Former Manchester City winger Shaun Wright-Phillips has opened up about Mario Balotelli and Carlos Tevez
The trio were teammates at City in the early days of the United Arab Emirates ownership of the club.
Balotelli may not have scored many goals for City, but did play vital roles in a 6-1 thumping of Manchester United and their final day win over QPR to seal the league title under Roberto Mancini.
Speaking exclusively to Ladbrokes' Fanzone, Wright-Phillips said: "The player I get asked about the most is Mario Balotelli. People wanted to know what he was like off the pitch especially.
"He was quite a fiery character! With the talent he had, he should have done a lot better and I think he would tell you that himself. He could finish with both feet, take penalties with both feet, he was quick and strong. He was everything you wanted in a striker especially at that time. I just don't think he ever got to grips with the way of life as a footballer. He just did what Mario wanted to do, rather than what the manager or team wanted.
"I personally got on really well with him. I mean we all told him to get it together, but he knew that himself, and he knew what he was capable of. For whatever reason, it just didn't come out in England when we needed it to.
"He would so often mess around. I remember in a pre-season friendly he was clean through, but he decided he was going to try and back heel it and he misses the goal completely. I thought, Just put the ball in, why are you messing around?"
"He would just sort of laugh and shrug it off; that was just his character. That is what made him famous I guess. Another example was his t-shirt when he scored in the Derby Why Always Me?", or when we beat Man United, he would drive around Manchester with the roof down singing City songs after the game. That was just Mario."
Wright-Phillips continued: "I got on really well with Carlos Tevez. He was the only player who used to call me by my full name! He was not only a fantastic player but a nice person off the pitch as well. He always had about seven or eight friends surrounding him. He would never just be on his own. They were the boys he grew up with.
"He was very tight with family and friends. He wasn't as mad as people think. He was actually quite calm away from football. He was very chilled and humble. I don't know if he drank much but I know he didn't go out too much. He was more of a restaurant man with his tight group of friends.
"On the pitch, you would never think that he trained the way he trained. It was like he didn't care about training; he just saved all his energy for match day. He would just run all day when the game came around. He just had this knack to switch on and be at that elite level all the time.
"Going back to that 4-3 at Old Trafford in 2009 when Tevez had his first game, the whole build up sticks out in my memory. It was of course Tevez's first game and then throw in the fact that it's the Manchester Derby, it was exciting. The adverts on TV, the fans building up, everyone texting you for tickets; the spice is already there, but the arrival of Tevez added extra spice.
"Going into it, we were all very confident that we would get something out of the game. Until that last minute Michael Owen goal, we were in that position. I think Micah [Richards] gets sucked in a little bit and I am the one that has to try and get back to Michael Owen and just before I got there, he let fly with his left boot and it flies into the back of the net. That is football though!"