“Neville is an idiot and a boot-licker,” said the Argentine international. “He said I was not worth £25 million just to stay in the manager’s good books.
“I do not know why he is saying bad things about me. I have never had a problem with him. My celebrations for both goals were directed at him. They were not at Ferguson, and they were not at the fans. They were at Neville. I only speak on the pitch."
Henry Winter today suggests that - given his cameo on Saturday - that the most effective use of Carlos Tevez may be as an impact player late in the game, one who can take advantage of tired legs with his energy and sparkiness:
After the Argentine attacker delivered a feisty second-half cameo to revitalise Manchester City, it was impossible not to conclude that Mark Hughes’s use of Tévez would influence whether City replaced Liverpool as one of England’s elite four.
Like Sir Alex Ferguson before him, Hughes may be reaching the realisation that Tévez is best deployed only when running against tiring legs, when the game opens up. All hungry heart and whirring limbs, Tévez acts like a shot of adrenalin on a team, particularly one in search of inspiration.
I think this is a little too simplistic an argument though. Tevez's impact on Saturday was undeniable of course, and his introduction coincided with our best spell of the game and one that saw us take the lead after going behind.
Was this because his 'hungry heart and whirring limbs' galvanised the team into action, waking them from their slumber? To suggest this was a one man show is doing a disservice to Stephen Ireland and Shaun Wright-Phillips in particular, both instrumental in our comeback as much as the introduction of Tevez into the fray.
Given the manner of Tevez, he is a very noticeable figure on the pitch - moving around the front line, dropping deep and always seeking the ball. Naturally this will make his impact coming off the bench that bit more noticeable, yet this is not reason enough to pigeon hole him as a 'super-sub'. There are plenty other options equally capable of coming off the bench and changing the course of a game.
The qualities of Tevez are evident to see and apply whether they are utilised from the first whistle or after seventy minutes; to suggest the very same qualities limit his usefulness to being a role player is somewhat wide of the mark.
After seemingly being ruled out for a few weeks, the MEN suggests Tevez has a chance (albeit an outside one) of making the derby:
But after returning on Tuesday frIt would be a huge boost if he were to make it, but even if he does, I don't see Hughes still opting for anything other than a 4-5-1 line up.om intensive treatment in Argentina, Tevez has been fighting to prove his fitness in time to play against the Reds at Old Trafford on Sunday - in the 152nd derby.Publish Post
He trained lightly with a heavily-strapped knee on Wednesday and stepped up his work on Thursday, but City will leave it until the 11th-hour to make a final decision.
The official line is that the striker is still a major doubt, but Tevez himself is desperate to turn out against United.
A big story that broke late Friday was this one in The Times which stated the actual figure paid for Carlos Tevez was £47 million rather than the more widely reported (at the time of the transfer) £25 million:
Manchester City are paying an astonishing £47 million fee to Carlos Tévez’s private “owners” in a move that obliterates the British transfer record. The deal makes the Argentina striker the fifth most expensive footballer of all time.
City’s billionaire Arab owners have agreed to pay almost twice the £25.5 million fee widely reported to have changed hands, The Times can reveal. An initial £15 million payment is to be followed by two additional sums of £16 million.
Another £3.5 million will be paid if City win the Champions League while Tévez is at the club — an improbable scenario, but Sheikh Mansour has already shown the lengths to which he is prepared to go to transform the club from perennial underachievers into contenders for the biggest prizes.
This was followed by a denial from Kia Joorabchian today:
"This story is inaccurate and misleading. There appears to be the hand of mischief at work as the numbers quoted are fictitious. There was also no mystery about the true details as full disclosure was made both to the Football Association and the Premier League."
You would expect Tevez's advisors to deny a higher figure was involved, and as no word has come from the club - nor would any likely be forthcoming - it is difficult to do anything other than speculate as to the validity of the report.
What I would say is given the complexity of his ownership and the history involved with Tevez's transfer is that whatever the fee or terms of payment were confirmed to the appropriate authorities when the transfer was concluded, this would surely be the fee paid.
Anything other than an open and transparent negotiation would have been folly on the clubs part.
Some bad news from international week:
City have been dealt a big blow ahead of Saturday's game against Arsenal with the news that Carlos Tevez will miss out to a knee injury picked up on internatioanl duty.Given Tevez has looked impressive during his brief spell thus far, and has struck up a useful partnership with Adebayor it is a blow that Tevez misses out, particularly if Robinho also misses out.Mark Hughes has also admitted that there are fitness worries over Robinho, who lined up against Tevez in Brazil's 3-1 win over Argentina last weekend.
"We heard yesterday (Monday) that Carlos had a knee problem, our doctor has spoken to the Argentine medical people and the feeling is that he is out for the weekend so he will not play against Arsenal,” confirmed the boss.
"The hope is that he will be OK for the derby, but we will have to determine that when he comes back. He is staying with the national squad because he needs acute treatment at the early stage of the injury, which is what he can get now. Flying him back quickly might compromise the injury, so he will be back towards the end of the week so we can assess him and hopefully get him ready for the United game."
>>independent.co.ukCarlos Tevez may return from Manchester City’s pre-season tour of South Africa without any competitive football, with his bruised heel threatening to rule him out of the final match in Johannesburg on Saturday.
Tevez aggravated the bruising when he undertook his first training session in the Kings Park stadium on Monday evening and though it is not a serious problem - City’s medical staff would have patched him up with a pain killing injection for a competitive match - Mark Hughes is weighing up whether he wants to take any risk.
Hats off to whoever came up with this marketing idea.
Looking at the way it has been carried in the press and over the internet today, it has had the desired effect anyway.
“We are looking to strengthen areas of the team,” he confirmed. “Carlos is one of the top strikers in world football and his capture is a fantastic thing for the club and for the fans. He plays with his heart and has great love of football that is there for all to see.
“I want options of flexibility in terms of both personal and tactics. I want players who can produce moments of magic that can turn games. I now have those at the club and we will be working exceptionally hard to give City fans success.">>Mark Hughes.
"City came to me with a very good proposal," Tevez said, speaking via a translator. "They showed me how City has the ambition to become one of the biggest clubs in the world and I was very happy to join.">>Carlos Tevez
"I half-expected Carlos Tevez would be going a long time back," said the United boss. "I think he maybe did a deal around January because I spoke to him and gave him an offer on the night we played Inter Milan and he never came back to me.Carlos Tevez was finally unvelied as a City player this afternoon after much speculation over the past few weeks."I phoned him on holiday and he never got back to me and I texted him twice and he never got back to me then either, so obviously he had made his mind up a long time ago.
"He was a good player and did well for us. But he obviously assessed the situation and wanted to go somewhere else.">>Alex Ferguson
I'll have more on this later on, but there is a good stream of commentary around on twitter (my account here) at the moment covering the press conference, particularly from the official mcfc twitter account.
Manchester City is delighted to announce that agreement has been reached with Carlos Tevez over a proposed move to the City of Manchester Stadium.
Personal terms with the 25-year-old have been concluded and the deal has been ratified by the Premier League and the Football Association.
After a medical Carlos, who has won the league title in every country in which he has played, is expected to sign a five-year contract and will meet up with his new teammates on their pre-season tour to South Africa. He will sport the number 32 shirt.
Whilst the transfer had been played out for the best of the past month in the media, due to the complex negotiations of the deal (to satisfy Premier League requirements over third party ownership) it was always likely to take longer to conclude than most transfers.
I'll post more in depth over the next day or so when I get more time, but there is no doubt that this is an excellent signing for us and our strikeforce for 2009/10 in comparison to last year bears no comparison.
Manchester City has confirmed that it has ended its interest in bringing Samuel Eto'o to the football Club. Speaking about the matter, club CEO, Garry Cook said, “Samuel Eto'o is undoubtedly a fine footballer but the circumstances surrounding him were such that the deal could not be completed.
“We now feel the time is right to pursue other avenues and we have a clear and strategic transfer plan, which we continue to follow.”
We may never know how realistic a signing Eto'o was, but the suggestion maybe not very close given we have pulled the plug on the day it was suggested he is to leave Barcelona. The assertion was that the club wished to impose a deadline on Eto'o to make a decision - completely valid and understandable if you are looking to put the pieces in place for 2009/10.
Given Eto'o was clearly not keen on making a decision within that timescale, he clearly did not have his heart set on the move so despite the talent he is, I have no issue with the deal being taken off the table.
Bringing in players of his calibre is clearly how the club want to move forward, and there is nothing wrong with this approach. But, if you are investing the sums of money reportedly offered to sign Eto'o then the player needs to be totally committed and buying into the 'project' being put to them. Eto'o obviously wasn't, maybe hoping for other (better?) offers to materialise, so for me the correct decision has been made here.
On a more positive note however, comes news that the protracted deal to sign Carlos Tevez is expected to be concluded during the early part of next week. Which for me more than makes up for the Eto'o news.
"If I play for Manchester City I don't think the United fans will feel I am a traitor.>>MEN.
"They have to remember that at least as far as I know I have been thrown out of the club and I have to study the best offers available."
"We'll all have to be patient. Every transfer is different - we were able to do the Gareth Barry deal very quickly, the one for Roque [Santa Cruz] was long-winded. We have to accept there may be others that will take a little bit of time.
"There is always an element of frustration when you can't conclude deals quickly. But we will give every deal the patience we feel it deserves. If we get to a point where we feel something is not going to happen, that's the time we move away. We've done that in the past."
Whilst concrete news has been hard to come by, Kia Joorabchian has certainly been keeping the press happy with a stream of quotes. Today's offering brings us the news that where it may have seemed to be a straight battle between ourselves and Chelsea, Joorabchian now hints there is a third club in the mix:
Joorabchian told Radio del Plata: "Right now we are evaluating the proposals from Manchester City, Chelsea and one other team. In the next two weeks, Carlos, Adrian (Rouco, Tevez's agent) and I will meet to sort this out. City is a club with most of the chances because they are building a big squad, but it is not a decisive point.The contract with United officially runs to until June 31 (sic) and we'll respect that. After July 1, we'll see. We may be defined in 10 days."It was speculated that the third club could be Barcelona, which is not something we have come across previously. Given that there will be nothing announced until July (when his contract with United ends), we're going to have to sit tight for at least another week.
Radio station Talk Sport are claiming this afternoon that a deal to bring Carlos Tevez to the club:
"TalkSport understand that the Manchester United striker will be playing his football next year for Manchester City..."I know from speaking to Garry Cook at last weeks kit event, he suggested that following the Barry signing the club were working on three more deals, and all would be completed by the time pre-season training started.
