As much as we rib Carlos Tevez around here, there are two absolutes about the man—one, he’s ugly as sin (hey, we didn’t say we were going to stop ribbing him). But probably more importantly, he’s a winner, with his teams in Argentina and England ratcheting up 24 titles. That’s why it makes sense that Manchester United would pay an EPL record £35 million for his transfer fee from West Ham to keep him a Red Devil, but also may have shown the team’s cards in relation to Cristiano Ronaldo. With the fee for CR7 possibly bringing in £70 million from Real Madrid, Man U could then afford to keep Tevez, bring in Berbatov from Tottenham to replace Nereida’s ex and still have enough to buy everyone in Manchester fancy new scarves.

Both parties are eager to push through the deal which is expected to rise to a figure of around £35 million, considerably more than the £30.6 million Chelsea paid AC Milan for Andrei Shevchenko.

United are currently paying around £5 million a season to ‘lease’ Tevez, with an option to buy him outright at any time, but if no permanent contract is signed by January, Tevez would be free to talk to other clubs.

We love the fact that the contract negotiations are written up like someone figuring out whether they should just buy that Jetta they’ve been driving for the last five years. “Yeah, we liked Carlos’ egoless attitude and team spirit, but we were looking for someone with more of a Cristiano Ronaldo polish. Oh, and with an eggshell finish… do you have that?”

Manchester United to sign Carlos Tevez for British record £35 million [telegraph.co.uk]
Image [Sky Sports]