Say you were a friend of Carlos Tevez, and he came to you for advice about the Manchester clubs. Would you steer him in the direction of City right now, or would you recommend that he does all he can to carve out a permanent career at United?
To the outside world, Kia Joorabchian is Tevez’s owner, but when Joorabchian talks, he claims him as a friend. Certainly, they are very close with a relationship that appears to stretch beyond business, so why is there even a suggestion that Tevez could be a City player next season?
Why, if Joorabchian is such an ally, does he not just go to United and ask what they are willing to pay to make Tevez’s loan deal permanent? It may be less than his asking price, perhaps substantially so. It is, however, unlikely to be a figure that does not amount to tens of millions. Sounds friendly enough to me.
“Tevez wants to go to a club that has a real focus to be champions of England, champions of Europe, champions of everywhere,” Joorabchian said. He doesn’t have to go to that club, though. He is already there.
United are champions of England, champions of Europe and, by winning the World Club Cup, they are champions of everywhere – unless Joorabchian knows of an inter-galactic competition for which Sir Alex Ferguson has not entered (although the Football Association would soon insert United if they thought there was a World Cup vote in it). Not only are City not champions of anywhere, they recently failed to get past Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup.
Joorabchian is now taking issue with Tevez’s critics in the press; except Tevez does not really have critics in the press. Joorabchian, and his partners in the player ownership game have critics in the press because it is increasingly suspected that they are angling to make so much money off their friend that this valuation has prematurely curtailed Tevez’s career at Old Trafford.
Nobody would argue against Tevez as a player, more that his scoring record in the Premier League this season does not justify a fee pushing £30m, if the £6m United have paid for his two-year loan is also taken into account.
According to Joorabchian, Tevez was not protesting about United when he celebrated in front of the directors’ box on Sunday, but responding to a newspaper article that questioned whether he was worth the transfer fee. So he was aiming for the press, but hit the directors’ about 10 yards away instead? As the writer of the offending article, stuff like that was sort of my point.
Martin Samuel is the chief sports writer of the Daily Mail, where his column appears on Monday and Wednesday