The first big signing this summer by any team in England, with all due respect to Antonio Valencia, Michael Owen, Glen Johnson and some other talented players, Carlos Tevez’ signing today with the less successful Manchester soccer team is the biggest transfer news this summer in England about a player joining a Premiership team and not leaving it.
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The former Manchester United and West Ham forward didn’t waste anytime, and immediately hit back at Alex Ferguson in the press conference announcing the finalization of the deal, claiming Alex Ferguson never once called him or text messaged him during his two year tenure there, making Tevez feel less than welcome. Tevez was signed for 25.5 million pounds, a purchase which City manager Mark Hughes summed up by saying “This is yet another deal that shows the commitment of the owner to make this club the very best it can be.” Tevez’ signing, along with the players that will probably follow (we’ll get to that in a moment) him to play in the City of Manchester Stadium will put more pressure on Mark Hughes to succeed with the richest club in the world, after finishing only 10th in the Premiership last season. They’ll be no excuses this time.
So who’s next? Two major targets, and actually, anyone who is a tad unsettled in his club and is worth a bit of money can be bought up by Manchester City, who’s owner doesn’t seem to be affected by the financial situation. The main two targets that seem to be on City’s cross hairs are Emmanuel Adebayor and maybe even John Terry.
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Actually, Adebayor moving to City isn’t such a big surprise. Adebayor has been rumored to be keen on moving from Arsenal since last summer, with Barcelona named as his prime suitors, but he did stay at London for another year. This summer the mood around the Emirates seems to indicate that Wenger would very much like to sell the Togolese international, and about a week or two ago it seemed that AC Milan would gladly snatch him. But right now Milan just seem to be looking at every striker available in the continent, and Adebayor isn’t such a sure thing for them anymore. In come City, who are, according to Mark Hughes, in talks with Arsenal and the player about a move to Manchester. How serious is it, it remains to be seen, but adding another striker to a team loaded with forward talent, will be very interesting to see.
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Now this is really interesting – John Terry? Chelsea Captain and a member of the West London club since he was 15 years old? It’s not really sure if Terry really does want out (and a lot of cash, around 250,000 pounds a week) or just trying to get a better deal from Roman Abramovic, the club’s owner. Tevez joining and maybe more strikers is nice, but Terry moving to City would symbolize a lot more, and maybe mean that City are ready to challenge the big four and their monopoly over the title race and Champions League spots. After all, City have quite a lot of talent up front already, but with the right boost in the back they may actually be an actual threat on the top spots in the league, maybe even a title, the first major one since 1970 when they won the now defunct Cup Winners Cup.