Paper Monitor
15:35 UK time, Wednesday, 30 January 2013
A service highlighting the riches of the daily press.
"The fireworks are over" reads the headline on the front page of the Independent . Mario Balotelli is heading for the departure lounge at Manchester airport, and there's little doubt that the papers will be a little less interesting now the Man City star's gone.
Whether it was throwing darts at the Man City youth team, setting off fireworks in his bathroom, or impulsively donating £1000 to a homeless man, there was never any knowing what story the Italian would generate next (as opposed to the football field, where the story was more predictable: score winning goal, then get sent off).
His long-suffering boss Roberto Mancini sums up the situation in the Sun:
I think he'll be missed by you and all your journalist friends. With Mario you can talk every day about him so it's a big problem for the press.
But among sports writers there's agreement that the Mario Show was reaching its natural end - Oliver Kay in the Times says there was , while the Express taps former blues manager Joe Royle for this quote:
He doesn't score enough goals and there are too many headlines off the pitch.
For the Mail, Ian Ladyman characterises his impact:
It is hard to think of many people in the history of English sport whose habits, personality and behaviour are more extreme even than the caricature of them developed by the media. George Best may fall into that category; John McEnroe also. Mario Balotelli does.
(Strictly speaking, John McEnroe's chief contribution to English sport has been sitting on a couch with Claire Balding - but Paper Monitor will let that pass).
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