how did he get 5.5 years? so that's 5.0 years they'll still have to pay him after they sack him this summer!

Kanu is 34.

At 15-16 he scored 20 goals for Fed works in 35 appearances.

kamikaze wrote:

haha theyre going to go straight back down. how does pardew still get a job after not playing tevez and mascherano? the guy literally couldn't identify talent when it was right in front of him.

Just when you thought they had learnt a thing or 2 from relegation.....alas old habits die hard!

James wrote:

I just nearly spat my coffee everywhere.

Pardew on a 5 year deal!?

How does Arsenal-Mania's best friend do it.

more shocking is the fact that it's Pardue!

Five and a half years? There's literally no other explanation.

tevez has apparently handed in a transfer request. he misses his daughters in argentina and has lost his love for the game. wonder if he'll just forfeit the remainder of his contract or take a massive pay cut to play in argentina.

City's frontline

Tevez: wants to go to Argentina
Adebayor: wants to go to Juventus
Balotelli: wants to go to Milan / be a menace

Proof that money can't buy happiness.

Tevez is a fantastic player but surely Mancini needs to start getting rid of him or some of the other headcases before the team melts down. To his credit though, Tevez has been professional on the field despite the constant moaning off it.

There's a lot of speculation that Tevez is plotting a Rooney-esque attempt to get a better contract, but I think it's a homesickness issue. He's been complaining about it for years, and the instability at City isn't helping his mood, either.

I think so too. I believe that Tevez is genuinely missing his family and relatives. He's already earned enough money in Europe to be able to build a good life for himself too. There's nothing wrong with that. Too many footballers are thinking with their wallet these days. It's nice to see someone think with his heart every now and then.

That's a fair point.

The saddest thing at Man City though is Balotelli. He's still just a kid but has a goal productivity that is as good as anyone outside La Liga (which has gone from being the best to a joke league in 5 years). However, his attitude is getting in the way of greatness. He really needs to sort it out or be forever remembered as a waste of talent. I think he's the most special young player in the league.

Yeah, Balotelli could have been the best forward in Europe at this point if he'd been brought up under better circumstances. Instead he's been raised poorly both on and off the pitch, in a country where blatant racism is widespread and players of foreign descent are undesired in the national team, and to top it all off he happened to come through at one of the worst clubs in the world to deal with youth prospects which employed one of the worst managers in Europe at developing young players at the time. His career and life has been a perfect mismatch full of conflict, intolerance and a lack of guidance so far.