Daily Mirror mock Baconface?
Posted: Tue Jan 12, 2010 2:09 amFookinell this is a 1st lol
http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/news/Ca ... 85005.html
Manchester City 4 Blackburn 1: The Daily Mirror Verdict
Published 23:30 11/01/10 By David McDonnell
The mocking chants of "Fergie, sign him up" will have resonated all the way from Manchester to Qatar.
Sir Alex Ferguson's refusal to pay the £25million asking price for Carlos Tevez last summer is looking like a catastrophic error, after the striker's stunning hat-trick took Manchester City up to fourth.
And you can bet the Manchester United boss, currently on a mid-season break with his squad in the Middle East, will not have slept well having watched Tevez single-handedly destroy Blackburn.
Fergie's frugality in the transfer market and self-proclaimed principled stance of not paying over the odds for players looks faintly ridiculous with Tevez in such devastating form.
The United boss may have felt Tevez was overpriced at £25m but what wouldn't he give to still have his former striker within his squad, given his own lack of options up front?
With every goal he scores, Tevez's boundless energy, unstinting work-rate and poacher's instinct make Fergie's failure to hang on to him all the more criminal.
Tevez scored 15 goals for United last season, during a campaign in which his appearances were rationed to accommodate the new partnership between Wayne Rooney and Dimitar Berbatov.
With the season just over the halfway stage, Tevez has already reached last season's target and with 11 goals in his last nine games is unquestionably the Premier League's in-form striker.
And with United over-reliant on Rooney and unable to depend on Berbatov and Owen for goals, the sight of Tevez scoring freely has served only to compound Fergie's intransigence in the transfer market.
No wonder City's fans delighted in a mocking chant of 'Fergie, sign him up', a familiar refrain sang by United fans at Old Trafford last season when Tevez's future was in limbo.
While United have headed off to the sunshine full of self-recrimination after a poor run of results, there are no such concerns at City, who have been transformed by Roberto Mancini in just three weeks.
In that time the urbane Italian has turned the squad he inherited from Mark Hughes into a disciplined, cohesive unit, without the vulnerability that undermined City under their former boss and which ultimately cost him his job.
Admittedly, Mancini could not have picked more favourable opponents than Stoke, Wolves, Middlesbrough and Blackburn to start his reign. But City look a different prospect under him, capable of sustaining a push for the title, not just a top-four place.
Blackburn arrived at Eastlands on a miserable run of 10 games without a win and never looked remotely like ending that dreadful sequence.
They made a terrible start by conceding an embarrassingly soft goal after seven minutes. Martin Petrov's corner posed no problems until a mix-up between Paul Robinson and Keith Andrews saw the ball fall to Benjani.
The City striker, making his first Premier League start in a year, swung wildy at the ball, which was going wide until Tevez intervened to divert it over the line.
City doubled their lead in the 39th minute thanks to a remarkable 80-yard solo run from Micah Richards, in which the City defender beat five players before applying the finishing touch himself.
Richards endured a difficult time under Hughes but has been given a reprieve by Mancini, which he seems determined not to squander.
His athleticism and close control saw him glide effortlessly past a succession of Blackburn players before threading the ball to Benjani, whose shot rebounded off a post.
The mesmerising run by Richards was worthy of a goal and it was fitting the ball fell to him, as he showed impressive agility to steer it into the net from an acute angle.
Tevez continued his masterful display by starting and finishing the move for City's third goal – which came four minutes after the restart – picking out Benjani on the right, then continuing his run towards the Blackburn goal.
And when Benjani pulled the ball back too far for Petrov, Tevez applied a majestic, sweeping finish with his right foot.
The only blot on an otherwise faultless performance from Tevez came a minute before the hour, when he should have sealed his hat-trick with a diving header from close range which he somehow sent wide.
City conceded their first goal under Mancini in the 71st minute. Vincent Kompany's poor first touch from Shay Given's equally bad clearance allowing Morten Gamst Pedersen to curl a shot beyond the reach of the City keeper.
But the night belonged to Tevez and he duly sealed a deserved hat-trick with the pick of his goals in added time, a curling shot from just outside the area.
Fergie's pride will not allow him to admit he made a mistake in letting Tevez go, but privately he will be hurting over the decision that looks like costing United the title.
http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/news/Ca ... 85005.html
Manchester City 4 Blackburn 1: The Daily Mirror Verdict
Published 23:30 11/01/10 By David McDonnell
The mocking chants of "Fergie, sign him up" will have resonated all the way from Manchester to Qatar.
Sir Alex Ferguson's refusal to pay the £25million asking price for Carlos Tevez last summer is looking like a catastrophic error, after the striker's stunning hat-trick took Manchester City up to fourth.
And you can bet the Manchester United boss, currently on a mid-season break with his squad in the Middle East, will not have slept well having watched Tevez single-handedly destroy Blackburn.
Fergie's frugality in the transfer market and self-proclaimed principled stance of not paying over the odds for players looks faintly ridiculous with Tevez in such devastating form.
The United boss may have felt Tevez was overpriced at £25m but what wouldn't he give to still have his former striker within his squad, given his own lack of options up front?
With every goal he scores, Tevez's boundless energy, unstinting work-rate and poacher's instinct make Fergie's failure to hang on to him all the more criminal.
Tevez scored 15 goals for United last season, during a campaign in which his appearances were rationed to accommodate the new partnership between Wayne Rooney and Dimitar Berbatov.
With the season just over the halfway stage, Tevez has already reached last season's target and with 11 goals in his last nine games is unquestionably the Premier League's in-form striker.
And with United over-reliant on Rooney and unable to depend on Berbatov and Owen for goals, the sight of Tevez scoring freely has served only to compound Fergie's intransigence in the transfer market.
No wonder City's fans delighted in a mocking chant of 'Fergie, sign him up', a familiar refrain sang by United fans at Old Trafford last season when Tevez's future was in limbo.
While United have headed off to the sunshine full of self-recrimination after a poor run of results, there are no such concerns at City, who have been transformed by Roberto Mancini in just three weeks.
In that time the urbane Italian has turned the squad he inherited from Mark Hughes into a disciplined, cohesive unit, without the vulnerability that undermined City under their former boss and which ultimately cost him his job.
Admittedly, Mancini could not have picked more favourable opponents than Stoke, Wolves, Middlesbrough and Blackburn to start his reign. But City look a different prospect under him, capable of sustaining a push for the title, not just a top-four place.
Blackburn arrived at Eastlands on a miserable run of 10 games without a win and never looked remotely like ending that dreadful sequence.
They made a terrible start by conceding an embarrassingly soft goal after seven minutes. Martin Petrov's corner posed no problems until a mix-up between Paul Robinson and Keith Andrews saw the ball fall to Benjani.
The City striker, making his first Premier League start in a year, swung wildy at the ball, which was going wide until Tevez intervened to divert it over the line.
City doubled their lead in the 39th minute thanks to a remarkable 80-yard solo run from Micah Richards, in which the City defender beat five players before applying the finishing touch himself.
Richards endured a difficult time under Hughes but has been given a reprieve by Mancini, which he seems determined not to squander.
His athleticism and close control saw him glide effortlessly past a succession of Blackburn players before threading the ball to Benjani, whose shot rebounded off a post.
The mesmerising run by Richards was worthy of a goal and it was fitting the ball fell to him, as he showed impressive agility to steer it into the net from an acute angle.
Tevez continued his masterful display by starting and finishing the move for City's third goal – which came four minutes after the restart – picking out Benjani on the right, then continuing his run towards the Blackburn goal.
And when Benjani pulled the ball back too far for Petrov, Tevez applied a majestic, sweeping finish with his right foot.
The only blot on an otherwise faultless performance from Tevez came a minute before the hour, when he should have sealed his hat-trick with a diving header from close range which he somehow sent wide.
City conceded their first goal under Mancini in the 71st minute. Vincent Kompany's poor first touch from Shay Given's equally bad clearance allowing Morten Gamst Pedersen to curl a shot beyond the reach of the City keeper.
But the night belonged to Tevez and he duly sealed a deserved hat-trick with the pick of his goals in added time, a curling shot from just outside the area.
Fergie's pride will not allow him to admit he made a mistake in letting Tevez go, but privately he will be hurting over the decision that looks like costing United the title.