Mario Balotelli “does miss Serie A, but he doesn’t want to leave Manchester City,” insisted his agent, who again blasted tabloid newspapers for their coverage.

Mario Balotelli “does miss Serie A, but he doesn’t want to leave Manchester City,” insisted his agent, who again blasted tabloid newspapers for their coverage.

The striker’s future is up in the air after manager Roberto Mancini said he will “probably” be sold in the summer after yet another red card today against Arsenal.

“I spoke to Balotelli, but these are things between me and the player,” agent Mino Raiola told Sky Sport Italia.

“The lad was disappointed about what happened. I didn’t see the incident, but as Mancini said these are things that can happen.

“Is Balotelli irritable because he wants to leave the Premier League? No and I don’t even feel like discussing this. If a player wants to go, then I don’t think he needs to do things like that. He could calmly sit around a table with the City directors if there was this intention from both sides.

“Mancini said he won’t play again this season because he expects a lengthy ban, that is all.”

Raiola has been extremely critical of the British tabloid press in the past and resumed his attack on the media as the cause of Balotelli’s problems.

“The majority of the English papers who talk about Mario are the tabloids, which I use to clean my car. Other papers talk about him in different ways and show he is a good lad. As always, people expect a lot from Balotelli, so everything he does gets blown out of proportion.

“I know that Mario cares about Roberto, which is why we are disappointed at these incidents. That absolutely does not mean Mario wants to leave City. In fact, his intention is to stay in England.

“Mancini said he will be sold? I will go to speak directly to Roberto and the club, but I doubt that is the case. I understand an emotional reaction can happen after the title slipped through their fingers, but as I said, I don’t think that is the situation here.”

There are also problems for Balotelli with regards to Euro 2012, as Cesare Prandelli warned he’d drop him from the Italy squad if he continued to pick up needless red cards.

“I respect Prandelli’s decisions. I don’t know if Mario violated the code of conduct, as I haven’t seen what happened. Balotelli will certainly respect the decisions of the Federation. Mario cares about the Nazionale and it would be a shame for Italy to be without him at the European Championship.”

The latest row comes just a day after Inter director Marco Branca confirmed the “door is open” for SuperMario’s potential return to San Siro.

“Mario loves Serie A and he misses Italy,” added Raiola. “When he went to visit Andrea Stramaccioni at the Inter press conference, he didn’t do it to make headlines or fuel speculation over a possible return. He only went there to say hello.”

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