'Bitter' Silvio Berlusconi Wrong to Call Mario Balotelli a Rotten Apple

Milan president Silvio Berlusconi has had a few words to say about his ex-striker Mario Balotelli after he was sold to Liverpool in the summer.

The declarations sound bitter, especially considering the checkered string of recent signings from Milan involving a slew of rotten apples that make Balotelli seem like a saint in comparison.

In the latest declarations, Berlusconi called Super Mario a "rotten apple" and said he never really wanted him at the Rossoneri to begin with, according to La Gazzetta dello Sport, via Charlie Skillen of the Daily Mail.

It was an awkward pairing between Balotelli and the Berlusconi family even from the start of the marriage. Only a month after the signing was made official, Milan's vice-president Paolo Berlusconi was accused of using racist language to describe the signing of Balotelli, via BBC.

Even before the World Cup began, Berlusconi boasted that he could have sold him for many millions and then made joked about Balotelli's poor tournament, questioning who'd buy him, per the Press Association and via the Guardian.

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Whether or not there was a gargantuan offer for the player before the tournament had started cannot be verified, but Milan barely was able to make their money back on their initial investment when they accepted Liverpool's €19 million offer, a calculated risk by the Premier League giants.

During the past few seasons, Berlusconi and Adriano Galliani have had to adopt a new transfer-market strategy that takes advantage of "rotten apples" from former clubs who are on the discount rack for one reason or another.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Antonio Cassano, Robinho, Ronaldinho and Mario Balotelli are just a few of the quality players Milan has brought over for very cheap because of previous wrongdoings.

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What's depressing about this list is that there's no way Milan would have been able to afford these players if they were immaculately behaved. The only reason why the club was able to snag Ibrahimovic is because Barcelona were desperate to part ways with him after the fall-out between the Swede and Pep Guardiola.

Robinho was essentially a carcass at Manchester City, while Antonio Cassano was shunned from Sampdoria because of poor behavior. Ronaldinho on the other hand, came to Milan with love handles.

Balotelli's signing came under similar circumstances. It was a risk to take a player who had already failed at two big clubs, but had room to improve as maturity problems were always labeled as the real reason behind his naughtiness. 

No other club has been as successful at luring bad boys to Milanello in recent times. Berlusconi and Galliani know very well what they're doing, and the president's comments about Balotelli seem like a cheap way for him to fend off the blame after the player didn't work as well as one would've hoped.