Ex-Man City defender recounts how Balotelli traded blows with Roberto Mancini over wrong accusations

Former Manchester City defender, Micah Richards has revealed how his former teammate, Mario Balotelli was often blamed for all the negative things that happened in the team.

Mario Balotelli's time at Manchester City was characterized by controversies as he was always scapegoated by the media and he responded with the "why always me" celebration after scoring against Manchester United in the 2011/2012 Premier League season.

According to Micah Richards, getting blamed for what he did not do once infuriated Balotelli who fought with manager Roberto Mancini for accusing him falsely in their team bus.

"I have had the manager and Balotelli fight and that happened at the training ground, I hope you saw the pictures?" Micah Richards asked Gary Lineker who was the host of the show.

"It was like a full-on scrap because we had the training ground but it was a public footpath so the press used to stand there and take pictures. There were so many stories with Balotelli and Mancini, like stuff that I can't even tell you."

"There was a time that someone was in trouble and Balotelli got the blame but it was not his fault. So we're on the team bus after a game and Mancini was swearing in Italian and he's gone on to Balotelli and they are literally throwing punches and everyone was dropping on them because something happened outside and the manager blamed him but he was not the one," he said on BBC's matchday show.

Micah Richards added that Mario Balotelli was innocent of a lot of things that were reported about him in the media space.

"Balotelli got all these sticks and he had nothing to do with it. Any story that came at Man City, Balotelli got the blame and to be fair, Balotelli just took it for his mate which was really good," Micah Richards said as monitored by GhanaWeb.

Both Micah Richards and Mario Balotelli were members of Manchester City's 2011-2012 Premier League winning team.





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