My friend said to me the other day that Mario Balotelli reminded him of a mixture of Eric Cantona's swagger and Cristiano Ronaldo's power and skill. He went as far as to air the point on the social networking site Twitter.

If I were on Twitter too (and I'm not), I would have used my 140 characters to offer a one-word response. Nonsense.

Balotelli is like a volcano waiting to erupt, a bubbling cauldron of trouble with a giant risk of letting you down.

Looking for a fight: Balotelli is a talent, but also trouble

n the stampede to salute his dazzling performance for Italy against Germany, we are forgetting that 83 days ago he was sent off for Manchester City at Arsenal and betrayed his team-mates with an outrageous act of petulance.

If Manchester United had gone about their business in their normal professional manner, that would have been the single most significant moment that cost Manchester City the title.

Instead, he is a champion - thanks mainly to the efforts of his team-mates while he was suspended - and now he may be a European champion, too.

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