Tevez: I want to help Mario
Carlos Tevez has urged Mario Balotelli not to repeat the errors he made
Carlos Tevez has told Manchester City team-mate Mario Balotelli not to make the same mistakes he did.
Balotelli, 22, was pictured last week in an apparent physical confrontation with manager Roberto Mancini. Tevez is no stranger to controversy himself, having been out of the City side for a long spell last season after refusing to warm up during a Champions League match against Bayern Munich.
Tevez said: "I'm always keen to help him and keep him going through these kind of moments, so he doesn't make the same mistakes that I did in the past."
The 28-year-old Argentina striker, who eventually returned to the City side to win a Premier League winner's medal last term,added: "I try to help Mario. I talk to him personally, on and off the pitch.
"I've been in that moment like him.
Tevez did not feel the training-ground incident with Mancini, which was sparked by a tackle from Balotelli on Scott Sinclair, was a big deal.
"There are these kind of things that have happened at all the clubs I've been, but here at City the spotlight is always on us, as it is always on Roberto and Mario," he said.
"So here it always comes out - but this kind of thing happens everywhere."
Yaya Toure hospitalised in Abu Dhabi
Reigning African Footballer of the Year Yaya Toure is currently receiving treatment for cough and fever at a clinic in Abu Dhabi where Ivory Coast are fine tuning for the upcoming Africa Cup of Nations.
The Ivorian delegation arrived in the United Arab Emirates capital on Saturday from Paris, where the group joined officials from Abidjan before their final trip.
Toure was exempted from their inaugural training session on Sunday, while the team’s medical staff said all hands were on deck to restore the player’s health but refused to say when he would probably be fit to return to training.
The Elephants opened workshop on Sunday afternoon at the Mohammed Bin Zayed Stadium under the direction of coach Sabri Lamouchi, who said he was confident of his outfit’s experience and improvisation but that the players’ physical form was worrisome.
Team captain Didier Drogba was excused from the session after he suffered a light headache, which Lamouchi said played down on when the group returned to their Rocco Forte Hotel at the end of the session.
Ivory Coast will play a friendly match against Egypt on January 14 before flying to South Africa two days later for the showpiece set for kick off on January 19.
Redknapp laughs off link with Manchester City star
HARRY Redknapp has played down rumours linking QPR with a move for Manchester City defender Micah Richards.
Speculation has mounted that the England international could be on his way to Loftus Road after being spotted at Saturday's draw with West Brom.
Richards has featured just four times for City this season, while Rangers are desperately trying to bolster their leaky defence.
However, Redknapp laughed off suggestions that the 24-year-old could be set for a move to W12.
“Yeah, I've just done a deal with him,” joked the QPR boss.
“He didn't want to play in the Premier League-winning team and thought he'd be better off here.”
Man City preparing for double deal worth up to £70 Million
The Mirror reports that Napoli goal machine Edinson Cavani could be headed to the Etihad stadium, which could possibly signal the end of the career of Mario Balotelli in Manchester. The English champions are rumoured to have made a £45 million offer for Cavani but both deals will only be made in the summer.
Cavani has been in exemplary goal scoring form for Napoli, having scored 33 goals in each of the last 2 seasons and has already reached the 22 goal mark in this campaign. He signed a new deal with the club at the start of the season but has expressed his desire to play in the Premier League. Cavani is quoted as having said, “I know that there has been interest from Premier League teams. I know I would be a success in the Premier League – and it is an exciting prospect.”
Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini was recently involved in a training ground bust-up with Balotelli that could spell trouble for the career of the Italian as the club are said to be done with his antics and want to sell him for good. AC Milan have expressed an interest in signing Balotelli but are unwilling to match the £25 million asking price and would only do a deal in the summer.
Napoli have confirmed City’s bid for Cavani but would be keen to keep their star player. Mancini would have to move one of his 4 strikers out in order to accommodate Cavani, and Balotelli could find his name top of the list.
However ...
Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis would prefer to see Mario Balotelli partner Edinson Cavani at the San Paolo than consider selling his star striker to Manchester City.
He told Gazzetta.it: "City are considering letting Balotelli go so they can move for Cavani? I would prefer to see Balotelli playing with Cavani here at Napoli. Teams tend to hold onto their best players in January. You take a big risk making big investments now."
MANCHESTER TITLE RACE
PTS +7 GD +4
GOLDEN BOLLOX Saturday 7th January 2006
Robbie Fowler, who once scored three times for Liverpool in just over four minutes, scores another quick-fire hat-trick – this time in the colours of City.
The former England striker takes just 16-minutes to fire his treble, albeit against less illustrious opposition on this occasion, as the Blues see off Scunthorpe United 4-2 in the FA Cup third round.
GOLDEN BOLLOX 7-1-2010
MANCHESTER CITY will carry on spend, spend, spending as they welcome Patrick Vieira to Eastlands today.
Moneybags owner Sheikh Mansour has given the green light for new boss Roberto Mancini to splash another £100million in the January transfer window.
Mancini's scouts watched the Danish international against Sampdoria last night and City are poised to swoop for the powerful 20-year-old, who has also attracted interest from Manchester United and Real Madrid.
City have yet to concede a goal in three games under Mancini but defensive frailties were their undoing under sacked Mark Hughes - and Vieira is seen as another vital piece in the jigsaw.
Former Inter coach Mancini knows the Frenchman well and has offered him a £140,000-a-week deal to join City on loan for the rest of the season.
Vieira, 33, is due in Manchester today after saying farewell to his Inter team-mates last night.
He is eager to relaunch his career ahead of the World Cup this summer after failing to hold down a regular place in Jose Mourinho's team this season.
There is also the added incentive of a further year's contract with City if all goes well.
There seems no end to City's spending powers, even though Sheikh Mansour has already devoted £305m to wiping out the club's debts.
But he is willing to make another £100m available in a bid to push City into the Champions League.
And there will be plenty more in the summer if the top-four place materialises.
City posted record losses of £92.6m for the year ending to May 2009, just nine months since the men from Abu Dhabi swept in and revolutionised the club.
But that is nothing compared to the money the multi- billionaire Sheikh has written off from his own bulging pockets.
He spent £210m on buying the club plus a further £94m on players up to May of 2009.
He has also poured another £1m into the club's training ground.
And the Sheikh has also bought another £89.6m in new shares to help finance spending on down payments on players last summer.
It means City's debts are now zero - compared to the £690m hovering over neighbours Manchester United due to the Glazer takeover - a debt that costs United over £40m a year to service.
Pep Guardiola to snub Manchester City’s 'riches' for Manchester United's 'legacy'
Former Barcelona manager Pep Guardiola is ready to snub Manchester City’s growing advances towards him for the Manchester United job after Sir Alex Ferguson eventually retires.
It was previously reported in media City had told Guardiola to name his price to replace current manager Roberto Mancini, the Daily Star reports. City sporting director Txiki Begiristain met with the Spaniard but the former Barcelona boss told friends it is the United job he wants, it reported.
That is expected to be available in the summer with Ferguson planning to retire but even if he changes his mind, Guardiola is prepared to wait, the paper said.
In a huge snub to City, Guardiola would extend his sabbatical should Fergie decide to stay, the paper added.
Guardiola could double his money at City but is more interested in the Old Trafford project and has met Ferguson over the last few months to discuss it, it further reported
The men have property in New York and are reported to have met at least three times there recently. A three-year deal is on the table for Guardiola who will want two assistants and three new coaches for the clubs’s youth programme.
SNUB COUNT 19
[spoiler]
[/spoiler]GOLDEN BOLLOX 7-1-2011
Wayne Bridge is set to join Aston Villa from Manchester City - after West Ham’s cash crisis ruled out a move to Upton Park.
Former Chelsea and England left-back Bridge was poised for a return to the capital from City, only for West Ham to tell him they did not have the money to meet the shortfall in his £80,000 per week Eastlands wages.
That left the door open for Gerard Houllier to tie up a deal for the 30-year-old to move to Villa Park until the end of the season, with a view to a permanent deal.
The collapse of the Hammers' move for Bridge comes after boss Avram Grant also missed out on signing Villa midfielder Steve Sidwell and Spurs striker Robbie Keane for similar reasons.
Sidwell had been keen on a switch to Upton Park, only for the cash problems to scupper the move and open the way for Wolves and Fulham to move for the player.
West Ham's lack of money meant initial interest in Birmingham City-bound Keane petered out swiftly, leaving the injury-plagued Grant increasingly frustrated by the club’s inability to freshen up a squad that looked dead on its feet in Wednesday’s mauling at Newcastle.
Grant is without 10 first team players through injury, with main summer signing Thomas Hitzlsperger still to kick a ball for the club and defenders Manuel Da Costa and Lars Jacobsen and midfielder Jack Collison among the long-term casualties.
AUDIO: Former Manchester City manager Sven-Goran Eriksson reveals his fractious relationship with former Eastlands chairman Thaksin Shinawatra. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/footbal ... 345053.stm
MCF.NET THREAD: http://mancityfans.net/mcfnet/viewtopic ... 19&t=36630
Dempsey: Spurs aiming to pip City to second
Clint Dempsey believes Tottenham can finish above Manchester City to claim second spot on the Premier League table before season's end.
Dempsey and his Spurs team-mates are currently in third place following a run of just one defeat in their past nine league matches. Trailing City by six points for now, Dempsey insists Spurs will cut the deficit s the campaign progresses.
"That's the goal," Dempsey said of finishing second.
"Everybody wants to be pushing for great things and doing something special in their careers. We have the quality in our team and there's no reason why we shouldn't think that.
"We need to continue on this good run of form and get as many points as possible. You want to keep your feet on the ground and know there's a lot of hard work to put in if you want to accomplish your goals."
Dempsey, who missed two games over the festive period with a groin injury, is happy that he is back among the goals, but insists he can still do better.
"My season is going okay. I've got six goals and I think five assists in all competitions now, so it's starting to look better," Dempsey said.
"I'm someone who likes to score or get assists so it's good to be getting those stats up, contributing and trying to help this team do well. It's going well but I still want to be better at what I'm doing."
Alex Ferguson is ready to ditch David de Gea, 22, and sign a new goalkeeper in January. Daily Mirror
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger is planning on bringing in two signings in the January transfer window as his side's 2-2 FA Cup draw with Swansea added to the club's fixture congestion. Daily Express
Birmingham keeper Jack Butland could be one of those signings with the Gunners ready to bid for the 19-year-old, who is also attracting interest from Fulham and Southampton. Daily Star
QPR are in talks with French club Marseille over a possible £11m deal for 26-year-old striker Loic Remy, although the Loftus Road outfit face competition from fellow Premier League sides Newcastle and West Ham. Daily Express
Liverpool have bid £7m for Cagliari defender Davide Astori but could be beaten to the 25-year-old Italian international's signature by Southampton, who have offered £9.5m. DSSC
Schalke 04 midfielder Lewis Holtby has agreed to move to Tottenham in July but the German club may allow the 22-year-old to move to Spurs in January for £1.6m. DSSC
Swansea boss Michael Laudrup says he does not want to sell striker Danny Graham, 27, in January but is to hold talks with the player, who is a target for Norwich and Reading. Daily Mirror
Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard, 34, has accepted his Stamford Bridge career is over after club executives told him and his agent that he will not be offered a new contract when his current deal expires in the summer. Daily Mirror
West Ham manager Sam Allardyce is refusing to rule out a switch to the Hammers for David Beckham Daily Mirror
Marseille want to keep Joey Barton, 30, beyond this season. The midfielder is currently on loan from QPR. Metro
QPR have made an £6.5m offer to side Stade Rennais for French international midfielder Yann M'Vila, 22. L'Equipe
Borussia Dortmund midfielder Sven Bender has been linked with Manchester United but the 23-year-old has extended his contract with the Bundesliga club. L'Equipe
AC Milan playmaker Robinho, 28, is expected to remain in Italy until the end of the season after negotiations between the Serie A side and Brazilian club Santos over a move for the former Manchester City forward broke down. Spanish newspaper Marca
Former referee Graham Poll says Liverpool striker Luis Suarez is blameless for his handball in his side's FA Cup win over Mansfield as the goal would have stood even if the Uruguayan had owned up to the offence.
FFS BOLLOX
Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand, 34, has revealed he wants to become the first black James Bond. FourFourTwo
GOLDEN BOLLOX
Manchester City v Manchester United: Alex Ferguson 'in denial' over quality on offer down the road at City
Manchester City have stoked up the derby intensity ahead of the FA Cup third round by accusing Manchester United of being in denial about their rivals' current ascendancy in English football.
Roberto Mancini believes Sir Alex Ferguson cannot bring himself to acknowledge Manchester City have played the best football in the Premier League this season. And defender Joleon Lescott echoed Mancini's comments ahead of the clubs' meeting at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday, suggesting Manchester United must now regret unfairly branding City "the noisy neighbours".
Lescott also believes Manchester United fans are struggling to come to terms with the reality that the derby is now their most important fixture of the season, eclipsing the historic rivalry with Liverpool.
Ferguson appeared to be chipping away in typical style before the cup tie by claiming Tottenham Hotspur, not City, are English football's great entertainers. That is despite the fact City have struck 56 league goals this season, 20 more than Harry Redknapp's side.
Ferguson may have been speaking with sincerity, based on Spurs' recent form, rather than demeaning
Mancini's side but his remarks have certainly been interpreted as a deliberate slight.
Of greater certainty is the United manager's wish to airbrush from memory the clubs' last encounter – City's emphatic 6-1 win at Old Trafford last October.
"I will not be mentioning it," was Ferguson's blunt response to suggestions it would motivate his players.
Mancini said he took this as a backhanded compliment. "It's difficult to say your neighbours play the best football. It's hard," said Mancini.
"I think until now we have played the best football in the Premier League. Over the next three or four months, I don't know. But I can say that Tottenham can win the title. They have had a fantastic season."
Defender Lescott, who will benefit from the absence of Kolo Touré on Africa Cup of Nations duty, believes United fans are having to readjust mentally because City are now the biggest threat to their ambitions.
"A lot more Man United fans take us a lot more seriously now," said Lescott. "Obviously, history-wise, it is Liverpool but I think in recent years, and in the future, Man City will be their biggest rivals in the league. They find it hard to admit. They enjoy saying Liverpool is the biggest game to treat us as a smaller club. We don't mind that. I'm sure if we win the league people will have a different opinion."
It was in the aftermath of the Abu Dhabi takeover that Ferguson famously branded City the "noisy neighbours" but Lescott points to City's low-key reaction following the 6-1 win as evidence of their maturity.
"After that game we could have been really noisy but we showed respect," said Lescott. "We take the term with a pinch of salt now. We took it a bit more disrespectful at the start, but I think even now they've started to regret saying it. It's an unfair label. We're not just making noise, we're top of the league and rightly so. We know now that wherever we go, we are the team to beat. Manchester United have had that for a number of years but we're trying to emulate that.
''I think the dressing room would have been louder than it was after the 6-1 if the manager didn't come in so soon after. All the boys were hyped up, but he came in and said, 'It's just three points, just like the week before and hopefully like next week'. That settled us right down and we just got on with it. We just humbled ourselves, got changed and went home.
"You sit down and think, 'Did that actually happen?' I've got a couple of friends that are Man United fans. It was a strange one with not speaking to them for a couple of days. It wasn't until the reports were still going on on Wednesday and Thursday, and people were still on television talking about it, that you realised it was a massive result."
Ferguson, meanwhile, admits his side need reinforcements this month – but insists new signings remain unlikely.
United's back-to-back defeats to Blackburn and Newcastle have refocused attention on the strength in depth at Old Trafford.
A prolonged injury crisis has left Ferguson short of the quality normally expected, and there have been numerous reminders of the void left by high-profile retirements last summer.
Ferguson responded to suggestions that he was trying to lure Frank Lampard from Chelsea by arguing there was "no foundation", on the basis Andre Villas-Boas would never entertain such an audacious midseason move.
But when questioned about his own fans' desire to see an injection of new blood, Ferguson agreed. "They're right, but the question is what can we get in January?" he said. "The players who are available that we like, we won't get. And you are not going to tell me that Chelsea are going to sell Lampard to Manchester United in January, do you really believe that?
"There is no foundation to that simply because Chelsea are like us and want to do something, and the second half of the season is important to them. And if they want to try and win the league, they are going to have to have all their best players.
"Obviously the injury situation has accelerated our fans into saying we need to get some. Do you stick with the ones you have got rather than bring in someone that is not good enough and won't get a game anyway?"
The midweek defeat to Newcastle appears to have worried Ferguson more than other setbacks, given the personnel he had available in the North-East.
He still expects United's nous to give them an advantage in the second half of the season, but it was not evident at Newcastle.
"The disappointing thing for me the other night was that we had a really experienced team out at Newcastle," he said. "We played the most experienced team I could get. Some of them were obviously short of a game or two but, nonetheless, we carried a lot of experience into that game, which will also play its part on Sunday. I have no qualms about that.
"If questions are being asked about us at the moment, it's only because we have had two bad results. Only a couple of weeks ago people were saying how important our experience was going to be in the run-in, and I think it will be too. I think it will be important."
ALIEN BOLLOX
The day UFOs hovered over Fiorentina's Stadio Artemio Franchi
It's 27 October 1954. A reserve game between Fiorentina and nearby rivals Pistoiese is under way at the Stadio Artemio Franchi.
A crowd of around 10,000 has gathered to watch. Among them is Gigi Boni a lifelong Fiorentina fan who in later years would become the co-ordinator of the club's supporters group.
Now in his eighties Boni still has vivid memories of watching in disbelief as UFOs hovered above the stadium.
"I remember clearly seeing this incredible sight. They were moving very fast and then they just stopped. It all lasted a couple of minutes. I would like to describe them as being like Cuban cigars. They just reminded me of Cuban cigars, in the way they looked."
The stadium fell silent as the players and fans stood transfixed, staring at these strange objects in the crisp blue autumn sky.
Boni has spent many years re-living that day in his mind. "I think they were extra-terrestrial. That's what I believe, and there's no other explanation I can give myself."
Almost 60 years later Boni and three of the players have returned to the Stadio Artemio Franchi for the BBC's World Football programme.
Ardico Magnini is something of a legend at Fiorentina. He was a key player in the Fiorentina side of the 1950s and also played for Italy at the 1954 World Cup.
"I remember everything from A to Z," Magnini recalls. "While we were playing the match everything came to a stop because everybody was looking up at the sky intensely.
"It was something that looked like an egg that was moving slowly, slowly, slowly. Everyone was looking up and also there was some glitter coming down from the sky, silver glitter.
"We were astonished we had never seen anything like it before. We were absolutely shocked from the moment we saw it."
So, was it aliens? Pistoiese players Romolo Tuci and Ronaldo Lomi have no doubt that it was. Tuci, still sprightly in his seventies, feels blessed to have witnessed such a strange event.
"I was so curious and I was also so, so happy because in those years everybody was talking about aliens, everybody was talking UFOs and we had the experience, we saw them, we saw them directly, for real."
And he's certain that what he saw came from another galaxy. "Really I believe so. We were at the stadium and we saw them. It was such a great thing to see."
In the 1950s Fiorentina were one of the best teams on the planet. The following season they easily won their first ever league title, finishing 12 points clear of AC Milan. So, if a visitor from a galaxy wanted to enjoy a game, Florence was a very intelligent choice.
But, football loving aliens? The truth remains a mystery….
Arthur Wharton: Campaign to honour football pioneer
Arthur Wharton was one of the greatest ever British athletes, but many sports fans have never heard of him.
He was the first professional black footballer and played in goal for Darlington, Newcastle United, Sheffield United and Rotherham Town and other famous old clubs like Preston North End in the late 1880s.
But his illustrious career has been airbrushed over by history.
Born in the Gold Coast, now Ghana, Arthur moved to north east England to train as a Methodist preacher in Darlington before moving to professional football.
Shaun Campbell from the Arthur Wharton Foundation is campaigning for greater recognition for the black footballer, including a 17ft statue.
BBC Inside Out followed him to Ghana on his crusade to spread the word about the pioneering footballer.
Inside Out North East and Cumbria and North West is broadcast on Monday, 7 January at 19:30 GMT and nationwide for seven days thereafter on the iPlayer. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-20878659
MORE BOLLOX LATER ...
