Tevez Affair Going To Make Premier League Look Silly

Filed in archive Premiership 2006/7 on July 11, 2007

This is all getting very complicated, and a little less than dignified. After West Ham were more or less in the clear over their initial signing of Carlos Tevez (give or take a £5.5million pound fine) and then re-registering him to lead them to Premiership safety, the Argentine striker's proposed move to Manchester United looks set to unravel the neat little bow the Premier League and the Hammers were trying to wrap around the whole affair.

The story so far:

First it was reported that Man Utd were signing Tevez for £20million, then there was a big controversy about who actually owned the player and who was getting the transfer fee, then it emerged that he'd be going to Man Utd on a two year loan deal, and then it seemed that West Ham hadn't agreed to any deal at all and were expecting to see Carlitos for pre-season training, and then it was suggested that he wasn't theirs to sell anyway and the deal with United was done. Which, if true, would make things very awkward for the Premier League and would definitely catch the attention of Sheffield United.

But wait, there's more. After Tevez himself claimed he had no idea what's going on, or at least was feigning ignorance to concentrate on Argentina's Copa America bid (semi-final vs Mexico later tonight by the way.) Now it's emerged that both Tevez and MSI (basically Kia Joorabchian) had tried to terminate the player's contract with West Ham, which the Premier League obviously refused because that would make them look very silly.

Seems pretty clear that Kia Joorabchian owns more of Tevez than West Ham or the league are prepared to admit, and that the "signings" of Tevez and Mascherano were as shady as they appeared in the summer of 2006. Initial suspicions that West Ham were being used as a stepping stone to bigger clubs look to be correct, as 2007/8 could begin with Mascherano at Liverpool, Tevez at Man Utd, West Ham back where they started, Sheffield United still relegated but very angry and the Premier League's reputation in tatters.