By Ryan Fleming
It’s an understatement to say that this weekend’s prime meeting between Arsenal and Manchester City means a lot. This is the type of game that can define a season, turn things around, or solidify a team’s standing. Both teams, starting the season on two different paths, now cross at a time when both teams are surging, much like how they both kicked off the season, on different roads.
Carlos Tevez handed in his tranfer request this weekend to Manchester City. Maybe it's time for a new billboard then. (Courtesy Johnny Vulkan)
By Kevin Koczwara
Okay Carlos Tevez, I believe you want to be closer to your family, your daughters and your home. I can understand how angry you are that you have to play alongside Mario Balotelli and his ugly haircut. I understand Roberto Mancini isn’t Sir Alex and Manchester City may have all the money in the world, but its a club without a plan, and you are a man with a plan.
I got all that. In fact, I side with you. Who would want to live in Manchester when your best buds are having a great time scoring for fun, making millions, and playing in the Champions League with Barcelona.
But, Carlos I have to say, at £230,000 a week with bonuses, I would stick out another year or two at City and maybe go home and buy Argentina for myself. Maybe Tevez could build a small island of his own to live on with his family with that kind of money. I know I am being shallow here, but come on.
Tevez hit the jackpot with City, and he should have known it would have been one big bust up going in and taken the money from somewhere else if the ride was going to be this bumpy.
Tevez now knows, written promises and clauses are always better than a business man’s shake.
Samuel Eto'o and Zlatan Ibrahimovic swapped teams in the summer of 2009. Eto'o moved to Inter Milan while Ibrahimovic headed to Barcelona, and their paths have been very different since the switch. Courtesy ruprtable flickr
By Kevin Koczwara
Samuel Eto’o scored his sixth goal in seven games for Internazionale on Sunday in the team’s, 1-0, win over Cagliari in front of a hostile crowd that partook in exposing the ugly side of Italian soccer: Racism.
The Italian national team called off a Euro 2012 qualifying match with Serbia after Serbian fans rioted in Genoa. The game had to be called after six minutes of play after Serbs threw flares onto the field and at rival Italian supporters. The riots filtered out into the streets, and the Italians were left wondering why the Serbs acted in the manner they did.
Then the fans in Cagliari showed the world that Italians still have a hard time with keeping up with FIFA’s “Say No to Racism” campaign and FARE (Football Against Racism in Euorpe). The referee of the match suspended play in the third minute because of the chants directed at Eto’o. Serie A officials gave referees the power to suspend play after Mario Balotelli was hounded and smeared by Juventus fans two years ago.
Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini has his hands full with several unhappy players and a Premier League that may be as deep as every. (Photo Courtesy Paul Blank)
By Joe Meloni
Forgive me, please, if my only reaction to Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini’s plea with his players to keep their frustrations to themselves, was a loud, enthusiastic laugh. After backup goalkeeper Shay Given, who could likely start for at least half of the clubs in the Premier League, expressed hope to leave the Eastlands during the January transfer window, Mancini essentially went to the media to keep his players from doing so.
Hypocrisy at its finest. It’s funny that City – a club that spent more money than any other in Europe this summers – is demanding that its players stop making headlines for the wrong reasons. Essentially, Mancini wants his players to keep quiet because he thinks their complaints aren’t good for the time. In this regard, shockingly, Mancini is 100 percent correct. Still, the City players complaining most frequently – Given and striker Emmanuel Adebayor – have every right to demand more playing time or ticket out of Manchester.
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