Would You Be Happy With Tevez’s Five?

We had seen Tevez say this earlier. He holds his home club, Boca Juniors, extremely close to his heart. So much that he would love to come back and play there at an age where he’s still young enough, unlike his other compatriots for whom a return would be more like a retirement home.

His feelings for his roots are laudable, make no mistake. But does it make financial sense for United? I had mentioned this earlier in a previous post but I will say this once more, since it has come up again.

Tevez is now 23. In 5 years’ time he will be 28 and typically strikers are at their peak at that age. His loan period ends in two years time (from 2006) which means he will be 25 years of age when we would shell our reported 25 million pounds for his signature. We will have him only for three more years after that, and surely Boca Juniors won’t be able to pay enough for us to profit from his sale. Which doesn’t really make financial sense.

Another issue is about Tevez putting a time frame on staying at a club. One normally tends to say that he would like to stay in this club for a long time, unless, of course, said player is Chimbonda. So is it right of him to be saying that he would be here for just 5 years? I am not really sure what to make of it, because if Tevez says it, it doesn’t sound too malicious — he gives a lot to us on the pitch. I, for one, wouldn’t want him to leave. He has already scored lots of goals for us, and many of them have been important ones.

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The Big News, of course, is our FA Cup draw with a familiar foe. Both Arsenal and United fans won’t be too impressed facing each other so early in the competition. It is a shame really. But having said that, with ‘Pool and Chelsea also in the fray, we were bound to be facing each other earlier than the final. It is bad enough seeing the wee opposition that Chelsea and Liverpool get — not to mention the heavy weather Liverpool seem to be making over beating the pub team last week.

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Baffling would be an understatement, but the Mirror seems to think that Patrice Evra is on a “collision course” with the club over demands of an enormous wage rise: 120,000 pounds a week is the reported figure. I just find that ridiculous, although the only reason I am mentioning this report is because of the surprisingly long time it is taking Evra to sign that new deal.

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Arsene Wenger thinks that the Saudi Arabian trip was unnecessary. A lot of us thought that too. But our worn-out team still beat a Tottenham side that just destroyed the “custodians of beautiful football” a few days before.

And Vidic seems unlikely to make it to the Pompey game as the virus still has the better of him. So much for being an iron man; he’s got a soft centre after all.