Brendan Rodgers almost ended Liverpool’s long wait for a league title back in 2014 only to miss out to Manchester City by two points.

The Northern Irishman tried his very best to bring the glory days back to Anfield and although he gave it a good shot he didn’t quite succeed.

The likes of Luis Suarez, Raheem Sterling and Daniel Sturridge were just a few of the players that thrived under the current Celtic boss but one former Red has described Rodgers as ‘the worst coach I have ever had’.

Mario Balotelli, who was a surprise signing back in 2014 as we attempted to replace Luis Suarez who had signed for Barcelona, has labelled the 50-year-old as a ‘disaster’.

Speaking to TVPlay (via The Mirror), Balotelli said: “Brendan Rodgers is the worst coach I have ever had. He was number one as far as training sessions were concerned, with keeping possession of the ball and the small-sided games. But as a person he was a disaster.”

READ MORE: Michael Owen says 24-y/o Liverpool attacker has ‘got to do his talking on the pitch’

Balotelli was quite a character, both on and off the pitch. He netted four goals in 28 appearances for Liverpool during his 12-month spell at the club and it’s fair to say things didn’t quite go to plan for him at L4.

It’s interesting that the Italy international has claimed that Rodgers’ training sessions were impressive, but the pair simply didn’t get on with one another on a personal level.

Our former No. 45 was loaned out to AC Milan after one season in a red shirt and then joined Nice on a free transfer when his deal at Liverpool expired.

He’s currently plying his trade in Turkey with Adana Demirspor.

Rodgers, meanwhile, has enjoyed successful spells with Celtic and Leicester City since his time in charge of the Merseysiders.

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Mario Balotelli remains the poster boy for what could have been having somewhat squandered the supreme levels of talent at his disposal over the years.

The No.9 still possesses a keen eye for goal regardless, not to mention a love for flaunting his ability, with one piece of footage capturing the Italian’s well-taken Rabona goal Adana Demirspor after a series of step-overs freed him up for a moment of magic from close-range.

Having impressed in the English top-flight with Manchester City, it’s a massive a shame the striker couldn’t put his all into a move to Liverpool, though we certainly wish him well for the remainder of his playing career.

You can catch the clip below, courtesy of 

El golazo de videojuego de Mario Balotellipic.twitter.com/xJwBhNInDY

— Fichajes.com (@Fichajes_futbol) May 23, 2022

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Brad Jones has revealed that Mario Balotelli used to outright refuse to contribute to defensive work in Liverpool training.

The former Reds goalkeeper revisited a moment during his Anfield days where the Italian had proved to be less than cooperative when helping defend set-pieces.

“I probably was (in goal for the own goals in training) for one or two, yeah. I remember he was going to play and we were doing set-pieces,” the Australian told the Echo.

“Brendan told him, ‘Mario, you’re going to stand here at the front post.’ Mario said, ‘No, no, no! I’m no good at that.’ Brendan was like, ‘You’re 6ft 2, you’re good at heading!’ He’s like, ‘No, no, no! I don’t like being here!’ He just didn’t want to do it, he didn’t want the responsibility.

“Brendan said, ‘Well you’re going to do it!’ So the first corner comes in, he ducks. The second corner comes in and he’s like ‘Eurgh’. And then I’m pretty sure either the third or fourth ended up being an own goal.

“It was like, ‘Okay Mario, go stand back up there. Go get away from our goal please!’”

The ex-Inter Milan hitman proved less than effective on the pitch for Brendan Rodgers’ men, registering four goals in 28 games for the club.

READ MORE: ‘He was two personalities’ – Ex-Red shares ‘horrible’ reality of what it was like to train with Suarez at Liverpool

When looking at the sheer talent at the 31-year-old’s disposal, it’s a shame of gigantic proportions that he never truly fulfilled his potential in the game.

Of course, it was a gamble and a half to bring in Balotelli as a replacement for a world-beater in Luis Suarez who would go on to reach greater heights in Spain as far as silverware was concerned.

It seems like a million years ago that our recruitment efforts were somewhat hit and miss, with our modern approach of securing rough gems for Jurgen Klopp to mould paying dividends.

EOTK INSIDER: Does the Liverpool v Man City rivalry need more blood and thunder to be considered a ‘proper’ rivalry?

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An old video recorded for Italian media has resurfaced and it features a 10-year-old Phil Foden discussing his thoughts on a former Liverpool player.

Still just 21-years-old, the Manchester City attacking midfielder has had a bright start to his short football career and his confidence on the pitch appears to have always been just as strong off it.

A group of youngsters in sky blue shirts were asked for their opinion on a current star in their side and a future signing for the Reds, Mario Balotelli.

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The now England international said: “He’s a good player but he’s got a bad attitude off the pitch”.

The controversial Italian forward, who spent three years at the Etihad Stadium, has probably had his career fairly assessed by the youngster here.

Only managing four goals in 28 games, our former No.45 will perhaps be filed under ‘transfers to forget’ but it’s interesting to see that even children can acknowledge his obvious talent and poor utilisation of his skills.

You can watch the video of Foden via @SaifNerazzurro:

10 year old @PhilFoden giving his thoughts on then Man City player Mario Balotelli pic.twitter.com/U4DiczOK4J

— S Nerazzurro (@SaifNerazzurro) January 11, 2022

Liverpool hero would be fourth highest appearance holder and second-top goal scorer EVER, if his wartime goals and games were counted

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Rickie Lambert has explained what a pain Mario Balotelli was in training during his short stint at Liverpool.

The pair signed during the same summer of 2014, when Luis Suarez departed to Barcelona, and it would be fair to say the strikers didn’t quite fill the Uruguayan’s gap…

Lambert left after one year and two Premier League goals, while the Italian got one less than that – causing Brendan Rodgers, then manager – no end of problems in the process for his behaviour.

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Rickie Lambert has explained his regrets from his short spell at Liverpool and how irritated he was that Mario Balotelli was picked ahead of him considering his shocking attitude in training sessions.

The Italian was an incredible flop following his £16m transfer from AC Milan in 2014 – and multiple players have explained his embarrassing efforts at Melwood during his year at the club.

Lambert similarly only stayed at Anfield for one season after arriving alongside Balotelli in the club’s miserable attempt to replace Barcelona-bound Luis Suarez.

“It was great,” Lambert told Bristol Live. “I returned to my home city as a different person than when I left. I was a lot more professional of course. And it went okay at first, I scored a couple and was quite happy.

“But I could tell that the players were all shocked at losing Luis Suarez, and how much of their game evolved around him. I was never going to replace someone like that, was I? Going in after him was hard, very hard.

“And then Brendan Rodgers brought in Mario Balotelli and put him in ahead of me, and it done my head in to be honest. I couldn’t understand.

“The way he used to train was a disgrace. Off the training pitch he’s quite infectious, a lovely lad. But his persona on the training pitch is not good.

“When he played he did try, and I have come across players with that attitude before, but they are usually good enough to get away with it, but he wasn’t.

“I just didn’t understand how Rodgers was letting him get away with it, and picking him ahead of me. It affected me directly, but it had a negative impact on the team.”

Liverpool’s transfers in the summer of 2014 ruined all of our brilliant work from the 2013/14 campaign.

We signed the likes of Lazar Markovic, Adam Lallana, Dejan Lovren, Balotelli, Lambert and Alberto Moreno – but most were huge flops.

Lallana and Lovren have done quite well in various stages of their careers, but the effects from that window effectively cost Brendan Rodgers his job just over a year later.

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Former Liverpool striker Mario Balotelli was tasked with picking his ‘ultimate XI’, in which he’s to select the best possible team using 11 players.

Growing up in Italy, the Brescia star has a strong local influence in his picks, with the likes of Fabio Cannavaro, Andrea Pirlo and Antonio Cassano making the cut.

He was asked this question during a Q&A on Puma Football’s Instagram chat with Arsenal and France icon Thierry Henry.

Balotelli chose to include some of his former team-mates, namely Liverpool legend Steven Gerrard and former Manchester City star Yaya Toure.

Joining the Premier League duo in midfield is Andrea Pirlo – it’s frightening to think what that trio, in their respective peaks, could get up to.

Between the sticks is Julio Cesar, and the Brazilian stopper has a back four of Cannavaro, Alessandro Nesta, Maicon, who also played for both City and Inter Milan, and Maxwell.

Complimenting the star studded lineup so far is an attacking trio of Cassano, Ronaldo Nazario and Lionel Messi.

Mario was ultimately a disappointing flop at Liverpool, but he was a hit with the fans when he first arrived. The Kop could be heard singing “Mario fantastico, Mario magnifico, ole ole” in only season with the club.

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Former Liverpool striker Mario Balotelli was racially abused once again over the weekend during Brescia’s 2-1 defeat at Hellas Verona.

The Italian forward kicked the ball into the stands in anger as some supporters made monkey chants at him, before his teammates calmed him down and convinced him to stay on the pitch, according to BBC Sport.

Balotelli walking off the pitch after racist chants from Verona fans, Italian football is the pits.

Again! and Again…when will FIFA impose heavy sanctions on racists bigots. #Balotelli pic.twitter.com/8Y2mFJ9ANp

— Sbu Mthembu (@sbu_mthembu) November 3, 2019

He went on to score for Brescia, but the goal proved only to be a consolation. The question, though, is whether being convinced to stay on the pitch was the right thing: even if he went on to score, not making a stand means the incidents are likely to happen again.

Perhaps his teammates should have shown solidarity with him by all walking off rather than convincing him to stay on.

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Balotelli posted on Instagram after the game: “The ‘people’ of this curva who made the monkey chants. Shame on you, shame on you, shame on you. In front of your children, wives, relatives, parents, friends and acquaintances… shame.”

There was also racist chanting in the Napoli vs Roma game this weekend in Italy, while afterwards, Verona boss Ivan Juric insisted he had heard nothing and that his side’s fans were not being racist.

There are problems with racism in the English game as well, though thankfully they are not as prevalent as they are in Italy.

The post Ex-Red Mario Balotelli threatens to leave the pitch over racist chants before scoring for Brescia appeared first on The Empire of The Kop.

Liverpool weighed-up a move for Samuel Eto’o before they signed Mario Balotelli in 2014, according to Reds journalist Kristian Walsh.

Fans will remember that we were in the market for a Luis Suarez replacement after our top scorer sealed his move to Barcelona.

The prime target, as Walsh noted in his in-depth explanation for the Balotelli deal, was Alexis Sanchez, but he of course opted to join Arsenal.

Attention then turned to Loic Remy, fresh off a season during which he’d impressively bagged 14 goals in 26 league games on loan at Newcastle United.

But that promising transfer was cancelled amid reports of a failed medical, and we had to look elsewhere.

Walsh says that Eto’o was our Plan E in the striker search.

Eto’o had made a temporary move to Chelsea from Russian side Anzhi Makhachkala in 2013/14 and scored 12 goals in all competitions.

Ultimately, we thought better of a swoop for the former Inter Milan and Barcelona man and ended-up landing Balotelli for £16million in the final week of the window.

He would go on to manage only four scores in his solitary season at Anfield under Brendan Rodgers.

It’s a relief that we’ve moved on from this almost scattergun transfer policy, which brought few positive results.

The post The big-name move which was scrapped before Mario Balotelli signing appeared first on The Empire of The Kop.

Mario Balotelli is at it again in Italy – this time he has paid a man €2,000 to drive his motorbike into the sea in Naples.

The Italian has always been a bit of a wildcard, but his latest antic is just a bit of harmless fun (as the bike was removed from the sea afterwards).

The owner of the Vespa said it was only worth €600 so he was quick to accept Mario’s challenge, and the bike somehow still works!

Watch the video below:

Mario Balotelli has made headlines in Italy again as he paid a local bar owner in Naples €2000 cash to drive a Vespa into the sea…

Easiest €2k ever

[IG: mb459] pic.twitter.com/TjF4Z76nPU

— Footy Accumulators (@FootyAccums) July 6, 2019

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When you think of Liverpool’s recruitment in the last few transfer windows, it has been nothing short of superb; it’s not been that long, though, since it was a completely different story.

Perhaps the worst signing the Reds made under Brendan Rodgers was Mario Balotelli, who even the manager himself referred to as a “gamble”.

According to The Mirror, when Rodgers told Steven Gerrard he was signing the Italian, his reaction was simple: “Uh-oh.”

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Balotelli scored just four goals for us, with only one coming in the Premier League – so it’s fair to say Gerrard was proven correct.

Gerrard added: “I’d never met Balotelli but I’d heard all the stories about the indoor fireworks and Jose Mourinho describing him as an ‘unmanageable’ player.

“I could see that, in the right mood, he was a quality footballer but the rest of his career seemed like a spectacular waste of talent.”

We’re just thankful we don’t have to put up with that sort of nonsense any more. There are no such bad eggs in the current group.

The post Steven Gerrard’s brutal assessment of failed Reds “gamble” appeared first on The Empire of The Kop.

Simon Mignolet has emerged as a January transfer target for Patrick Vieira’s Nice.

The Belgian has long been linked to an Anfield departure having seen his first-team involvement regress over the past two seasons.

His future at the club was plunged into serious doubt in the summer when Liverpool spent a then-world record fee for a goalkeeper on Alisson, with the Brazilian arriving from Roma for £67million.

This followed a season across which Loris Karius had asserted himself as Jurgen Klopp’s no.1 between the sticks, resigning Mignolet to just 22 appearances across all competitions.

Having looked the likely candidate to leave during the latest transfer window, it was instead Karius that took his career elsewhere on the back of his torrid Champions League final and the nervy pre-season that followed it.

Mignolet has made just one appearance so far this season, starting in the League Cup defeat to Chelsea at Anfield.

Belgian newspaper Het Belang van Limburg claim Nice are now eyeing up a move for the shot-stopper following the turn of the year.

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A mixed start to the season of five wins, five defeats and two draws means Nice currently sit in ninth place in the Ligue 1 table as they seek to build on their eighth-placed finish in 2017/2018.

Mignolet sealing a move to France would mean a reunion with former Liverpool teammate Mario Balotelli, who has scored 43 goals in 68 appearances since joining from the Reds in 2016.

The former Sunderland man has largely impressed with his attitude behind-the-scenes amid difficult personal circumstances in recent years.

A struggle for form and his consequent lack of minutes could have easily left Klopp with an unhappy man in his ranks, yet the 30-year-old has rarely kicked up a fuss.

The summer did, however, prove telling in regards to his career on Merseyside fizzling out when he made no secret of his desire to get back to playing regular first-team football.

The post Simon Mignolet could reunite with ex-Liverpool teammate in January transfer appeared first on The Empire of The Kop.

James Milner has given an interview to FourFourTwo magazine, in which he discussed his former team-mate Mario Balotelli!

The pair played together at Manchester City, and were officially team-mates at Liverpool in 2015 and 2016, although by that time the Italian had been frozen out of consideration by first Brendan Rodgers and then Jurgen Klopp – so wouldn’t have been involved in too much first-team training…

SEE MORE:
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In terms of character, Milner and Balotelli are a paradox! The former is an old-fashioned, no-nonsense Yorkshireman, while the latter is a brash, flash striker!

We have a soft-spot for both, but it doesn’t look like Milner had much time for Balotelli, who he politely described as an ‘interesting character’!

“I was there for the Darts incident,” he began. “At Carrington there was a leisure area upstairs with a dartboard and a window overlooking the gym, and as people were walking past the gym down below, he was firing darts at them! That’s up there with the most stupid things he did.

“The most stupid was probably upsetting Micah Richards in training. Micah wanted to rip his head off! Michah’s a pretty strong man, and if he loses it, you need to be somewhere else.

“He was striding towards Mario and and I dived in front of Micah to stop him and then hold him for long enough for a few other lads to jump in.”

Balotelli is pining for a move away from Nice, with Marseille interested in taking him.

Milner on the other hand is a starter at Liverpool and will hopefully pick up some silverware this season.

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Arsenal are interested in buying Mario Balotelli, who apparently only has a £9m price-tag on his head, according to Gazzetto dello Sport [translated by the Metro].

The Italian, regarded as the worst signing in recent Liverpool history, has been plying his trade in France after officially leaving Anfield in 2016 on a free transfer.

SEE MORE:
Balotelli has responded to Brendan Rodgers’ ‘Best Player’ dig…

After arriving in 2014, Balotelli scored one Premier League goal for the Reds, unsettled the dressing room and became iconic of the miserable campaign that eventually got Brendan Rodgers fired.

He’s done well in France, scoring 43 goals for Nice in two seasons, but there’s a feeling that the 27-year-old enjoys being the main man and gets away with stuff he wouldn’t at a bigger club.

Still, he recently scored a lovely goal on his recall for the Italy national side and according to reports, Arsenal, Marseille and Dortmund are all keen.

https://twitter.com/StereoSerieA/status/1001183446230818821

But fans of the Gunners, who remember how much of a disruptive influence Balotelli can be, can’t quite believe he might be bound for the Emirates.

Personally, we don’t believe it for a minute, but their reaction is quite comical nonetheless!

pic.twitter.com/myy2zjb9lA

— winglap (@winglap) May 31, 2018

pic.twitter.com/xnNvdBERLM

— AFCfan (@Tumi1994) May 31, 2018

Balo – F&ck that! No thanks

— italsenses (@italsenses) May 31, 2018

Is it April 1st

— The Guvnor (@mickhowsthat) May 31, 2018

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It’s kind of funny that Mario Balotelli has claimed he’d never play for Liverpool again, as if the club would ever even dream of giving him the opportunity again…

The Italian proved one of our biggest transfer disasters of recent times, failing miserably in 2014/15 when signed to replace Luis Suarez by Brendan Rodgers.

SEE MORE:
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After scoring just one Premier League goal, he was shipped on loan to Milan and then released for free to his current club Nice – who in fairness – he’s doing well for.

26 goals in total for the French minnows and Mario thinks he can fire shots at his former club again…

“I will never go back to Liverpool. The fans are wonderful, but the board is a real disaster,” he said, reported in the Echo.

“When I arrived [in Nice], I saw the city. I was living in a difficult situation in Liverpool, in a city I didn’t like. I needed change after two failed seasons between Liverpool and AC Milan. And coming to OGC Nice, which, with all due respect, is not Real Madrid, was a risk if I failed again. But here, I found the right environment to succeed.”

Rodgers never wanted Balotelli in the first place and couldn’t stand the striker’s attitude – which from stories – was appalling.

Unsurprisingly, Jurgen Klopp wouldn’t even select him in friendlies and was happy to let him leave the club on a free, despite the fact he had time left on his contract.

It could be argued that Balotelli didn’t get enough of a chance, but he hardly deserved it.

His effort on the pitch wasn’t befitting a Liverpool player at all.

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