Balotelli's farewell gift to England - his Bentley

I AM hearing that Mario has left his Bentley - you know the one, the big camouflaged thing that has been all over the papers of late - to help charities in England.

It goes to show that the guy is not all bad as some would have you think. In many ways, he is big hearted and a kind, generous guy away from the cameras - as Noel Gallagher will testify.

He decided it would be a nice gesture to leave it here and let it be auctioned off for charity.

It is apparently his parting gift to England and the City fans he loves.

City wanted rid of Dzeko rather than Balotelli

I HEAR that Man City really wanted to unload the big lumbering Edin Dzeko rather than Mario - but that Mario's wish to join Milan scuppered those plans.

Dzeko had been lined up for a move to Arsenal or Juventus for the same sort of fee that Milan bought Mario.

But Mario's insistence that he wanted to move back to Milan ended those hopes.

I believe that Mario is a much better player than Dzeko - but whether Mario ever reaches his potential is very much up in the air.

He is a troubled man-child, a much more likeable guy than you would imagine from the rather lurid headlines that follow him around.

As a child, he was insecure and unsure of his identity.

He is still insecure and immature. But if he does concentrate on his football he has the potential to be the best No 9 in the world - and that is why City would rather have kept him than Dzeko.

Balotelli goes - and Mancini could follow him to Milan

So Mario has finally gone.

Left City for the club he has supported all his life.

It is a sad day for City but it could prove an even sadder one for Mario if he does not settle in quickly at Milan.

He has left his 'surrogate father' Mancini behind at City and he will certainly miss him.

Mancini is the only manager who has been able to control him (to an extent!) and he may not like working under Massimiliano Allegri, who is more hardline and will be less sympathetic to Mario and his idiosyncracies than Mancini.

I heard from a source close to Mario that his big hope is that Roberto will follow him to Milan in the summer - and there is a good chance that will happen.

If City don't win the league, Jose Mourinho is looming large over Mancini and could well replace him.

Then the surrogate father would be available to resume his work with his surrogate child in Milan.

Balotelli to buy Pato's house

I HEAR that Mario is planning to move into Brazilian striker Pato's luxury home in Milan.

Pato has moved back to Brazil in a £12million deal from Milan to Corinthians.

And the AC hierarchy have persuaded Mario to buy his house - which has a price guide of around £2million.

Mario has agreed but has not agreed to request to live a quieter life than he did in Manchester.

His brother Enock is set to join him there and Mario will soon be out on the town with him and his old pals from his Inter days.

He does not plan to settle down with Raffaella Fico, the model who gave birth to his baby girl, Pia.

I would think the Milan fans, who have greeted the signing of Mario as if it were Messi or Ronaldo who was joining the club, will soon let him know if he does not knuckle down in training and matches. They will want to see him deliver the fireworks on the pitch - not off it.

PAT NEVIN AND EDEN HAZARD ARE A DISGRACE

I WAS shocked and saddened when I saw Eden Hazard kick a ball boy at Swansea last night.

This is a player who earns millions attacking a young lad who does the job for the joy of it.

OK the lad shouldn't have kept the ball, but that is no excuse for Hazard to assault him.

I think Hazard is lucky not to be facing an assault charge today.

And I think Pat Nevin is lucky not to facing the sack as a pundit after he outrageously defended Hazard on TV this morning.

I don't know what Nevin was thinking of  - probably a misplaced loyalty to Chelsea from his playing days there - but he was out of order and very wrong.

Hazard has apologised and Nevin now needs to follow suit - and quickly before his reputation suffers any more damage.

HUGH JACKMAN - BETTER THAN DANIEL DAY-LEWIS

WENT to see Les Mis (as the trendy dub it) and was really impressed.

It is the movie of the year with Hugh Jackman and Russell Crowe remarkable in singing roles.

It is the first time I have been at the cinema and witnessed an audience clapping at the end of a film!

Yes, it was that good.

And I do hope Jackman wins the best actor gong at the Oscars rather than Daniel Day-Lewis, who is becoming a much a pain in the arse as his fellow Irishman Bono with his pontificating and his sickening up his own arseness in interviews.

BARCA'S VALDES FOR MAN UNITED

I HEAR today that Victor Valdes may join Man United at the end of the season - with David de Gea moving the other way.

Valdes is a free agent in the summer and wants to leave Barca while De Gea continues to struggle with the physicality of the Prem.

So a swop - with a sum of say £7million also going to Utd - would seem to make perfect sense.

ALAN PARDEW: THE NEW JOHN GREGORY

Newcastle United did brilliant last season and credit for that to Alan Pardew.

But this term they are in a relegation battle and so some of the criticism for that must also fall on Pardew.

I was surprised when the Toon took him on - he never struck me as a particularly top-class manager.

I always saw him as a sort of glorified bean counter who had been drafted into the job.

He can talk a good talk and would make you believe that football success can be formulaic.

That is what appealed to Mike Ashley when he took him on - that Pardew told him he could bring success on a shoestring and that any players they bought they would also be able to sell for at least the same money, if not a good profit.

This is football by the balance sheet, not football as something magical and wonderful.

And so it comes as no real surprise to me that the bubble seems to now have burst for Pardew on Tyneside. The bean counter is having to make do with bargain buys and cannot spend big money on big players.

Pardew reminds me a lot of former Aston Villa boss John Gregory. You remember him? He was smooth and could also talk a good talk - but he eventually got found out.

If I were a Newcastle fan, I would want a manager who was ambitious but also a dreamer; someone who believed the game is magical rather than to be played out to a rigid financial formula.

How about someone like Roberto di Matteo?

RAUL WILL BE GUARDIOLA'S NO 2 - EXCLUSIVE

JUST heard from my sources that Spanish legend RAUL, the Real Madrid hero, will be Pep's assistant at Bayern.

You heard it here first - again.

FRANK WORRALL

GUARDIOLA TO BAYERN AS I PREDICTED A WEEK AGO

PEP GUARDIOLA is to take over as boss of Bayern Munich next season - as I predicted seven days ago.

I said that Pep would disappoint English clubs vying for his signature because he only wants to manage one club in England - Man United.

I also said that Pep would be the next manager of Man United when Fergie resigns - and that it is a done deal - and that is why he would manage abroad in the interim.

Bayern is merely a stepping stone to the really big job at United.

Most commentators in England have been saying all week that Pep would be the new manager of Man City in summer.

Well, the cat is now out of the bag. So stick with me if you want to know what's happening first - as the old footie song goes, So now you're gonna believe me!

FRANK WORRALL

FRANK LAMPARD WILL SIGN FOR MAN UNITED

I WONDER how Chelsea fans will react to Frank Lampard when they learn that he is going to sign for Alex Ferguson in the summer?

Right now, he is the hero of the terraces - and rightly so after the service he has given to the club.

I just hope the fans will be as magnanamous with Frankie when he puts pen to paper on a 12 month deal at Old Trafford, with the option of another 12 if things go well.

Fergie plans to use him to replace Scholesy as one of his two 'old heads' - along with Giggsy who will do one more year at the club, then probably bow out along with the manager himself/

CAITLIN MORAN IS THE BEST WRITER OUT THERE RIGHT NOW

When i was younger I used to love reading Julie Burchill's stuff.

Nowadays there is no one in her league..apart from Caitlin Moran of the Times.

Her piece on Bowie's return in today's paper was brilliant, it brought tears to my eyes and summed up everything I would like to have said but struggled to do because I am simply not as talented as her.

She deserves a much bigger platform for her skills - maybe the Mail or the Sun will come calling.

GUARDIOLA PLANNING TO GO TO MILAN OR BAYERN BEFORE MAN UNITED

I have heard today that Pep Guardiola may take a job in Italy (Milan) or Germany (Bayern) before he moves to the big one at Man United.

He is reluctant to go to Chelsea or Man City in the summer as he really only wants to manage United in England, but must wait for Fergie to call it a day.

I hear Chelsea are still more likely to end up with Mourinho back in charge, or Jurgen Klopp from Dortmund.

By the way, it's Bo-wie, not Bow-ie!!

Just to set the record straight - David pronounces his surname Bo-wie (as in Zoe) not Bow-ie as in cow.

Thought you should know!!

MICHAEL LAUDRUP FOR ARSENAL

I HAVE hears some interesting talk from my contacts at the Emirates.
  Namely that Swansea boss Michael Laudrup is being talked about within the corridors of power as the man who just might take over at Arsenal when Wenger finally calls it a day.
  I have also heard that his name has been mentioned at Man United - although Pep Guardiola remains the man they want to take over from Fergie, and who will do so barring a late change of mind on his part.
  But I can see the logic of Laudrup at Arsenal and I can see it coming off.
  He is a highly intelligent man and an advocate of fine football - in other words he is a young Wenger.
  Certainly I would rate him ahead of Brendan Rodgers, his Swansea predecessor who was lucky to get the Liverpool job.
   Laudrup for Arsenal - you heard it here first.

FRANK WORRALL

BOWIE, THE KING IS BACK - AND ON FORM AFTER 30 YEARS OF MEDICORITY

HE is, without doubt, the greatest 'pop star' of all time - and my musical hero.
  So it was wonderful to watch as David Bowie stunned us all by releasing a new single today, the day of his 66th birthday.
   Ziggy/the Thin White Duke has always had that ability to take us by surprise. The biggest shock of all, of course, is how - in this world of constant communication and news feed - he managed to keep it quiet for two years that he was even back in the studio working on new material.
   Indeed, only a year ago a friend of mine claimed he had seen Bowie 'at a cancer clinic' in Manhattan - and that he might not be long for this world.
   Yet here he is on my TV screen this morning, singing his new number in a video that left me smiling and shaking my head in wonder.
    The video - of Bowie's head on top of a small puppet - was amusing but also telling: it flicked through images of David's time in Berlin, when he produced the mind-blowing change of direction that was Low and Heroes, plus the rather less distinctive Lodger.
   This is Bowie at his best: Bowie's Johnny Cash moment, whereby the Man in Black glanced back over his life with a mesmerising commentary on just what he had been through, what it all amounted to and the frailty of humanity as
(im)mortality beckons.
    Bowie's new single, Where Are We Now, brought me close to tears. It is a great artist's valedictory statement and one of his best songs since Five Years, from Ziggy. You could probably say it is Five Years now - Bowie's final lament in 2013 as he faces up to the final curtain.
     I can tell you for certain now that he will never tour again. But if this and the imminent album are his final statements, and the album is half as good as the single, we Bowie fanatics can at least be grateful for that. This latest recording was something we did not expect - it is a bonus from a genius.
    The single is also undoubtedly is best piece of work in 30 years - yes, since Let's Dance. I often think it is a tragedy that he never called it a day then, certainly the catalogue of rubbish that followed was never worthy of the man.
    For me, Bowie ruled from 72 to 83 and all after was instantly forgettable.
    But, maybe at the final bend, he has come up with something that is up to the standard of that period.
    Bowie is back, it may not be for long, and it may be his final hurrah, but I for one am just grateful he is back with something worthy of his name.
     The king isn't dead....long may he reign....

FRANK WORRALL