10 Things That Made Mario Balotelli's Year at Liverpool a Complete Disaster

It wasn't meant to end like this.

Last year, the Premier League's prodigal son had returned. His on-pitch and off-pitch performances with Manchester City had made him the perfect embodiment of Premier League excess. There were stories of firing fireworks at youth team players, there were outrageous goals and there were red cards. It seemed like British football had a new hero.

After a eighteen months exiled in his native Italy, Liverpool's signing of Mario Balotelli was one of the headline moves of last year's transfer window. It seemed to be win-win. He was either going to bang in the goals for Liverpool or keep the fans constantly entertained with his antics. Sadly, neither happened. He only scored once in the league and he managed to stay relatively well behaved and now, a year later, he leaves these shores for probably the last time with the meekest of goodbyes: a season long loan.

But why didn't Balotelli's triumphant return to British football work out? Where did it all go so wrong for him? His year at Liverpool is a series of missed chances, brief resurrections and stupid mistakes. Here are some of them.

In early August 2014, Brendan Rodgers was asked a question about Balotelli and his rumoured impending move to Liverpool. Rodgers responded that he "can categorically tell you that he will not be at Liverpool next season." Three weeks later, Balotelli had signed for Liverpool. Rodgers had changed his mind a bit by then, though, and described Balotelli as a "calculated risk".

The whole thing set the tone for Balotelli's time at Liverpool, and a relationship with manager and club that never really looked like working. It also made the self-proclaimed Super Mario look like nothing more than a last minute desperate buy, rather than the man to replace Barcelona-bound Luis Suarez.

Balotelli's time at Liverpool might not have got off to the best start but, when he finally made his debut, it looked like Liverpool might have got this one right. They ended up beating Tottenham 3-0 and Balotelli was one of Liverpool's best players. In that match, Balotelli and Sturridge started together. For Liverpool fans it looked like a new partnership was formed. The two of them dominated the match and, even though neither scored, they made Tottenham's defence look like amateurs.

It was probably Liverpool's best performance of the season and it would be the only time Sturridge and Balotelli started a match together. The rest of Sturridge's season was ravaged by injury and Balotelli's form meant he rarely made the team when Sturridge was fit. Now, looking back on those 90 minutes in the late summer sun, the match was a sign of what could have been but never was.

It was supposed to be Liverpool's crowning glory. After going so close to winning the league the season before, they were back with the big boys of European football. So when Real Madrid came to Anfield in October, it was a chance for Liverpool to show that they deserved their place at football's top table.

Unsurprisingly, Liverpool got thrashed 3-0. The biggest story from the night, though, turned out to be Balotelli stripping down and swapping shirts with Pepe at half time. Rodgers wasn't happy and said the whole thing was "not something I stand for" and "something that doesn't happen here and shouldn't happen here". Balotelli had managed to piss his boss off again.

He's always been known for his antics social media, but in December 2014 Balotelli reached a new low. A picture he put on Instagram was deemed to be both racist and anti-semetic and, obviously, people weren't happy. The FA banned him for a match, ordered him to go to education classes and fined him £25,000.

In January, Balotelli didn't even make the squad for an FA Cup match against Bolton. According to Rodgers, this was because of Balotelli's work in training. Speaking after the match Rodgers said "if you want to contribute you have to be at it every single day in training in order to be in the squad on matchday ... you see the aggression in our pressing and if you can't do that you are not going to be a part of what this team is trying to achieve." Shots fired.

When Liverpool scraped a 1-0 home win over Besiktas in February, it was Balotelli who got the winner. The goal came just days after he scored his first Premier League goals against Spurs so it was meant to be a good time for him. It wasn't. His goal against Besiktas only came because he'd taken the ball away from Jordan Henderson (the captain that night and the designated penalty taker) and Daniel Sturridge.

Balotelli's teammates were pretty pissed off that night, and none more so than Steven Gerrard, who was working as a pundit. And, if you play for Liverpool, he's the one person you probably shouldn't piss off.

By this point he must've known it was over. Liverpool were getting ready to fly to Thailand, Malaysia and Australia and Balotelli was conspicuous by his absence. He was left out of a squad that, bizarrely, even included the wantaway Raheem Sterling. Instead, Balotelli was forced to stay in Liverpool and train with the reserves, along with Fabio Borini and Jose Enrique, which really shows just how far he had fallen in a year.

Balotelli recently turned 25 and got a pretty sick birthday cake (well, 17 cakes if you're being pedantic). The main cake was of his Italy kit and, around it, there were 16 smaller cakes with an Italian flag on, pictures of him in his Italy kit and, obviously, pictures of Super Mario. There were, however, no mentions of Liverpool or no pictures of him in a Liverpool kit.

Does this mean he wanted to leave? Could it mean that he didn't care about the club anymore? Are we reading too much into a birthday cake? Who knows – but it's clear at this point his bond with the club wasn't there anymore.