The 22-year-old was involved in a heated training ground exchange with his manager Roberto Mancini, allegedly after a bad tackle committed by Balotelli on Scott Sinclair. The former Inter Milan forward took exception to his managers orders for him to leave the field, before an ugly altercation occurred. (But enough about Carlos Tevez)
The incident will undoubtedly lead to increased speculation about the strikers future, with many expecting his days at Eastlands to be numbered already, following a string of unsavoury incidents since his arrival in Manchester in 2010.
Mancini has naturally moved quickly to play down the incident and give Balotelli his backing, but for a man who has been so critical of the attitude of his young forward in the past, the clouds of doubt in Mancini's mind will surely becoming darker and darker by the day.
City fans must surely be wondering whether now is finally the time to cut their losses on a striker who despite possessing an unquestionable talent, has, for whatever reason, failed to establish himself as a regular first team starter at the Etihad.
With City having one of Europe's most feared front lines in Aguero, Tevez, Dzeko and Balotelli, and with the club's wealthy owners always looking to seek out any other potential world stars, (Radamel Falcao and Edinson Cavani have been linked with moves to the Etihad in recent weeks) the Italian will surely find himself at the wrong end of an impressive pecking order.
Balotelli's talents are known the world over, and ever since he first appeared on the scene at the San Siro, making his debut in 2007, he was always destined for great things. Or so it seemed....
The striker has a bad habit of letting controversy get in the way of what could be a long and prosperous career, and Mancini himself who despite witnessing this first hand at Inter and believed enough to bring him to Manchester, even at times seems to be losing patience in his protege.
Balotelli suffered a turbulent relationship at Inter under Mourinho, who took particular exception, (understandably) to the then 19 year-old wearing the shirt of fierce rivals AC Milan during an interview.
This is just one of a number of headlines made by Balotelli including further training ground bust ups with Micah Richards and Yaya Toure (amongst others), breaking curfews, setting fire to his mansion after setting off fireworks inside the house, throwing darts at youth team players, driving into a women's prison and being unable to solve the modern day rubik's cube that is a bib. (To name just a few incidents.)
But why always him???
AC Milan are rumoured to be interested in offering Balotelli a return to his home nation - a move which would surely he would favour given the t-shirt stunt - and now could be the time to move on and attempt to re-establish his career somewhere that he could go on to become the phenomenon he was once expected to be.
It seems very hard to fathom that despite any attempts of either a reconciliation or playing down rumours of a permanent rift between Mancini and Balotelli that both men will still be in Manchester for the beginning of the 2013/14 season.
The smart money would be on City to back the man who has delivered the club their first ever Premier League title, but with City seven points behind in the title race and nothing to show in the Champions League, without a drastic turnaround in fortunes this season, it is not unfathomable that the current Champions could begin next season's campaign without both of their most famous Italians.
