So the Carlos Tevez affair is finally over. All the parties involved appear to have hammered out a compromise and it looks very much like everyone’s a winner.
Manchester United get a quality player, West Ham get some petty cash which will help pay for medical bills when Craig Bellamy starts beating up his team mates, Kia Joorabchian gets a whole bundle of cash and the Premier League gets to put the whole sorry mess behind them.
In fact, the only interested party who gets diddly squat out of this solution is Sheffield United, the one entity that has lost the most.
There is no longer any doubt in my mind that Tevez was played illegally by West Ham during the last few matches of the season. It’s obvious. Otherwise there would have been no dispute over who the Manchester United transfer money should go to.
If, as West Ham claimed, they owned the player, then Joorabchian would have had no right to claim any money from the transfer. The fact that he has argued his case and apparently won, indicates to me that Tevez was still owned by him last season irrespective of whether West Ham tore up the contract.
The whole situation makes me feel robbed. I don’t mind my club getting relegated – it’s happened too many times before to really worry me. But I do mind getting relegated as a direct consequence of another club cheating.
I sincerely hope Sheffield United decide to press ahead with civil action against the Premier League. Not so much for the financial compensation, but more to expose the league for the conniving, twisted and biased organisation that it is.
They make me sick.
Golf and drug scandals
The sport world has officially gone mad. The latest sport to get itself embroiled in a drug scandal is golf, with legend Gary Player saying recently he knows of at least two competitors who take performance enhancing substances.
At the time, I remember laughing it off. Exactly how can you enhance your golfing performance by taking drugs? It’s not as if it is a sport which requires large muscles or huge amounts of stamina.
No, I thought, Gary must be losing the plot a little in his twilight years.
Then the news breaks that Italian golfer Allesandro Pissilli has been caught with traces of Finasteride in his blood – a drug commonly regarded as performance enhancing.
So maybe Gary was right, the drug taking disease that has just swept through cycling may have contaminated the tranquil world of golf too.
However, there is a ray of hope for Allesandro. Finasteride is also found in treatments used for hair loss. And no doubt this will be his defence when it comes to justifying his blood sample.
Then again, from a pride point of view, it might be less embarrassing to admit to the trying to enhance his performances…
Own your club
Wanted to keep you updated on the own-your-own-club internet scheme I told you about recently.
The website www.myfootballclub.co.uk has reached its target of 50,000 people and has now invited them to become official members. To do this you need to send them 35 pounds for a year.
More interestingly, they have now been approached by no less than four clubs who are interested in selling themselves to the website.
And just in case you thought – as I did – that those who expressed an interest in joining wouldn’t go through with it when it came to coughing up the cash, they raised 100,000 in the first six hours.
“To be in a position where clubs are now coming to us is quite an endorsement,” website creator Will Brooks said.
Why, oh why, didn’t I think of this idea?
Leicester’s Martin Allen
New Leicester boss Martin Allen may be relatively young in terms of management but he certainly isn’t afraid to pull the occasional fast one.
During the recent transfer of DJ Campbell from Birmingham to Leicester, there was a small problem and Allen needed to speak to Brum boss Steve Bruce to iron it out.
When he called BCFC though, the person on the other end of the line said Bruce was busy and couldn’t be disturbed.
Using his Scottish accent to the full, Allen said: “It’s Sir Alex Ferguson.”
In seconds Steve Bruce was on the other end of the line.
“He called me a few names, I got the answer out of him that I wanted and we got the deal completed,” Allen said.
That’s all well and good, Martin, but you better be careful. If Sir Alex finds out you are using his name to get connected there could be hell to pay…
Liverpool fans
Chants of the week go to Liverpool fans who couldn’t resist taking the Mickey out of Colchester’s Dean ‘Gerkin’ stadium.
“Small nasty pickle, you’re just a small nasty pickle!” they sang, before following it up with “Liked in McDonalds, you’re note even liked in McDonalds!”
Quality stuff.
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