Former Manchester City kit man Les Chapman, known as "Chappy", has revealed what it was like to work with Mario Balotelli and gives and insight into the habits of other star players.





Speaking to the Daily Mail, Chappy, who was involved in the famous "Why Always Me" shirt, spoke about the Italian striker saying, "h e was a complete one-off, the most unpredictable man on the planet."

"When he got sent off at Arsenal he threw his boot through the plasma TV in the dressing-room!

But he was bright, he wasn't stupid, and he was very generous. He would go into a garage and pay for everyone's petrol or give a homeless guy a wad of cash."





Chappy was clearly fond off Balotelli, and revealed what he found in the Italian's locker when the forward left the club.

"Then he used to wonder why his car was impounded 27 times - because it was painted in camouflage and he parked it on double yellows outside San Carlo restaurant in the middle of Manchester every day.





"I opened his locker after he left and all his parking tickets just fell out!"





As the kit man, Chapman explained that many of the stars had strange habits when it came to match day. The 69 year-old spoke about former goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel and his strange ritual on matchday.

"He'd arrive at the ground and give me his gloves and I had to hide them where no-one could see them or touch them. I then had to produce them at the right time, just before he went out.





"He also had to have a different kit for the warm-up, first half and second half — we went through 92 in one season!"

Gary Neville wasn't a fan of Peter Schmeichel signing for Man City #Awkward https://t.co/9LNA1cRlSZ — The Football Pools (@footballpools) November 26, 2016

It is quite strange to see what the players do before game time. These certain rituals seem to give the players peace of mind and with that they can focus fully on the game.





Speaking on BT Sport, ex-England stars Rio Ferdinand, Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard all discussed their strange habits, with Lampard saying that he used the same urinal before every home game.





As for kit men, it must be a strange job when faced with such different rituals from different players, and in all honesty their job seems to be very important as their actions could be the difference between a player playing well or playing badly.

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