Carlos Tevez is a very likeable, genuine, hardworking player who has become the darling of the fans for all three clubs he has played for in England and so far has managed to sidestep any flack over his contentious ownership and transfer deals to West Ham, Manchester United and Manchester City.  But maybe that is all about to change, as a rumour circulates that following Tevez asking for time off to visit his daughters who live in Argentina, he was actually in Tenerife with his girlfriend.

If Tevez is telling the truth then surely only a return to play his football in South America is going to be the right move.  The only alternative I can see is that, being financially stable he could retire from football altogether and therefore forfeit his three-and-a-half year contract with Manchester City.

I don’t see any other alternatives.  He is a great player and will be a huge loss for Man City, which I’m sure would end the possibility of them winning the Premier League title this season.  But I can’t see any football club, not even Real Madrid or Barcelona being prepared to pay a similar wage, knowing his reasons for wanting to leave Manchester City and the issue of his ownership.

Manchester City are currently joint top of the Premiership and Tevez, as Captain and scorer of 10 of their 24 goals in the Premier League this season, has been by far their best player. If results go their way in the next two weeks, Manchester City could go into 2011 as leaders as Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal all play each other. But with 2011 comes the January transfer window; and unless Man City can keep Carlos Tevez and not upset other players by doing so, I believe they will struggle to finish in the top four.

Furthermore, if they let Tevez go in January they will need to consider a top class replacement; and I don’t see any other club willing to let a top striker go halfway through the season, though paying over the odds may possibly result in Liverpool being willing to sell Fernando Torres.  One thing is for sure with Roberto Mancini already telling Roque Santa Cruz he is surplus to requirements, Manchester City cannot rely on current strikers Joe and Emmanuel Adebayor to work as hard or score as many goals as Carlos Tevez.

Manchester City’s next match is in the Europa League this Thursday, away to Juventus. They will then play two games they will be expected to win, at home to Everton and away to Newcastle on Boxing Day.

With Harry Redknapp recently named Premiership Manager of the Year there is a clear recognition of his work in creating an attacking, attractive footballing team and of the pivotal role he has played in guiding Tottenham into the Champions League for the first time. The significance of Harry Redknapp in this achievement is considerable and highlighted by the fact that he is only the second manager to take this accolade without winning the Premier League, the first being George Burley for masterminding Ipswich’s rise to 5th place in their first season.

Immediately after his inheritance of Juande Ramos’ team there was a marked improvement in their performance and with no new influx of players until the January transfer window this can only really be attributed to Harry Redknapp. As with many successful managers, his ability to get the best out of the players at his disposal is his underlying quality.

Looking at the performances of Ledley King, Gareth Bale, Michael Dawson, Aaron Lennon and Heurelho Gomes there is a confidence and consistency that has previously been lacking in their game. On top of this, the intelligent rotation of players has been central to Tottenham’s success. With what is arguably the strongest strike force in the league in terms of depth, Redknapp has used Jermain Defoe, Peter Crouch and Roman Pavlyuchenko in particular to great effect. All three have had regular spells in the first team and the competition between them has undeniably helped the team’s cause.

Moving across the capital to Craven Cottage and Fulham’s spectacular path to the Europa League Final has been the story of the season for many neutrals. Roy Hodgson has had a long and successful managerial career, most of which has been spent abroad, and it is good to see him getting the recognition he deserves back in England. The team he has created at Fulham has been well organised, spirited and incredibly focussed and determined. As with Redknapp, Roy Hodgson has everybody playing for him and for the team and there is nothing but praise for him from the players.

Danny Murphy has described captaining Fulham to the brink of European glory as his greatest achievement in football. Considering he was an instrumental figure in Liverpool’s treble cup winning team of 2001 that is a great indication of the way Hodgson has instilled unity and passion into this Fulham side. Even though Fulham were defeated by a late Diego Forlan goal in the final, this season’s Europa League has been a wonderful achievement for such a small club and the 4-1 defeat of Juventus at Craven Cottage will undoubtedly go down in history as one of the great European performances from an English team.

Finally there is the rather different situation at Fratton Park where a terrible season for fans of Portsmouth has ended in a completely unexpected trip to Wembley and FA Cup runners-up medals. With all the financial turmoil, the lack of wages and the deduction of 9 points it is a surprise that Portsmouth didn’t completely capitulate. It is once again to the great credit of their manager, Avram Grant, that this has not happened. He has, in a way, had the easiest of the three jobs in terms of expectations.

After the points deduction it was virtually impossible for Portsmouth to stay up and along with the very public financial problems the players and staff at the club would have found it hard to stay completely focussed on football. Yet at the same time he has done incredibly well to keep the players motivated and seems to have instilled a sense of togetherness in the team.

This is a credit to Avram Grant and you could see how much it meant to his players after the FA Cup semi-final and there was a definite desire in many of them to celebrate with their manager. Grant must also be applauded for the way he has handled himself in the media this season. He has never complained and has been nothing but sympathetic towards the backroom staff who have been most affected by the delay in wages and redundancies.

This is exactly what the players needed to hear and has been reflected by the lack of dissent coming from within the squad. Instead we have seen a group of players determined to prove people wrong and give their fans a silver lining on this blackest of clouds that hangs over Fratton Park.

This single-minded determination is something that is present in all successful teams and always emanates from the manager.

From Brian Clough to Sir Alex Ferguson and Jose Mourinho, the best managers have always had this respect within their squads and this season we have seen the quality emerge in rather more unfamiliar settings.

What this has done is prove once again that for all the star players and astronomical wages the man holding the key to success continues to be the man in the dugout and that a good manager will bring more long term success than any player ever could.

where now for juande ramos?

Former Spurs manager Juande Ramos has been sacked by CSKA Moscow after only seven games in the Russian League, following the 3-1 defeat to rivals FK Moscow on Sunday.

Ramos who has enjoyed most of his managerial career in Spain accepted the CSKA job following a six month temporary spell at Real Madrid where he replaced Bernd Schuster.

His most succesful time was with fellow La Liga team Sevilla, where he won the UEFA Cup  in his first season in charge by beating Middlesbrough in the final in 2005. Sevilla also won the UEFA Super Cup with an emphatic 3-0 win over Barcelona in the same season.

Sevilla went on to win the UEFA Cup again in the following season as well as the Copa Del Rey and finished third in La Liga.

Having been made an exceptional offer to become manager at Spurs in August 2007, Ramos siad he would remain with Sevilla until the end of that season. But the sacking of Martin Jol at White Hart Lane hastened proceedings and after resigning at Sevilla on October 26th, Ramos was named as the new Tottenham manager the next day.

In his first season at Spurs Ramos led the team to the Carling Cup final where they produced a magnificent display beating Chelsea with a Jonathan Woodgate goal in extra time.

The future looked rosy for the Spaniard, but in the following 2008/09 season the team endured a dreadful time securing only two points from eight games and on October 25th Ramos was sacked along with his coaching staff, including Gus Poyet.

Ramos replaced the hapless Bernd Schuster at Real Madrid in December 2008 and for a while it appeared the magic was returning as Ramos led Madrid through seventeen games in which they picked up 49 points out of a possible 51.

However in the ‘El Classico’ game between rivals Madrid and Barcelona at the Bernabeu, Real were thrashed 2-6  and subsequently lost the following four games, finishing nine points behind La Liga winners Barcelona.

As his contract expired with Real Madrid at the end of the 2008/09 season and took up his post in Moscow in December.

“Keane, who decided the time had come to stand down took over Sunderland in August 2006 when the team were languishing at the bottom of the Championship. He steered the Black Cats to promotion to the Premier League at the first attempt and maintained Premier League status in 2008. [...]

The Board will now commence the task of identifying and recruiting a successor and Ricky Sbragia has agreed to take over team management assisted by Neil Bailey and Dwight Yorke as an interim measure.”

Pete Sixsmith of Salut Sunderland sums it up with “it didn’t come as a real surprise.” Is anyone surprised by this and what dark place have you been hiding in lately?

Meanwhile, Portsmouth’s run of bad luck continues:-

“Players and staff from Portsmouth FC were left stranded at Southampton airport after Flightline Ltd went into administration overnight.” (Source: The Guardian)

Portsmouth FC stuck in Southampton? I bet that gave the locals some amusement.

The England Under 21 player was almost signed by Martin O’Neil for Villa back in 2006, having spent a season at Villa Park on loan from Newcastle, at the time the Magpies pulled out of the deal at the last minute, being unable to make a replacement signing.

The 22 year old Milner has signed a four year contract with Villa and could be in contention for a place in the side for this Sundays game against Liverpool at Villa Park.

Milner is the seventh player to join Villa this summer and will further bolster a squad looking to impress in the Premier League as well as their first foray into Europe for seven years, having earned their place in the UEFA cup.

England were awarded an extra UEFA Cup place for the 2008/09 tournament as the Premier League came top of Uefa’s fair play rankings.

Sven Goran Eriksson said:

“It’s a step in the right direction because the target for this club in the future is to play in the Champions League, and the Uefa Cup is a very good school to learn about European football.”

Thaksin Shinawatra, the Manchester City chairman added: “I am delighted for everybody at the club, especially our supporters.”

However, Manchester City will not be able to play their first qualifying round tie at Eastlands as the pitch is due to be relaid after Bon Jovi play a concert on the 22 June.

The draw for the first qualifying round will be made on 30 June.

Rangers style was famously referred to as ‘Anti Football’ by Lionel Messi when Barcelona met them in Europe last year.

Hateley accepts that Rangers football may not be pretty, and says “We’ve had unfair criticism for long periods of this season of the way Rangers play football, But you play to your strengths.”

He does not expect Smith to change his tactics for the final, suggesting that Rangers will stick with the lone striker and hope to frustrate the Zenit St Petersburg with a strong packed defence, relying on the long ball forward to create their own chances.

Despite the style of football Hateley believes the current squad compares favourably with the Rangers team that he was part of when he joined them from Monaco in 1990. He went on to win nine successive Scottish titles with a team that included the likes of Paul Gascoine and Brian Laudrup.

“They are two different teams” says Hateley “But this team has got further than that team, so you would say this team on paper, stat-wise is a better team.”

Rangers have Daniel Cousins suspended for tonight’s game, while Zenit’s top scorer Pavel Pogrebnyak also misses the game through suspension.

Manchester City who were the top club in the Fair Play League that hadn’t qualified for Europe, lost their place to Fulham at the weekend when Richard Dunne was sent off at Middlesbrough on Sunday.

Nothing has been confirmed yet but Fulham are confident that are in a good position to qualify. The decision is made not only by on-field behaviour, but also includes administration efficiency. The club expects to hear from the Premier League bosses early next week.

It will be a double celebration for Roy Hodgson and his players if they are to be included in the UEFA Cup, after avoiding relegation from the Premier League at the eleventh hour.

The decision is bound to court controversy and will bring  the whole European qualification process into question.

Is it fair? Have your say.

Battling Rangers managed to keep Fiorentina from scoring despite immense pressure throughout the game from the Italian side. With the scores level at 0-0 after 90 minutes the game went into extra time, for more of the same. Rangers stood firm despite losing substitute Cousin for a second bookable offence with just 10 minutes of extra time to be played, when the Rangers player head butted Liverani.

With no score after extra time the tension became even more intense as the game moved on to a penalty shoot out, with Rangers holding their nerve to win the game 4-2 and win a place in the UEFA cup final.

Former Rangers boss Dick Advocaat led Zenit St Petersburg into the final earlier when his side demolished a sad looking Bayern Munich 4-0.

Philosphical as ever, Rangers manager Walter Smith commented: “The fewer players you have, the easier it is to select a team.”

Fiorentina have already knocked out Everton on penalties and are currently in fourth place in Serie A behind Inter Milan, Roma and Juventus, one place above AC Milan.

This will be a tough challenge for Rangers, and one I believe, without so many first team players will be a bridge too far.
If they can stop Fiorentina from scoring tonight then they have a chance. But to do that they must contain former Chelsea striker Adrian Mutu, Fiorentina’s leading scorer who has already scored six goals in the Uefa Cup.