Rumour Mill: Sunday Round Up

It seems that you can't keep City off the back pages, sadly today it is still just one story that those on Fleet Street are focussing on, that is the situation with want-away irritant Carlos Tevez.  Yesterday may have brought a thumping good victory and an exceptional performance from everyones favourite bad boy Mario Balotelli but there is still only one story in town.


I was hoping to have some different topics to bring together, but sadly they are relatively thin on the ground, you can normally count on the Sunday papers for some ridiculous rumours but there is really not a lot going on, so if you are sick of reading about Carlos Tevez, I suggest you move along after the first story.

Let's start with the only non-Tevez story then, and it is back to an old favourite, the future of Adam Johnson.  Despite Roberto Mancini making it abundantly clear in preseason that the young winger is going nowhere, there are still murmurings about his future at the club, and it seems to be Liverpool that he is constantly linked with.  To be fair this story does come from CaughtOffside.com so any shreds of credibility die right there but it's still worth having a (quick) look at.  As far as I know, the website in question is essentially a blogging site for people who are 'in the know' and they really do churn out some rubbish.  The moment this story loses all credibility comes when the writer claims that Johnson has been left out in the cold by Mancini, ignoring the fact that he has been injured for a few weeks and returned to the starting 11 as soon as he was deemed fit enough, quality research right there.  For what its worth, the website report that Liverpool would be prepared to pay around £18million for the England international, it wouldn't be bad money because AJ isn't as good as the media hype machine would lead you to believe, but we won't sell him to Liverpool in January and nor should we.

Right, OK, Tevez then, where to begin?  First up is a story from the Sunday Mirror who are reporting that he will be on the way in January with PSG and Inter Milan the most likely destinations.  There is nothing particularly interesting in that but there is also a transfer fee mentioned, quite where it comes from is unclear, plucked out of the sky I would suggest, but that doesn't mean it isn't hard to agree with.  They are reporting that the bids coming from Italy and/or France would be around £25million, someway short of the £40million that the club was holding out for this Summer.  I think really we would be foolish to expect any more than that, and I also think they are the most likely destinations as well, throw Malaga into the ring and they may not be far off.  The players temperament has ensured we will make a loss on the player but to be honest I just want rid by this point.

In the same newspaper everyone's favourite imbecile has also been talking about City, Joey Barton has branded the club that gave him more opportunities than many would and gave him the career he has today a 'soap opera', sorry Joey, are those grapes a bit too sour for you?  He goes on to claim that the Tevez situation was 'only a matter of time', just like it is 'only a matter of time' before you smack a teenager again Joey?

To continue on Tevez it is perhaps strange to see the Daily Star on Sunday so firmly behind City.  They reveal that the club have stopped the Argentine flying back to his home country this weekend as they prepare for a high level meeting on Monday.  They go on to debunk any myths that the City squad might side with Tevez, and in particular Pablo Zabaleta, they claim these rumours are untrue and nothing more than a smear campaign being put about by certain people in the media as well as the players camp.  Encouragingly they also state that the clubs owners are believed to be firmly behind the manager and disgusted with the actions of the players, lets hope that is the case.

Last by by no means least is Micah Richards who has given an interview to The People stating quite simply that Tevez was in the wrong.  It has become plain to see this week that some sections of the media have struck up some sort of agenda against Mancini and been claiming that the players weren't supporting him, well these quotes from Richards certainly begin to prove that to be the fabrication that it quite clearly is.  The same paper also reckon that Tevez will infact be suspended for 6 weeks and fined upto £1.5million, hearsay, but lets hope its true!


Hopefully next Sunday we will have something other than Tevez, but I expect this one to run on a little bit yet, anyway enjoy your Sunday Roasts and don't forget to check back in the week for more.