Mancini's olive branch to City ace
Roberto Mancini is reportedly set to hand Nedum Onuoha a fresh chance at Manchester City by recalling him into the first-team squad.
The City chief had left the 24-year-old former England Under-21 defender in his reserve-team set-up over the summer as he looked to secure a move away from the Etihad Stadium in order to gain regular first-team action elsewhere.
However, after Onuoha, who spent last season on loan at Sunderland, failed to find a new club despite Everton, Blackburn Rovers or Queen's Park Rangers all being linked at some stage, it looks like he will get a fresh chance to shine with City.
Mancini is short of home-grown players for his Champions League squad so Onuoha will come into contention for those games, while he is also set to be in the squad for Saturday's Premier League home clash against Wigan.
TALKSHIT CONTINUES WITH ...Tevez wants Boca Juniors return
Manchester City striker Carlos Tevez has reiterated his desire to return to Boca Juniors to end his career.
The 27-year-old handed in a transfer request at City in the winter window but failed to force through moves to Corinthians and Inter Milan this summer.
But what the striker really wants to do is return to his former club Boca. The Argentinean side, however, would find it impossible to raise the £40m transfer fee or match the £150,000-a-week wages he earns at City.
The forward told South American news agency Telam: "I have had, and always have, Boca Juniors in my heart.
"I have played for Boca before and I will not rule out returning to them in the future to play at The Bombonera and [then] saying goodbye to professional football."
Owen Hargreaves is a ‘calculated risk’
City signing Owen Hargreaves was a “calculated risk” after manager Roberto Mancini was told there would be no more money for players this summer.
Mancini’s tactical coach David Platt revealed that the Blues had moved for out-of-contract Hargreaves after the failure to sell unwanted stars Emmanuel Adebayor, Roque Santa Cruz and Craig Bellamy.
The ex-Red signed on transfer deadline day for a reported £20,000-a-week, plus a bonus payment for every game he plays.
But Platt revealed: “We needed a central midfield player but unfortunately in terms of players going out and bringing in transfer fees, a lot have gone out on loan, so fees haven’t come in for them,” said Platt.
“For a few weeks we have understood, from a business perspective, that after signing Samir Nasri, there wasn’t going to be a big-name signing coming in.
“You have to get creative. The owners and the board have been terrific in saying ‘We know you need a midfield player but we have to be creative about it’.”
That resulted in Hargreaves (below) coming in, and Platt said: “A lot of people would say it’s a gamble, but I think gamble is too strong a word. When you put all
the things into the mix it’s a calculated risk, and one that we feel is well worth taking.
“What we do know is that if we look at the glass as half full, and it works out for us and for Owen, we get the kind of player that it’s very difficult to find – a player that has got that Champions League experience. If we are talking about Owen Hargreaves as was, he is one of the best midfield players in the world.”
Meanwhile, Micah Richards expects to be fit for Saturday’s clash with Wigan despite withdrawing from the England squad with a hamstring injury.
Ian Herbert - Independent: Cook's email was insensitive but is hardly grounds for his dismissal
It's not the vile message that should lead to City chief executive's downfall - only proof that he lied
The Manchester City chief executive, Garry Cook, will not be removed from his position before next week unless he takes matters into his own hands and resigns. City's IT staff are combing through email records and the human resources department, which Cook set up at the club, are examining his position. The club's Abu Dhabi owners may send staff this week to Portland, Oregon, to interview Cook, who will maintain a pre-planned period of holiday leave with his wife until early next week. He has not been suspended or placed on gardening leave.
To outsiders as yet unacquainted with the email exchange with Dr Anthonia Onuoha, whose fight against cancer was mocked in a message sent from Cook's iPad last October, it must sound as if the City chief executive has committed an act of gross irresponsibility. If City's investigations find against him, he will be guilty of sending an email, ridiculing Dr Onuoha's declaration that she was "ravaged with cancer and chemotherapy" and then lying by telling her that his computer had been hacked. Even if proven, these are not the actions which should send the man edging over the precipice into unemployment.
The email is excruciating and insensitive but the act of writing it is something many individuals might be capable of in the private seclusion of an office. The more serious issue under investigation – as yet unproven – is whether Cook tried to cover the error, after inadvertently sending the message to Dr Onuoha as well as his colleague Brian Marwood, by telling Dr Onuoha that his computer had been hacked. Coming clean on a vile and insensitive email would surely have caused Cook no lasting damage and might have kept the issue between the two of them. But how highly would that perceived deceit feature on the scale of lies in the game? Does it tarnish Cook irreparably in the eyes of City fans? Not by the evidence of fans' forums yesterday. Cook is arguably the most popular football club chief executive in Manchester.
Does it make Cook an individual who clubs and sponsors could not do business with? No. Divorce these alleged two actions from the current firestorm and neither make Cook incapable of continuing his job.
The picture is also scrambled by the year between the exchange of emails and their revelation. Why have they been made public now and by whom? The businessman Kia Joorabchian yesterday denied leaking the email but the delay does make the leak appear to be a purposeful attempt to damage Cook. The moral parameters would be clearer – and worse for Cook – if Dr Onuoha was so damaged by the message that she sought immediately to highlight his behaviour, as she saw it.
The question for the Abu Dhabis, if their investigation finds that Cook sent the email, is whether it is reflective of a behavioural pattern which they believe cannot be changed. Remember, one of their reasons for buying City was to enhance the reputation of the Emiracy. Employment law specialists believe that an attempt to cover up such an email, rather than the act of sending it, could see the Abu Dhabis conclude that Cook has brought City into disrepute and committed an act of gross misconduct. "An email like that would show a lack of sensitivity but anyone can send an email in error," said Neil Johnston, of Field Fisher Waterhouse. "To lie and say someone has hacked into your computer when you are the face of a club would be something different. Since [US president] Nixon, people with a public profile have been dismissed for lying. It's a difficult one. It could go either way."
A decision on Cook should factor in what he has delivered to the club. His sometimes unpredictable persona is accompanied by a dynamic and unpredictable approach to the football business. He is hugely fan-focused and City's facilities are among the best in the Premier League. The development of a large part of east Manchester into the Etihad Campus was a masterstroke in City's attempts to meet the challenge of Financial Fair Play. His employees are messianic about him.
The names of possible successors are already circulating, though. David Potts, the chief executive of Tesco Asia, is understood to be an individual of whom Abu Dhabi thinks highly and he would fit with the Emiracy fondness of recruiting individuals from a non-football background. In Portland, Cook waits to learn if the email sent to Dr Onuoha was the most costly piece of business attributed to him.
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[/spoiler]OTHER BOLLOX
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