Can Ronaldo stop France?
WEST Ham United’s bid to re-sign Carlos Tevez stalled because of the striker’s salary demands, the Premier League side’s co-chairman David Sullivan has said.
The 32-year-old returned to his native Argentina with childhood club Boca Juniors last year, after nine successful seasons in Europe, where he won league titles with English sides Manchester United and Manchester City and Italy’s Juventus.
Tevez, who helped save West Ham from relegation during his one-year spell in the 2006-07 campaign, also had an outstanding final season with Juventus to help them win the Serie A and the Coppa Italia and reach the Champions League final in 2015.
“We tried to get Tevez but he wanted £250 000 a week. In his last year at Juventus he was great. But 250 grand a week!” Sullivan told British media.
“He’ll probably stay where he is now but he doesn’t pay a lot of tax down there. I actually offered him 150 grand a week to come back plus bonuses. I thought that was an incredible offer for someone who loves West Ham. “He was a fantastic player.” Meanwhile Feyenoord have reached an agreement in principle with Brad Jones to sign the former Liverpool goalkeeper on a one-year contract pending a medical, the Dutch club said in a statement.
The 34-year-old Australian was a free agent following a six-month spell with fellow Dutch side NEC Nijmegen, where he made 17 appearances after joining in January as the club finished 10th in the league standings last season.
Jones spent five years with Liverpool, managing 27 appearances before being released last year. His stay at Anfield included a loan spell to Derby County.
“Brad Jones brings a lot of know-how with him,” Feyenoord’s technical director Martin van Geel said in a statement on the club website (www.feynoord.com).
“Brad really wants to come to Feyenoord and we are delighted he is coming to strengthen us within such a short space of time.”
New Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has no intention of ditching the methods that brought him success in Spain and Germany and wants to prove it is possible to win in the Premier League by playing attractive football.
Guardiola won two Champions League trophies, three La Liga titles and two King’s Cup crowns as Barcelona coach before two domestic doubles followed at Bayern Munich.
He took over at City from Manuel Pellegrini, who guided the club to one Premier League title and two (Capital One) League Cups in his three years in charge.
“I have no preconceptions at all about coming to England or the football in the Premier League. I want to learn as much as possible,” he said.
“I have an idea of how we will play, but when I arrived in Germany with Bayern Munich, I had some ideas of how the team would play but changed them as I went along.
“I know how hard the Premier League is and some people have said that I will find it hard to play the football I like to play in England, so I said to myself, ‘ Why not?’ That’s why I’m here – because I want to try,’” he added.
Guardiola took his first training session on Monday as he prepares for his City debut against Bayern on July 20 at the Allianz Arena before taking his new squad to Asia for their pre-season tour and he was fully aware of the task ahead of him.
“We have to find a way to win and if we win one game, the next week we will say, ‘OK, let’s try and do the same things this week’ – and if we win again, we’ll say, ‘let’s do the things that won us those two games’ and so on,” he said.
“I’ve been told it will be hard to do that in the Premier League but we did it at Barcelona and Bayern Munich and people may say, ‘Yes, that’s because it was Barcelona and Bayern – it won’t be possible to do that in England’ and I just say ‘OK, let’s try’.”
Guardiola was presented to about 7 000 City fans at the Etihad Stadium where he conducted a question and answer session and was asked if he would sign Lionel Messi.
The Spaniard replied: “He’s not a bad player.”