Mario's perfect football-speak
Friday, May 25, 2012 at 5:00 PM | by Daniel Whiteway 
Mario Balotelli has “shot down” rumours he is to leave Manchester City. That is, he has literally shot them down by writing the words “Mario Balotelli is leaving Manchester City” on bits of paper attached to balloons, released them into the sky and shot them down with an air rifle because he is Mario Balotelli and he’s mad remember?
A story in the Manchester Evening News today (or should that be last night) quotes Balotelli rebuffing suggestions made in the nasty national press that the Italian striker is set to leave the Etihad and return to Italy to the club he is a fan of; AC Milan as a piece of a part-exchange deal with AC defender Thiago Silva coming the other way.
However, Balotelli has quashed these rumours saying in typical footballer-speak; “I play at Manchester City. I am happy at City and I will remain there. I don’t know anything I haven’t had any contact with them (AC Milan) in the past few years.”
As anyone with a passing knowledge in football gossip (let alone a PhD in football transfers and a cursory knowledge of reading between the lines of footballer speak that all Footballfriends gossip column writers have to possess) these words mean pretty much nothing as the amount they are used by professional footballers has whittled away their meaning down to a grey, pathetic sludge.
Elsewhere, Balotelli also said that if Silva was to come to City “we would be stronger for sure” but sadly he did not recognise the danger of having two Silvas in one side and the threats that could pose to team spirit about who gets to be called Silva No.1 and who gets stuck with Silva No.2.
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