on the night of a Manchester Derby). In Mario’s defence, he then scored twice as City beat United 6-1, lifting up a t-shirt which said “Why Always Me?” on it after scoring the first goal.
Many successful sport teams over the years have had loose cannons, players capable either of producing a moment of pure genius or sheer idiocy. England’s greatest Cricket teams have had the likes of Freddie Flintoff, Kevin Pietersen and even Ian Botham to an extent. For the North American sports fans among you there have been the likes of Lawrence Taylor, Ron Artest and Kobe Bryant. Even Arsenal’s great “Invincibles” had Patrick Vieira, who joint-holds the record for most Premier League red cards and to an extent Dennis Bergkamp- all of his red cards were for violent conduct.
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The majority of football fans will tell you that Arsenal need another striker- Olivier Giroud and Yaya Sanogo is hardly enough up front. Perhaps Wenger believes that Joel Campbell is good enough to lead the line and Alexis Sanchez can be converted into a full-time Centre-Forward. However, a striker with the capability to create something out of nothing is just what Arsenal need. For example, Balotelli scored six goals from outside the box last season, compared to Giroud’s naught. If you were to add someone like Luis Suarez or, whisper it quietly, Robin van Persie into this Arsenal side just imagine what they’d be able to achieve. Mario Balotelli isn’t close to that level yet, but at twenty-three he is still young and can be developed into a phenomenon.
Wenger has quite the track-record in terms of developing players and changing them from the best. If Balotelli were to sign for Arsenal then certainly there would be the risk of him having as torrid a time as he did in his final season at Manchester City, but if Arsene Wenger could work his magic once again then Arsenal could well have another Robin van Persie or even Thierry Henry on their hands, the final piece- along with a decent holding midfielder- in Arsenal’s title winning and even Champions League winning puzzle.
AC Milan are keen to get rid of the Italian and Arsenal may be able to get him for under £20million which, considering the huge amount of money coming into the Arsenal coffers on a daily basis, the deal would not be quite as expensive as previously feared. If Balotelli’s form starts to drop, Arsenal have the very dependable Olivier Giroud ready to take his place, if not start ahead of him.
Instead of going on with statistics and various comparisons to great sport teams of the past, I’ll leave you one last hypothetical question: if Mario Balotelli can score a goal every other game with Nigel de Jong, Riccardo Montolivo, Andrea Poli, Kaka, Robinho, Keisuke Honda and Adel Tarrabt behind him, what could he do with Aaron Ramsey, Jack Wilshere, Santi Cazorla, Theo Walcott, Alexis Sanchez, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Lukas Podolski and Mesut Ozil?
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