Thursday's B*ll*x

[Chinners]

Noel Gallagher Says Tevez Will Stay At Manchester City
So, Noel Gallagher, what do you make of Carlos Tevez's claims that he wants to leave Manchester City because he does not like the chief executive? "Well," said the rock star and City's most famous supporter. "He would be the first person I've ever heard of to leave a football club because he didn't like someone in the office."
Not buying it then? "Not at all. For a guy who can't even speak English how are we supposed to believe he has got a relationship with the executives in the first place, unless he's been trying to get himself a new deal anyway.
"He has two choices now if he means this – he either leaves or he retires. But I think there's more to it than meets the eye.
"Everyone was saying the same thing about Wayne Rooney: 'He's going, he's definitely going.' What is happening now is that Rooney's agent has set the bar when it comes to modern‑day transfer requests. But I would still put money on Tevez being here next season."
And what [/spoiler]will be the crowd's reaction when City play Everton on Monday and Tevez turns out for the first time since announcing to the world that he wanted an Oasis-like split?
"He's been the best player we have ever had in my book and, as long as he is doing it on the pitch, they won't turn on him. I won't be booing anyway and I think it will be all right because he's not the kind of player who will go missing."
Gallagher is in Turin for Manchester City's Europa League tie against Juventus tomorrow. The Eastlands club have already qualified for the knockout stages. "It is disappointing because of the timing of it. Why not wait until the end of the season?
"The one thing that goes against Carlos is that he already plays for Man City so nobody can link him to us. He can't say: 'Oh I want to go to Man City because they are offering me £200,000 a week,' when he's already getting £280,000 a week out of us."

Barcelona will listen to massive €100m Manchester City bid for Andres Iniesta
Manchester City are reportedly preparing to make a stunning bid for Barcelona's influential midfielder Andres Iniesta .
Barcelona would be desperate to hold onto the player who has just made the three-man shortlist for the 2010 FIFA World Player of the Year award. But, according to Yahoo Sports, Manchester City believe that with Barcelona's financial situation far from being healthy, they can persuade the Nou Camp club to part ways with the 26-year-old with a massive €100m bid.
Yahoo Sports quotes a source indicating that a €100million bid from Manchester City for Iniesta would not fall on deaf ears, saying, “He has had an amazing year and he is part of the fabric of [Barcelona], but that doesn’t mean the right offer won’t be considered and possibly accepted.”
Most major Spanish dailies are giving prominent coverage to the story this morning. Iniesta is contracted to Barcelona until 2015, having played at the Nou Camp for his entire career.

OTHER BOLLOX
Manchester United are ready to make a significant bid to entice Barcelona full-back Dani Alves to Old Trafford. caughtoffside.com

Liverpool are rumoured to be readying a January bid for Partizan Belgrade striker Cleo. caughtoffside.com

Italian side Roma are keen to capture Arsenal utility man Emmanuel Eboue. caughtoffside.com

Real Madrid are poised to test Arsenal's resolve to keep Gael Clichy by offering France striker Karim Benzema in a swap deal for the full-back. Daily Mirror

Liverpool have targeted a move for Villarreal winger Santi Cazorla as Reds manager Roy Hodgson looks to add more creativity to his side. caughtoffside.com

Manchester United have singled out Tottenham's Gareth Bale and Everton's Leighton Baines as the two players they will target to replace current left back Patrice Evra. caughtoffside.com

Nigerian striker Victor Anichebe is ready to back down in his contract wrangle with Everton and fight for his Goodison Park future. Daily Mail

Sam Allardyce's dismissal at Blackburn has left Sunderland in pole position to land Slovakia's Juraj Kucka. Daily Mail

Real Madrid star Lassana Diarra has not ruled out a January return to the Premier League with both Manchester United and Tottenham interested in the former Chelsea and Arsenal midfielder. talkSPORT

Everton are monitoring Stephen Ireland's showdown talks with Aston Villa, with a view to making a January move for the midfielder. talkSPORT

Bayern Munich are interested in Ajax goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg - leaving Manchester United in pole position to land Manuel Neuer. talkSPORT

Man Utd boss Sir Alex Ferguson took on board almost all of the advice predecessor Sir Matt Busby gave him - except when it came to dealing with the media. Daily Mirror

[blues-clues]

Manchester City are reportedly preparing to make a stunning bid for Barcelona midfielder Andres Iniesta - who would be available for £85m.
Full story: imscouting.com apparently alos in many of the SPanish Dailies???

Yes please, would love him at City but not another Kaka fiasco.

[Manx Blue]

If we're going to sign anyone from Barca, I want it to be Choccy, although he's more of a Defensive midfielder

[lets all have a disco]

I want to sign Gai Assulin from Barca,wonder kid.

[TonyM]

I'd prefer Danny Alves over Iniesta. Only Messi should command anywhere near 100m anyway.

Iniesta is a great player for Barcelona but I'd doubt if he could be as good in the Prem. Even in the world cup I found him very light weight. I think Xavi is way better but he's too old to buy unless we could get him on the cheap.Besides the unattainable Messi there are some decent players at Barcelona (understatement of the day). Pedro for example would be worth a 25m gamble.

[Beeks]

Iniesta sale story denied

Tuesday night, Yahoo! Sports came out with a story talking about the probable sale of Barcelona star midfielder Andrés Iniesta either this coming winter market or during the summer. This was supposedly a move in which current president Sandro Rosell would be forced into due to the heavy amount of debt that is burdening the club according to ¨a club source ¨.

There was speculation that based on the €100 million price tag, the only team able to buy him would be Manchester City. This final tidbit was the only thing that was true about the article. Even the figures of the controversial jersey deal with The Qatar Foundation were incorrect.

Well, I can confirm that this is not true.

What seemed weird was that the Madrid press never got ahold of this news and splattered it on the front page of their dailies. The news came from an American outlet.

Although Sandro Rosell’s top priority is to bring down that debt, he is also interested in maintaining a team that is highly competitive especially with Real Madrid breathing down their necks. By selling the potential Ballon D’Or winner and the hero in Spain’s World Cup title, that would completely defeat the purpose of what Rosell is trying to do. Who knows, that would be the last straw for Barca fans with the new president.

In the event that were to happen, the first thing that would be done would be to censure Rosell. That would definitely not be the the former marketing guru would like to spend te remaining five-and-a-half plus years in charge of a club that he grew up supporting.

In addition to political suicide, it could also have terrible consequences on the football side. Pep Guardiola has said time and time again that Iniesta is one of his most important players. Pep has a great influence in which players have to stay and which players go. I don’t Tampering with this midstream could spell disaster for any team, especially a team that has the chemistry that Barca have.

Would the team afford to have Iniesta leave and have place Seydou Keita or even Sergio Busquets from a tactical perspective?

According to Catalan daily Sport writer, Xavier Ortuño, this article has no foundation. “News about possible transfers and their potential interests are published on a daily basis and come from the most unexpected places,”said Ortuño.”You can figure out where they originate from rather quickly. When the time a player has to renew his contract nears, the agent always wants others to talk about his client in order to have leverage with numbers.”

This all arises from the current economic situation of the club. “A club comes out and says that their economic situation is not the best and in a matter of hours news of offers for one of their star players begin to surface,” said Ortuño. “Sound familiar?”

More importantly, for the sake of refuting this article, I contacted FC Barcelona and spoke to to International Press Secretary, José Miguel Terés and there was absolutely no base to this story. They should be coming shortly with a statement refuting this speculated transaction.

So Barca fans, breathe easy as Spain’s favorite son will remain at the club that has seen him grow for quite a few years.

[Ted Hughes]

Revenge for Barca using KJ to tap up Tevez?

[Tokyo Blue]

Some more City-related bollox, Chinners, mate.

Bundesliga leaders Borussia Dortmund have approached Manchester City about signing striker Roque Santa Cruz.
Full story: imscouting

Hmmm. I hope this is true. Kagawa coming the other way might be an interesting one, but seeing as it is immakingitupasigoalong.com...

And this one made me smile:

Feyenoord technical director Leo Beenhakker has told Craig Bellamy to "stop the nonsense" as the Wales striker continues to talk about a move to Rotterdam. "I got him on the phone, I sent him a detailed text message, to ask him if he will stop the nonsense," Beenhakker told AD Sportwereld.
Full story: AD Sportwereld (in Dutch)

Ah, Bellers. Bless him.