The Fall-Back Position

I mentioned a couple of days ago that someone with good connections to the club had revealed that Carlos Tevez was very close to signing on for another year at Upton Park. The situation as it is understood now is that West Ham have agreed a deal with Kia Joorabchian and the player will sign it at the completion of the Copa America tournament in Venezuela, as long as no other interested club matches the full valuation (close to £30million) and wage demands in the interim. It appears Tevez's agents are using the new West Ham agreement as a fall-back position and are actively testing the market to see if a prospective buyer may be prepared to make a move. It is in light of this that the recent stories linking the Argentinian to both Arsenal and Inter Milan should be treated with a little scepticism. Both rumours originated from a freelance journalist stationed around the Argentina training camp and both were little more than flirtatious displays from Tevez's representatives. The intention was to elicit some kind of favourable response from arguably the only two clubs who might be remotely interested in taking the player at the grossly inflated asking price. In reality, a further full season of Premiership exposure (such as West Ham are offering) still remains the likeliest route to securing the huge financial pay out that Joorabchian seeks.

That Tevez should be at the centre of so much media speculation is readily understandable. Respected football journalist Gabriele Marcotti recently devised his list of the World's top 50 current footballers and placed the Argentinian at number eight, wedged snugly between Leo Messi and Steven Gerrard. Whatever the merits of such a exercise- a huge debate has been raging across the paper since the article was published- it is hard to imagine that many pundits would fail to include the player somewhere in their top 20. Intriguingly, with the exception of Juventus goalkeeper Gigi Buffon and South America based striker Rodrigo Palacio, Tevez was the only player in the entire list who did not feature in European competition of some description last season. To be mentioned in the same breath as Kaka, Ronaldinho, Cristiano Ronaldo, Eto'o and Totti without the mass market global exposure of the Champions League is a testament to the man's huge talent, and a major reason why so many people seem keen for the player to move to a bigger stage.