CARLOS TEVEZ, the little bull from Argentina had been all over the news pages during the summer transfer window
(June 07-Aug 07) regarding his transfer. And finally he has reached his preferred destination-
MANCHESTER UNITED.
It all started way back at the beginning of the
last season(2006-07) when Tevez and Javier Mascherano made a
shock move to England and it was
West Ham who got their signatures. Manutd who were supposed to be in the hunt for him didn't get him in spite of TEVEZ saying that he was a "
MANUTD" fan. Though the Hammers got two bright talents they were struggling in the league and
Tevez was not starting or even playing matches. It was clear that there was some problem with the then manager of West ham,
ALAN PARDEW. And both the player's and club's positions were worsening as weeks passed by.
West Ham got a new owner
Eggert Magnusson and they
sacked Alan Pardew as the team was languishing at the bottom half of the table and Alan Curbhisley took over as the manager of West Ham and his first match was against MANUTD at Upton park and Tevez didn't play that match which West ham won 1-0.
And in the January transfer window
Liverpool got Mascherano, another troubled player at West Ham. And with Pardew gone Tevez finally started playing matches for Westham and was
scoring goals but it seemed too late as West Ham were
destined towards relegation but Tevez pushed them all the way till the last weekend against
MANUTD at Old Trafford and won they match 1-0, Tevez scoring the lone goal which kept
West Ham in the premiership. As the games went on, West ham were found guilty of illegally signing Tevez and they were let off with a fine of
£5.5m without any points deduction as they pleaded guilty. And even after the season was over Sheffield United, the team that got relegated filled a case against Westham being let off without points deduction, but they couldn't win the case so West Ham stayed in premiership thanks to late goals from TEVEZ.
As the summer transfer window opened it was clear that Manutd wanted to sign him. But the actual problem was lying in the fact that Tevez was owned by a company
MSI which was headed by
Kia Joorabchian and also Westham so there were confusions regarding the third party ownership of the player and Westham
wanted compensation for letting Tevez free and even
FIFA said it would help Tevez join MANUTD. Finally after a long delay MSI payed Westham a compensation of
£2m and Tevez was free to join MANUTD.
Yet there were some delays as
FA wanted to examine all the aspects of the transfer and this meant Tevez, who had been without match practice after the Copa America had to wait a little longer before joining United and start playing football with United.Yet he was practicing with the United squad and impressed everyone out there.
And Tevez was officially registered as a
MANCHESTER UNITED player on 10th August marking an end to one of the longest saga's in football history. He made his ManUtd debut on
15th August against
Porstmouth at Fratton Park. Tevez is set to be
signed permanently as his current deal is a loan deal and with Ferguson saying that a fee is in place to complete the transfer Tevez can look forward to playing with the Reds for a long time.
Barcelona finally got the better of Real Madrid in the El Classico after a gap of two years. It was coming given the situation at Real Madrid, who had several key players injured and they had a change in coach while Barca were going from strength to strength under Pep Guardiola and with the late goals from Eto'o and Messi, Barcelona established a 12 point lead over 4th placed Real Madrid and 9 point lead over second placed Villareal and have sent out a clear message to the teams across Spain and Europe.
The inaugural Champions League Twenty20 has been pushed back by a year and will now be held in India in October 2009, the window originally identified for the tournament's second edition.This decision comes as a huge disappointment for the teams who were looking forward to the tournament and also to the millions of fans across the globe. This tournament created so much hype and it was gathering momentum just when some unfortunate things happened in Mumbai, one of the proposed venues. The participating teams had a lot riding on it as they would been guaranteed a purse of US$250,000 as participating fees from the total pot of US$6 million. Moreover those who had qualified for this year's edition have got to do it all over again in their respective T20 tournament as the next year's edition will have a fresh set of qualifying teams. Many of the boards have lost a lot of money due to this but this was a sensible decision keeping in mind the horrors that happened last month. It is likely the tournament will now have more teams - possibly up to 12 from the eight slotted for this year - next year's Twenty20 domestic finalists from India, Australia and South Africa will definitely take part with the other participating teams will being finalized by the end of January 2009.
Champions League is set to enter the knockout stage with 16 teams including the defending champions Manchester United, looking to win the most prestigious club competition in Europe. The group stages have not produced major surprises but the teams which were expected to finish the group on top have manages only second places. They are Chelsea, Inter Milan, Real Madrid and Arsenal. This opens up the field and we could end up having some mouth watering clashes in the round of 16 itself. But with both Inter and Chelsea finishing second, the chance of Jose returning to Stamford Bridge will be delayed by atleast a round. Roma will be more than happy to see Manchester United finish top as the Red Devils were the ones who ended their dreams for the last two years. And the 9 time winners Real Madrid might also have a tough time as they have to play the second leg away from home, something which they don't do very well. So I'm hoping for the following draw in the round of 16.
