Sunday's B*ll*x

[Chinners]

TEVEZ BOLLOX
Manchester City striker Carlos Tevez has made a written transfer request, which the club has rejected.
The 26-year-old Argentina international is said to be homesick after four years in England.
"The club remains disappointed by this situation and particularly with the actions of Carlos' representative," said a Manchester City statement. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/footbal ... 279311.stm

Manchester City striker Carlos Tevez has stunned the club by ­submitting a formal transfer ­request in the hope that he can return to Argentina and be with his family.
http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/news/Ca ... 49773.html

Tevez, whose relationship with City manager Roberto Mancini is believed to be at breaking point, has told friends he will carry on working hard for the club while he remains at Eastlands but is adamant his long-term future lies elsewhere.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footba ... quest.html

Tevez has been suffering with "depression" and "inner turmoil" because of the separation from his two daughters in Argentina.
Sunday Times

It is not known exactly what Tevez's plans are; returning to South America is one option, as is retirement, even though in an interview with City's club magazine published earlier this week, the Argentine insisted he had no such intentions.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010 ... ester-city

Tevez respects the club's owner Sheikh Mansour, with whom he gets on well, and City supporters - but has struggled with management. He has made his unhappiness clear at Roberto Mancini's perceived aloof style and the way in which it is felt that some key players have been frozen out of the team.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/footba ... ement.html

Tevez has told team-mates he is even prepared to take a pay cut to quit. City have offered him a £100,000-a-week pay rise, which would take him to £250,000-a-week - but he is not interested.
News of the World

Plus of course nearly 10 MCF.NET threads .... you can find them all for yourself but the most important one is the **Official** club statement : viewtopic.php?f=119&t=36171

Chelsea and Spurs to fight over Man City reject
The Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti has been promised funds by Roman Abramovich to strengthen his Chelsea team in January, and his most important acquisition must be another strong defender.
With this in mind, todays People reports that both Chelsea and Tottenham want to free Joleon Lescott from his nightmare at the Eastlands. Lescott cost Man City £24million from Everton after protracted negotiations 15 months ago, but he has fallen out of favour at the Eastlands and is struggling to get a game under Mancini.
David Moyes would love to have Lescott back at Everton, but it would seem that only Chelsea or Tottenham could realistically afford to match the enormous wages he has received after leaving Goodison Park.
Harry Redknapp is also to be given some transfer cash to improve his Tottenham team for the next step in the Champions League knockout rounds, and a strong central defender is also high on his list. Redknapp would certainly be looking for a massive discount on the transfer fee, but would love to take Lescott to White Hart Lane.
The People says that Lescott is very keen to move to London so that makes both Chelsea and Tottenham the hot favourites to end Lescott’s exile in the reserves at Man City.

Wolves favourites to land City outcast Johnson
Wolves are favourites to land Michael Johnson on loan as the Manchester City midfielder looks to rescue his career.
The 22-year-old will be ready for a first-team ­return in the New Year after ­overcoming a cruciate ­ligament injury that has sidelined him for the past 12 months.
Molineux boss Mick ­McCarthy has inquired about taking Johnson until the end of the season as he looks to strengthen his squad for the battle against relegation.
City are ready to listen to offers as they look to give Johnson, also being monitored by Leicester boss Sven Goran Eriksson, the games he needs to build his strength and confidence.
Stuart Pearce gave ­Johnson his England ­Under-21 debut, but it was under the guidance of Eriksson that the midfieder really made an impact.
City gave Johnson a new five-year contract that will take him to 2013. But after being nursed back to fitness, his injury curse struck again last December.
Johnson is still highly-­regarded at Eastlands, but City’s strength in midfield means it will be difficult for Johnson to force his way back.
That has opened the door for McCarthy, although Wolves will have to pay the bulk of Johnson’s £30,000-a-week contract.

VLADMIR Weiss would love to meet Manchester City in the Europa League – even if he’s not sure he would be eligible to play in the tie.
It’s not yet certain if the Premier League giants are feasible opposition – that will depend on midweek results, but Weiss, on loan from City is relishing the possibility of paired with them in Friday’s draw.
“It would be great if we met them,” said the 21-year-old. “It would be really exciting. I don’t know if I could play although I think it would be OK.”
And whoever the Gers get in Europe, Weiss is adamant the Ibrox club will be a match for them.
“We did well in the Champions League and if we perform the way we did there we can go far in the Europa League,” he said.
“There will be good teams there and it won’t be easy but we want to do really well.”
Weiss relishes the Euro stage but insists he is learning from both that and domestic football as he continues to build his career.
“The Champions League is great experience for everyone. It’s the best you can get,” he went on.
“It’s different to the normal stuff but I have to say I find SPL games really hard. It’s a hard and physical league but I have been picking things up from the SPL and the Champions League.”
There is no doubt the domestic game is toughening Weiss up.
Boss Walter Smith said: “Vladimir doesn’t mind the physical aspect of the game here and he appreciates that he will take a few knocks and he’s not frightened of that. In fact, he puts himself into position to get more.
“It’s not so much about toughening up, more about him getting consistency and we’re pleased with way he’s been playing.”
It remains to be seen what will happen to the winger when his loan deal expires but City are keeping an eye on his progress north of the border.
City technical director Mike Rigg is a regular visitor to Ibrox but for the moment Weiss is concentrating solely on Rangers.
“I need to do well here to prove myself,” he said. “Obviously I believe I can go back to City, but I’m happy right now and we’ll see what the season brings.
“At the moment I want to do well for Rangers and concentrate on things here.”

Roberto Mancini gets green light for £20m move to bring Lyon midfielder Yoann Gourcuff to Manchester City - Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini has reportedly been given the nod to make a £20 million move for Olympique Lyonnais midfielder Yoann Gourcuff.
The 24-year-old only joined the ranks at OL from Bordeaux during the summer, but the Eastlands club are thought to have reignited their interest in the player despite signing David Silva in July.
And The Sunday People claims that this is because the former Inter boss believes his squad still needs more creativity, prompting City's scouts to resume tracking the midfield playmaker's progress.
France international Gourcuff is currently placed 152nd in the Castrol Rankings, up from 168th a month earlier. He began his senior career at Rennes before an injury-plagued two year stint with AC Milan that ended in 2008 when he moved to Bordeaux, initially on loan. He did, though, collect a Champions League winner's medal in 2007 with Milan - and then won the French title and League Cup with Bordeaux in 2008-09.
Lyon signed him on a five-year contract in August this year for a fee of €22 million (£18.4m).
City have spent heavily in the transfer market since being bought by the Abu Dhabi United Group in August 2008, bringing in a raft of big-name signings on hefty salaries.

WAGVENT OF THE DAY

http://footballpie.com/wagvent/album/Da ... relli.html

OTHER BOLLOX
Manchester United are planning a £20m transfer window bid for Aston Villa winger Ashley Young. Sunday People

Former Celtic winger Aiden McGeady's short spell at Spartak Moscow looks set to be over with the Republic of Ireland international being lined up for a shock move to Aston Villa as Gerard Houllier's first January signing. Sunday Mirror

German giants Bayern Munich want to take Everton left-back Leighton Baines in the January transfer window. Full story: Sunday People

Blackburn Rovers boss Sam Allardyce is set to make a record-breaking £7m move for Wigan winger Charles N'Zogbia. Sunday People

German midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger has delivered a crushing blow to Chelsea and Manchester United by pledging his future to Bayern Munich and signing a new contract. Mail on Sunday

Chris Hughton will be offered the opportunity to make a quick return to management after his sacking by Newcastle, as a replacement for Sheffield United boss Gary Speed, who is set to be appointed by Wales as manager. Mail on Sunday

Hughton could also be offered a swift return to Premier League management with West Ham United, who are running out of patience with current manager Avram Grant with the club rooted to the bottom of the table. Sunday Express

Former Chelsea assistant manager Ray Wilkins has revealed he was not told by ­owner Roman Abramovich why he was sacked from his post. Sunday Mirror

Sir Keith Mills has been asked to become the new FA chairman, but if the multi-millionaire businessman declines the offer, former Arsenal vice-chairman David Dein is looking ever more likely to be installed as the new head of football. Mail on Sunday

Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson is to be awarded a £500,000-per-year pay rise by the club's Glazer family owners as he bids to overtake Sir Matt Busby as the longest serving boss at Old Trafford. News of the World

Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp has banned his players from a Christmas party after last year's incident where 16 ­players went on a £2,000-a-head night out by private jet to Dublin after they told the ­manager they were going on a golf trip. Sunday Mirror

A revolutionary new sock developed by a sports scientist could end the broken metatarsal problems often suffered by footballers.
Sunday Mirror

[Chinners]

***Official club Bollox round up ***
With a name like Yaya Toure, you'll always be popular on the sportsdesk when it comes to writing the headlines, and sub-editors' dream Yaya offered up a sitter with his performance at West Ham.
The lads didn't hesitate, and the busy old News of the World even managed to get a festive feel with their ringing "HALLELUYA" splash to celebrate City's shining star to follow and recall that recent Christmas chart topper.

"Tou hot to handle," chuckles the Sunday Star over Paul Brown's report, while the Sunday Mirror gets uncharacteristically Sloaney with "WE'RE OK, YA" the fairy topping the decorated tree of Anthony Clavane's report.

The ever-thorough News of the World enjoys a second bite with "Yaya leaves the Yoyos standing" to accompany the hard-hitting despatch from Neil Ashton, who's been working particularly hard this week.

Ash is credited with breaking the news of Carlos Tevez's written transfer request, a story that concerned Blues fans will benefit from reading in conjunction with the Club's statement today elsewhere on the website.

Talking of transfers - and aren't they always in the Sunday prints? - the People's top team of diggers has unearthed a bit of a jostle between Spurs and Chelsea to try and land Joleon Lescott in the New Year window.

Last we heard, you will doubtless recall, Joleon's former club Wolves were being linked, but the Mirror's Bill Mills reckons they are now training their sights on a loan move for fit-again midfielder Michael Johnson.

The People think Shay Given could be a January target for Aston Villa, and reporter Tom Hopkinson reveals that Blackburn and West Brom are both in the frame to try and borrow Shaun Wright-Phillips.

Meanwhile, in fashion news, Roberto Mancini has bought a silk and cashmere scarf to replace his trademark woollen one, reports a breathless Star. Makes the Mail on Sunday's Snood Count (Hi, Sir Alex!) look like old hat.

[craigmcfc]

Not often that Tevez could take away the shine from a WAG but today he has managed it. Thanks Carlos

[french_tony]

Gourcuff would be a fantastic signing and the final piece to our team IMO. The only French player who played well at the world cup.
Stick him where Yaya plays and push him back into Baz's position.

[craigmcfc]

All of a sudden the coming transfer window could be a lot more interesting than it already is

[Chinners]

Demento Has His Sights On A £3m Premiership Bargain
Man City’s on-loan defender Nedum Onuoha has been winning plaudits for his performances for Sunderland this season and may have caught the eye of Sir Alex Ferguson.
Sunderland are desperate to make their season-long loan deal permanent in the summer but United boss Ferguson may have other ideas.
United are said to be in “transition” at the moment and are strongly rumoured to want to strengthen at the back. Fergie has fueled such rumours by considering sending defender Jonny Evans out on loan in the new year. Onuoha could be an excellent addition to SAF’s squad and may look to build on his career at Old Trafford.
However, Onuoha is currently contracted to local rivals Manchester City and this could prove to be a stumbling block for United. City may wish to reject any offer from United in a refusal to sell to their rivals.
Sunderland boss Steve Bruce will be keen to make a good impression on the former England U-21 International as it is thought he is keen to secure his full signature come July.
Though, a host of good performances will certainly have turned the heads of many Premier League managers and may leave Onuoha will a host of options in the summer.
The 24-year-old defender is contracted at Eastlands until 2014, but City’s merry-go-round style in the transfer window could see Onuoha leave for as little as£3million.

With No Opponents To Fear, In-Form Manchester City Could Stride Clear At Top Of Premier League By New Year Notwithstanding an early Christmas present from Carlos Tevez in the form of a written transfer request, the clouds that have hovered grimly over Manchester City’s season are finally beginning to lift.
An autumn dogged by tedious football, off-field disagreements and obituaries being drafted on the manager’s Eastlands career has given way to a winter wonderland rich in possibilities.
It would be premature to judge Roberto Mancini’s team as anything other than outsiders for the title gong but the evidence of a comprehensive victory over struggling West Ham is that the side funded by Abu Dhabi’s petro-wealth is finally beginning to take shape.
While Mancini’s No. 2 Brian Kidd, presiding over press duties while his boss hopped on a flight back to Italy to see his sick father, aimed to keep dreams in check by warning his audience that titles are won in May and not before Christmas, they are also lost during the glut of fixtures that marks the festive period.
When Mancini returns to Manchester on Tuesday, he can contemplate a four-match run of Premier League fixtures ending on New Year’s Day that offer his team a golden opportunity to settle at the head of the table.
Three of the matches – against Everton, Aston Villa and Blackpool – are at home, sandwiched either side of the Boxing Day trip to Newcastle United.
While it would be foolish to regard encounters against teams as competitive as Everton as gift-wrapped opportunities to fatten City’s points tally, it is a nettle that needs to be grasped by any side with title-winning pretensions.
Silva lining | Flair players like David Silva are suddenly beginning to flourish at Man City
During the last six matches played by each of the clubs, they have accumulated a combined four wins in 24 games – two for Blackpool and one apiece for Everton and Newcastle.
While Mancini’s team find out how much resistance mid-table opponents can offer, their rivals will be slugging it out with one another in a series of made-for-TV ‘Grand Slam’ jousts.
Chelsea’s next three games are against Tottenham, Manchester United and Arsenal. Moreover, Arsene Wenger’s side begin a season-defining sequence with a trip to Old Trafford on Monday night.
It is not beyond the bounds of possibility that the team who couldn’t buy a goal – and, oh, how they have spent - only a few weeks back could sit at the League’s summit when the final whistles are blown on the first day of 2011.
Mancini has made no apologies for laying the foundations by building a defensive barrier and developing a system that has its origins in Serie A. Only Chelsea have conceded fewer than City’s 13 League goals and in Joe Hart, Vincent Kompany, Kolo Toure and Jerome Boateng, he has a backline that he trusts and which is well shielded by the excellent Nigel de Jong and the reliable but pedestrian Gareth Barry.
Path to the top | City's next four games
Dec 20: Everton (h)
Dec 26: Newcastle (a)
Dec 28: Aston Villa (h)
Jan 1: Blackpool (h)
As the old adage goes, strikers win matches and defences win titles. Increasingly, Mancini is uncaging his flair players and allowing them to flower. To the four goals they scored at Craven Cottage, they added another three at Upton Park.
Yaya Toure, expected to be utilised as a bullying midfielder at Eastlands, is being played in the advanced role where he made his name in his early days. To some surprise among City fans, Mancini persevered with the Ivorian after a rocky start when he looked too cumbersome and heavy for a regular starting role and it is now beginning to pay dividends.
Toure tore West Ham apart with his enterprise and powerful running, despite an awkward gait that wins nul points for style. The finish for his goal was sensational while his jinking dribble and shot for City’s second merited him being on the scoresheet again rather than Robert Green.
In David Silva, City have a pocket-sized playmaker in the more traditional mould. Inventive, impish and blessed with a feather-lite touch, he was given licence to roam in front of De Jong and Barry and, for the hosts, it was death by a thousand cuts. So strong is Mancini’s squad that the English cavalry in the shape of James Milner and Adam Johnson made only cameo appearances.
It is odd that the area where City most appear in need of refurbishment is the one where they have spent heaviest.
Baliotelli has scored five goals in eight games but was unconvincing and disinterested in the lone frontman role on Saturday. Emmanuel Adebayor, Roque Santa Cruz and Jo are all being touted to potential buyers and news that Carlos Tevez wants to bid a hasty retreat means replenishment of the forward roster is inevitable in January, especially given City’s means.
Mancini is prepared to add some colour to his sky blue formula but not at the expense of organisation, togetherness or a back seven that is meaner than Uriah Heep.
For all City’s undoubted quality and strength in depth, the public shows of dissent by Tevez and Baliotelli in consecutive weeks demonstrates that Mancini’s biggest task is keeping a lid on a dressing room teeming with hot-heads and huge egos.
Silver linings are dotting the City horizon but a cloud never seems that far away.

Ha ha even my mate Graham Sharpe at WH has got into the Tevez bollox ...

TEVEZ 5/2 TO QUIT CITY IN JANUARY
CARLOS TEVEZ is 5/2 with William Hill to leave Manchester City during the January transfer window, and 2/7 still to be there when the window closes. They also quote him at Even money still to be a City player on the first day of next season.
And with doubts over Tevez' City future raging, Hills have lengthened his odds of becoming this season's Premier League top goalscorer from 7/2 to 9/2.
'Tevez has already moved around consistently during his time in the Premier League so it cannot be that much of a surprise that he should have itchy feet again, but for anyone fancying him to be top scorer we have enhanced his price to take account of the possibility that he will leave City' said Hill's spokesman Graham Sharpe.

WILLIAM HILL...
Carlos Tevez.....Club 1st day next season…. Settled by registration held (i.e. loan deals don’t count)

Man City........1/1
South American club......5/2
Officially Retired (no registration held)....5/1
Spanish club.........6/1
Other UK club.......20/1

[Chinners]

Evening Bollox update

Tevez last City match has been played (featuring Angry Ashton & OD)
viewtopic.php?f=119&t=36186

Tevez story breaks: The early bollox on the Tevez story
viewtopic.php?f=119&t=36186

Winning without Tevez: Is Balotelli the answer?
viewtopic.php?f=119&t=36141

Ashtons thoughts on Tevez (the cunt)
viewtopic.php?f=119&t=36179

***The OFFICIAL club statement*** (it has stars and is Official so no further comment is required)
viewtopic.php?f=119&t=36171

Kia - Tevez Agent under scrutiny
viewtopic.php?f=119&t=36181

Options for life without Tevez
viewtopic.php?f=119&t=36172

Tevez captaincy dialema
viewtopic.php?f=119&t=36170

A sadly neglected captaincy thread
viewtopic.php?f=119&t=36176

Tevez caption comp
viewtopic.php?f=119&t=36173

Forget the gloom have a Tevez giggle
viewtopic.php?f=119&t=36184

The ultimate Bollox
viewtopic.php?f=119&t=36174

[ryanmjo]

In non-Tevez news, there are some rumors that Hodgson has left Liverpool.