Tevez now a true Blue - Zaba
Carlos Tevez's bust up with Manchester City is forgotten, with the Argentinian striker back to his best and giving his all for boss Roberto Mancini.
Carlos Tevez is back to his best and 100 per cent committed to the Manchester City cause.
The Argentine striker has scored three goals in three games, including the winner at Aston Villa on Monday night, to re-ignite a season which had begun to flicker after a strong start.
And his friend and countryman Pablo Zabaleta now believes Tevez is back to the form which marked him out as City’s icon in his first two seasons at the club when, as captain and top goalscorer, he led them to FA Cup glory in 2011.
“I think he definitely is back to that form – 100 per cent,” said Zabaleta.
“He got a fantastic goal against Chelsea and I think he’s been great all season.
“When Mario Balotelli was here we had four top strikers and it was difficult for them to play every game. But now we have Edin Dzeko, Sergio Aguero and Carlos and they’re all doing well.”
That dream moment as Tevez lifted the FA Cup at Wembley quickly turned sour as he repeatedly expressed his unhappiness at being in Manchester, especially after his wife Vanessa took their two daughters and left to return to Buenos Aires.
After clashing with manager Roberto Mancini, Tevez’s troubles came to a head last season when he refused to warm up from the substitutes’ bench at Bayern Munich and then left the club without permission for a three-month holiday in his homeland.
He finally returned in February 2012 – nearly £10m lighter in club fines, stopped wages and lost image rights – but helped City get over the line in a thrilling title race.
In pre-season, Tevez worked harder than anyone and began the season with a bang with goals in each of his first four games.
But questions started to be asked as his form – and his fitness levels – dropped, the goals dried up, and he found himself on the bench for some big games.
The uncertainty over his future intensified as his current Blues contract has just one year to run after this summer, and he made noises about his dream of finishing his career at his boyhood club Boca Juniors.
But Zabaleta says Tevez now has the bit between his teeth again as City look for a big finish to the season, and that the problems of last season are firmly in the past.
“It has been so difficult for Carlos, for Mancini, for the club,” said the defender. “From something very small, it grew so big. It’s done I think and, hopefully, what happened won’t happen again.
“After it happened, everything went crazy and it was so difficult for everyone. Everybody makes mistakes, and the positive thing is that Carlos came back again and the commitment for the club and team has been 100 per cent, so that is well done by him.”
Zabaleta was sitting alongside Tevez on the bench in Munich, and had his friend talking to him throughout the incident, which meant he had to give evidence at the internal inquiry. Nobody backed up Mancini’s initial claim that Tevez had refused to play, although it was confirmed that he had said he would not warm up again as he had just sat down.
Said Zabaleta: “I gave my answer to the club – it was simple, the truth. It’s the best way always when something happens. That’s all. With Carlos, the way he is playing now and showing his commitment to the club is the most important thing.”
Zabaleta, Aguero and Tevez go back a long way, and have formed a small ex-pat community in Cheshire which is helping them cope with being so far from home. “It helps,” said Zabaleta. “I’ve known them for a long time. We played together in the under-20 and national team. They are two fantastic players and I’m really enjoying my time with them in Manchester.”
ROBERTO MANCINI EYES PALACE KID JONATHAN WILLIAMS
MANCHESTER CITY are keeping tabs on Crystal Palace’s latest rising star Jonathan Williams.
But they are facing a fight to land another of the Championship’s hottest prospects – Derby midfielder Will Hughes – with rivals Manchester United ready to join the hunt.
City have added promising midfielder Williams, 19, to the list of young talents they are monitoring.
And Roberto Mancini’s No.2 David Platt ran the rule over the Welsh playmaker in Palace’s 1-0 defeat at Sheffield Wednesday last weekend.
But a City bid for the diminutive Williams is believed to be some way off.
His current aim is to establish himself in the Palace side after an injury-disrupted start to his Eagles career.
But Platt’s presence at Hillsborough is a sign of City’s determination to be at the front of the queue for Williams.
Williams is contracted to Palace – who agreed a £15m deal to sell another academy product, Wilfried Zaha, to United in January – until 2017.
Hughes, though, is a more immediate priority for City.
Starsport can reveal Derby fended off City’s attempts to land in-demand Hughes, 17, for £5m in the final week of the January window.
City are set to try again in the summer, but Derby are likely to demand around £10m for Hughes.
United boss Sir Alex Ferguson is also a big fan of Hughes, who is also in no rush to quit Pride Park.
Arsenal-plundering Manchester City are now eyeing up Carl Jenkinson
England defender is a candidate to join Gunners-to-Eastlands talent drain as right-back-hungry Blues seek to continue policy of buying young Brits
Manchester City are keeping tabs on Arsenal full-back Carl Jenkinson.
Premier League champions City are committed to buying the best young English talent, and may consider an approach if the promising 21-year-old becomes available.
They moved for Jack Rodwell and Scott Sinclair last summer, and a new right-back is on the agenda for the coming close-season.
City were one of the clubs keen on Jenkinson before he joined the Gunners from Charlton for £1million two years ago, but insist they are not currently interested.
Arsenal are likely to sell Bacary Sagna this summer and have Feyenoord’s Daryl Janmaat top of their hit-list.
That may alert clubs to check on the availability of Jenkinson, whose impressive form earlier this season earned him an England call-up.
Essex-born Jenkinson, a life-long Gunners fan, has signed a new long-term deal, and Arsenal rebuffed several approaches from clubs – including Stoke and Wigan – in January to take him on loan.
If he did make the move north, Jenkinson would join ex-Gunners Samir Nasri, Gael Clichy and Kolo Toure at City.
Making a mockery out of those who boycotted Arsenal trip
It’s been the argument that’s refused to go away, but while football supporters’ grievances over the cost of ticket prices is a perennial one, the consistency of such gripes continue to remain intermittent.
Indeed, short of dressing up like superheroes with a cascade of banners down the M6, there’s only so many column inches a story such as this can continue to sustain. But nearly two months on from Manchester City fans’ headline protests at the £62 a pop they all had to pay to see their side beat Arsenal 2-0, the furore and touted backlash amongst supporters, hasn’t quite been in attendance.
In fact, with a Premier League spokesperson recently telling The Guardian that average seat occupancy rates may in fact be rising – with a suggested figure of 95 per cent amounting to a four-year high – then for all the sentiment of injustice that sits amongst fans, their actions appear to be speaking towards the contrary.
With all eyes now set on the Premier League’s final straight, the news agenda’s onus is now locked towards the small matter of relegation, Champions League qualification and the inevitable crowning of Manchester United’s 20th league championship. And perhaps it’s fair to say, with the league season now gearing up into breakneck speed, supporters have a lot more to contemplate now, than perhaps they did just after Christmas.
For now, the debate around ticket prices has subsided, but that break in attention will only be momentary. And when it comes back around, we can all expect to see a series of banners and protests not too dissimilar from what we saw at the Emirates a number of weeks ago.
Yet perhaps it’s been within the relatively recent lull in the debate around ticket prices – not to mention the method of protests supporters are adopting – that lies the greatest explanation as to why they aren’t falling.
Because if supporters really want change and they really want to see ticket prices fall below their current extortionate levels, then the plan of attack is going to have to drastically change.
The Manchester City fans who chose to protest over the amount of money they were being charged by Arsenal in January should be applauded by the greater majority in making a stand against the £62 ‘Category A’ prices they were forced to part with. But the key element of that phrase is that no one was of course ‘forced’ to pay anything. And although the hearts of those who wrote those banners were in the right places, it was only those who stayed away from the game, that were really helping in the fight to keep prices down.
As refreshing as it was to see the television cameras acknowledge (albeit a very momentary amount of coverage) the banners and sheets slamming the cost of ticket prices, what message were those supporters really selling? The powers that be aren’t going to have a problem with you bringing one, ten or a thousand banners of protest if you like. Because the fact is, you’re still paying for the ticket.
With the greatest respect to the men and women who took the time to make those banners that day, while it sent the message that they weren’t particularly happy with proceedings, the fact they attended that day suggests they’ll still always ultimately part with the admission fee. Those who simply refused to part with their money were the ones saying ‘enough is enough’.
And this is the brutal, brutal reality of the situation that faces fans. Everyone seems massively outraged by having to pay so much money to go to watch a game of football, but there’s only real method in which supporters can realistically change it. And the only way that is going to happen is if fans vote with their feet – not with their banners.
Going to see your team play is a supporter’s fundamental right and nobody is going to take that away from them. But if clubs can sell out stadiums charging what they are at the moment, why on earth are they going to lower prices? The common retort seems to be the one about caring for their supporters. It’s also the one that falls into the trap door of nostalgia, ignoring the harsh, business-focused ethos of Premier League clubs as well.
There are no clues for guessing the core principle of that ethos. As good as our clubs are at throwing money down the toilet, they also happen to be begrudgingly brilliant at making money, too.
They don’t care if it’s a tourist, alien or a long-suffering season-ticket holder of 30 years that pays the money to sit on their seat, just as long as they do. The stigma amongst fans appears to be that if you don’t sit on that seat every week, your support for the club is somewhat devalued. But it’s also the same stigma that is in some small way, ensuring ticket prices stay fixed at sky-high levels.
Again, this shouldn’t serve to patronise or condescend supporters that make the decision to part with such incredible amounts of money to follow their team. Call it their right, their duty, their passion or their fuel; however you wish to frame it, it’s their money and no one can judge how they choose to spend it.
Although if supporters want to advocate change, the only way the current model is going to be broken is if attendances begin to fall. And with evidence to suggest seat occupancy may well be as strong now as it ever has been, perhaps we’re not quite as upset with the current raft of ticket prices as some may like to make out.
Flitcroft: City not biggest game of my career
David Flitcroft claims his head-to-head with Roberto Mancini doesn't represent the biggest challenge of his fledgling managerial career
Flitcroft takes his npower Championship relegation battlers to the Etihad Stadium on Saturday to face Barclays Premier League champions Manchester City in the last eight, with a Wembley semi-final place the incentive for an unlikely giant-killing.
But the 39-year-old, who will lead the Tykes for the 14th time since mentor and predecessor Keith Hill was sacked at the end of December, insists he has already passed a sterner test.
Barnsley had already been snubbed by Sean O'Driscoll and Terry Butcher in their bid to find a replacement for Hill when a 2-0 home win over Leeds convinced them to give assistant and then caretaker-manager Flitcroft his chance.
Just two defeats in the 10 games since, including FA Cup wins over Burnley, Hull and MK Dons, suggest the Oakwell board made the right decision.
"I think the Leeds game was the biggest," said Flitcroft, younger brother of former City captain Garry. "Knowing that you're fighting tooth and nail to get a job you really want.
"That was the biggest game for me and it probably always will be because the pressure, the intensity, the thrill of whether you're going to get the job or not was something that will live with me for the rest of my life.
"This is a different game. It's one I'm happy for the players to be involved in and I'm happy for (assistants) Micky Mellon and Martin Scott, who was out of the game eight weeks ago.
"Now they're going to be in the dugout competing against the champions of the country.
"There's a lot of excited fans as well, I think there's 6,000 coming and we could quite easily have got rid of 12,000."
Steele: Hart is still the best
Joe Hart is England's undisputed number one and will be for years to come, according to the goalkeeper plotting to outshine him this weekend.
Manchester City stopper Hart, 25, established himself as England's first choice under former coach Fabio Capello and has started all but two of current boss Roy Hodgson's 13 games in charge.
Jittery displays for England in their friendly defeat in Sweden in November and more recently when City came unstuck at Southampton last month led to criticism, while the emergence of Jack Butland and re-emergence of Ben Foster has reopened the debate on Hart's unequivocal hold on the jersey.
But Barnsley goalkeeper Luke Steele, who will line up opposite Hart in Saturday's FA Cup quarter-final, insists the City keeper is head and shoulders above any of his rivals and that all criticism is unfounded.
"For me he's the best, he's proved he's the best," said Steele, for whom Manchester United paid £500,000 to Peterborough in 2002 when he was a teenager.
"He's come under a bit of stick this year from certain people, but there's nobody better than him, certainly not English anyway.
"Joe's still young in goalkeeping terms and he's going to make mistakes and get things wrong.
"But people don't allow for that. He's only human and they should remember that.
"There's nobody better in the country for me in that position and he's showed that time and again.
"Last year he won the Premier League title, so you can't get much better than that.
"He's going to be around for years to come and I've got the utmost respect for him."
Steele will have to replicate the man-of-the-match display he produced on his debut for Barnsley in their famous FA Cup win at Liverpool five years ago if David Flitcroft's side are to pull off an unlikely upset.
The Tykes went on to secure a famous win over Chelsea at Oakwell in the next round before losing in the semi-final to Cardiff at Wembley and Steele will draw on that experience at the Etihad.
"It's great to have some experience of these situations," he said.
"To have been there before is a big advantage.
"After that FA Cup run in 2008 I always said I wanted to go back to Wembley and get rid of some demons.
"We lost the game and I have bad memories about it. I want to replace them with good memories.
"To have another opportunity to play there again is huge and if we can do it on Saturday it would be unbelievable."
Flitcroft promised the quarter-final clash will not jeopardise Barnsley's fight against relegation.
Barnsley have won eight of the 13 games they have played under Flitcroft since predecessor Keith Hill was sacked at the end of December.
But Tuesday night's 1-1 draw at Burnley, following back-to-back defeats to Bristol City and Bolton, was not enough to prevent them from slipping back into the relegation zone.
Team selection this weekend, Flitcroft said, would be made with next Tuesday's home league game with Brighton very much in mind.
"Without a doubt, absolutely. The league campaign is key," he said.
"We've clawed our way back into a position that reflects what we've done over the last 13 games.
"We've not taken our focus off the league campaign while we've been on this FA Cup run.
"Most teams do. Ninety per cent of teams do and always have a dip and a downturn.
"It happened with Bradford. Their league form went completely off, but our league form has been very good - two losses in 11 games.
"We're moving forward well and I won't allow this team, this group to lose focus on that.
"It's absolutely vital that our league form is central to what we're doing."
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[/spoiler] Wayne Rooney will not be offered escape route by Manchester City
• Manchester United forward's wage packet deters City
• Rooney's options limited if he wants a move
Manchester City have no desire to revive their interest in Wayne Rooney despite the uncertainty over his future at Manchester United, with the player's reputed £300,000-a-week salary pricing them out of the market.
City came close to signing the forward in October 2010 when Rooney agitated for a move away from Old Trafford, claiming the club lacked ambition.
But despite the wealth at City, they are not prepared to match the salary which, with add-ons, is believed to be around £300,000 a week. Since the collapse of the proposed deal more than two years ago, Uefa's financial fair play regulations have been introduced and, with City's intent to adhere to these, they would have to free up a sizeable chunk of their player wage bill to be able to offer Rooney similar terms.
City, along with a handful of other clubs, have been alerted to Rooney's possible availability following Sir Alex Ferguson's decision not to select the player in his starting XI for the Champions League game against Real Madrid on Tuesday night, United's biggest match of the season.
Instead the manager preferred Ryan Giggs, who is 12 years older than the 27-year-old Rooney, for the wide-right berth in which the England international operated during last month's 1-1 draw in the first leg at the Bernabéu. Ferguson might also have fielded Rooney behind the lone striker, Robin van Persie, which is his regular position for the club, but chose Danny Welbeck there.
Where Rooney could move to beyond City is limited due to his pay demands and the small number of elite clubs he would wish to play for.
The Premier League leaders will apparently not rule out selling Rooney at the end of the season if the club can attract a bid of more than £20m. DSSC
Tottenham are planning a "double your money" £8m-a-year deal in a bid to keep Gareth Bale, 23, at the club. DSSC
Barcelona want Liverpool's Daniel Agger, 28, as they look to rejuvenate their defence. Daily Mirror
Everton have targeted Porto forward Christian Atsu and plan to make a move for the £10m-rated 21-year-old in the summer. Liverpool Echo
Chelsea midfielder Yossi Benayoun will leave Stamford Bridge at the end of the season. The 32-year-old has attracted interest from Russian sides Rubin Kazan and Lokomotiv Moscow. talkSHIT
Queens Park Rangers lost £22.6m during their first season back in the Premier League, while debt is up from £56m to £89m. Independent
Former Brazil striker Ronaldo has called Sir Alex Ferguson "disrespectful" after the Manchester United manager referred him as "the fat one" to distinguish him from Real Madrid winger Cristiano Ronaldo. DSSC
Former Manchester United player Paul Pogba, 19, currently of Juventus, feels no sympathy for his former club after they were knocked out of the Champions League. Speaking a after the 2-0 win over Celtic, the Frenchman said: "Was I sad to see Manchester United lose to Real? No!" Tuttosport
Spain's Technical Committee of Arbitrators has denounced the "handcuffs" gesture made by Barcelona's Gerard Pique after last week's defeat to Real Madrid. The centre-back was apparently protesting the referee's decision not to award a penalty to the Catalans in the final moments of the game. El Pais
Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho says he will attend the final game of former Germany captain Michael Ballack, 36, due to be held in 5 June in Leipzig. The midfielder played under Mourinho during his time at Chelsea. Bild
In a rare gesture of mutual respect, rival fans were seen exchanging scarves across security barriers during last night's Champions League match between Juventus and Celtic. Marca
Wales manager Chris Coleman, 42, came to the rescue of an elderly woman who had been reported missing from her home and could not remember where she lived. Metro
