Monday 13 July 2009

Tévez deal agreed

Not precisely the news we've all been waiting for, but more than near enough.

Carlos Tévez - formerly of Manchester United, West Ham United, Corinthians and Boca Juniors - has agreed a five year contract with Manchester City. He is not yet a City player, but he will become so after passing a medical tomorrow. There is a press conference scheduled for 14:00 tomorrow where we will see him, revealed as one.

Mark Hughes is as happy as any of us are over this:

"It is terrific news," a delighted Mark Hughes told mcfc.co.uk. "Carlos is an international player of the highest class who possesses all the attributes that will help drive this club forward.

"He is not only outstanding technically but he is a reliable goal scorer and someone who will contribute fully to the team ethic. He gives us another exciting, attacking dimension.

"I cannot wait to welcome him to City. This is yet another deal that shows the commitment of the owner Sheikh Mansour to make this club the very best it can possibly be. I am sure our fans will give Carlos an exceptionally warm welcome."

This is huge; the signing we have been waiting for ever since the Abu Dhabi takeover first imaged the glorious future possibilities at City. Yes, Robinho had a bit more glamour, and certainly a lot more novelty, but for those very reasons he had the feeling of the trophy signing, a bit of statement made but not necessarily the right player at the right time. Tévez, though, is exactly that: a forward almost of the highest class (only Torres, Rooney and Drogba belong to that in the Premier League), but one who has proved himself in England, whose abilities are all well-known to all, who is able to add the bite and class to a front line whih lacked both last season.

And the Manchester rivalry aspect of the story is inescapable. It would be easy to overstate this: Carlos Tévez was not first choice last season - had he been, he would not now be a City player. He had been first choice in 2006/07, but with the arrival of Dimitar Berbatov he was relegated to being a beneficiary of Alex Ferguson's very generous rotation policy. So let's not pretend that we've taken one of their best players. We're not there yet. But nevertheless the fact that we have signed someone so popular with the United supporters, whom Sir Alex interrupted his holiday to try to retain, certainly carries meaning.

As ever, the most important element is the attraction that City now represent for players. To take someone who has won two Premier League medals, a Champions League, a Club World Cup and a League Cup in the last two years is a genuine triumph for City. The fact that he won those trophies at Old Trafford makes it even sweeter.

5 comments:

Blue Phoenix - Moving on up! said...

Totally agree with all your points but in particular the part about how players like Tevez will make it easier for others to come.

They won't be saying Gareth Barry is a money grabber now since he obviously must have had inside knowledge about this sort of deal.

I think Terry can be convinced now and we should try and bag Lescott and Phillip Lahm.

Top 4?
It'll be close and It certainly wouldn't suprise me now!

United's era of success over?
I think it's coming to an end that much is true. Give iit another year or two.

The target is 6 if the press ask you though.

PWord (Patience) "We're moving on up!"

dpkmanc said...

Disagree with a couple of points. Rooney is not a top-notcher and only an England fan would come out with that guff. Also disagree - as do most united fans if they're honest - about Tevez not being one of their best players given Berbatov was hopeless and Tevez won some important games for them when he was given the chance proving he was the better player. He's an Argentinian international not an English one and therefore gets into a team that has a chance of winning a world cup. He is a terrific signing and a world-class player and you should not play this down.

Steven McInerney said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Been noting the SSN news loop this evening. I have had a bee in my bonnet about the general media bias towards the top 4 and SSN in particular for some time.
Tonight the SSN focus is on edited highlights of the Dark side press conferance with comments from Uncle Alex the red faced clown.They introduced Owen the wonderboy through gritted teeth claiming not to be injury prone. No mention about lack of pace.
All in all it was a typical SSN edited homage to the not in Manchester club. All this on a repeat loop in what seemed like every 15 minutes.
Contrasted to a short and curt mention of biggest news story of the day Tevez and Adebyor and no mention at all about Terry.
Cooke sidefooted a SSN reporter in the car park and blanked his question.
So I hope this is the start of the club treating the SSN bias against us with contempt. All major news through our club web site first and leave them with faces pressed against the window the last to know ?
SSN's approach today ignores football's hottest ticket and the only club generating real news.
Time will tell but

Steven McInerney said...

I'm with Jack. Rooney's world class. He's united's main man.

Anyway - irrelevant. We've signed a top class player. Delighted.

I got thinking about Garry Cook earlier. Is it just me that thinks he's doing a wonderful job?

His marketing speak grates a bit, yes, but you can't argue that he's not put us on the map. Can you honestly imagine someone like Alistair Mackintosh having the required big time personality to get us out there? Every move, even if far too optimistic, and even if its deemed (behind closed doors at Eastlands) to be a destined 'failure' from the word go, seems to have a plus side. I.e - Man City's profile raising immeasurably. City's profile as a club has reached ridiculous levels. We actually exist outside of England and Denmark now (we're bound to have fans there given the frequent uefa cup visits)- it's amazing!

Yes, it's because we have a lot of money, but that's a thing we have to adapt to, and adapting means using the wealth sensibly, and interestingly, as a weapon to ruffle the feathers of the ones we with to usurp. I repeat myself, I would honest not be surprised if some alleged bids we'd apparently made were always deemed to end in failure. Bids for world stars such as Terry, Adebayor, Torres (if you believe what you read), Tevez, Kaka, Eto'o have immediately put us on the back pages of hundreds of newspapers worldwide. That's invaluable. Garry Cook and co know what they're doing. They're not stupid. They're highly successful businessmen. Every 'failure' opens up a new door. A new marketing opportunity.

As well as the marketing opportunities, it's also the statements of intent we make. Trying to sign Kaka was one step too far, yes, but Gareth Barry is living proof that it made many turn heads. He came out and said that City coming so close to signing one of the world's best shocked up many people within football and made major transfer success, and then footballing success, for City seem just a case of when and not if. What if we hadn't tried to sign Kaka in January? Would Barry's, or even Terry's heads, be sufficiently turned yet? I doubt it - so you could argue that it was highly beneficial to be so bold so early on...if we'd gone for him now it would only be now that footballers would notice us, and don't forget they're usually not the sharpest tools in the shed. It'd take a while before they actually realised anyone had made a bid for anyone. Things don't always compute too quickly in their heads. Bless.

Anyway, yes, Cook may annoy with his cliched marketing speak, his sometimes naive grasp at football chants and his vague attempts to appear genuinely attached to the club, but these grievances may just be examples of our distinctly british reactions to these situations; us City fans have an underdogs mentality. All this brash talk ignites the cynics inside. Cook seems like the posh kid trying to be 'one of the lads' at times, trying too hard to impress, and then inevitably failing...but the Kaka 'fiasco' (What's to say that whole 'bottled it' scenario wasn't carefully thought out if we think about it?) aside, he seems to be pretty damn good at getting through to the big clubs. The fact that Barcelona and AC Milan will even entertain us in the transfer market and look to deal with us so readily is fantastic. You can't deny he isn't driven, and to me it's evident that City could have been taken on many rides financially, and yet we've shown an admirable stubbornness on occassions and he's no doubt at the centre of it.

I can bet you every proper football fan in the world knows who Man City are now. And I can bet you every chairman and manager worth their salt knows who Garry Cook is now too.

I love it.