The Carlos Tevez transfer saga has taken another twist with news that Corinthians have pulled out of their bid to acquire the Argentine’s services overnight. With the Brazilian transfer deadline closing tonight, Tevez’s former club have moved to confirm their interest in the deal has now ended by releasing an official statement:
“While acknowledging the efforts of Manchester City, and everyone involved in the negotiations, there wasn’t enough time for the transfer to be completed. We are aware our fans wanted Tevez to join our club again and we hope we can have the player with us in the future”
Although City were willing to make certain allowances for the deal to go through -including agreeing to various staggered payments- Corinthians appear to have little financial muscle and were reportedly unable to even afford the initial £8.7m down payment.
The collapse of the deal leaves Roberto Mancini with an unhappy star player and the City boss will surely still want to move Tevez on in order to avoid any squad unrest. A move to Inter Milan has been cited, once again, and although this will hardly help alleviate the player’s homesickness, Tevez clearly wants out of Manchester as soon as possible- both Samuel Eto’o and Wesley Sneijder have been linked with possible swap deals.
The collapse of the deal also may also have a knock-on effect for Sergio Aguero. Aguero was considered to be on the verge of moving to Eastlands as Tevez’s replacement and his club Ateltico Madrid have already acquired a new forward in anticipation of his departure, snapping up Adrián López from Deportivo La Coruña. City still look likely to complete the Aguero purchase over the next few days, thus beating the likes of Juventus to his signature.
It’s not as if City are lacking in top-class forwards- both Edin Dzeko and Mario Balotelli could fill the breach in the likely event of Tevez leaving and Balotelli has also had his say on the matter, moving to assure City fans of his intentions for next season:
It doesn’t matter if Carlos is here or not. If Carlos is here it’s good but if he goes away I’m sure someone else will arrive. I’m excited about the way things are going at the club. This is a good club, the players are amazing. I hope there will be a lot of goals to come from me this season. I know I can score a lot more. I will show this season what I can do.
With six weeks left till the closure of the domestic transfer window, this story is likely to run and run.
