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Tuesday Kickoff: City won’t loan Tevez, Bruce in mix for South Korea job & more

Tevez (Reuters Pictures)

The talks between AC Milan and Manchester City over Carlos Tevez seem to have hit a standstill.

Manchester City is maintaining its firm stance that it will not loan Tevez anywhere this winter and is instead only seeking a permanent transfer for the wantaway Argentine striker.

"When Manchester City buy a player, they have to pay a lot of money," City manager Roberto Mancini told The Guardian. "But when we want to sell them, they have to go on loan. This is not good. It is not correct for the other players. Manchester City paid Carlos a lot of money for three years. It is correct that if one club – it could be Milan, Juventus, PSG, Inter – want him, they pay for his value."

Milan, meanwhile, claims that it doesn't have the funds for such a move right now and could take Tevez on loan now while coming up with a full move in the summer. Officials from City and Milan are reportedly scheduled to meet about the player, who hasn't played since Sept. 21, on Thursday.

Here are a few more stories to get your day going:

SOUTH KOREA LOOKING AT BRUCE

When Steve Bruce got fired from his post as Sunderland manager, most figured he would catch on somewhere else in England, where he's managed for the duration of his 13-year coaching career. Instead, his career could be making a pretty radical turn.

Bruce is reportedly a leading candidate to coach the South Korean national team, with the country's federation looking for a replacement for the ousted Cho Kwang-Rae. The link between Bruce and South Korea has been established through Sunderland owner Ellis Short and his business partners in the country. 

South Korea has qualified for each of the last seven World Cups, but Cho struggled while trying to replicate the success of Huh Jung-Moo, who guided South Korea to the knockout round at the 2010 World Cup.

Bruce has never coached on the international level, and he was never capped by England during his playing days either. He would be the first English manager for South Korea, which has turned to foreign coaches such as Dutchmen Pim Verbeek and Guus Hiddink in the past.

CITY, UNITED SQUABBLE OVER FA CUP TICKETS

No stone is left unturned when it comes to the Manchester City-Manchester United rivalry these days.

The latest spat involves tickets for the clubs' third-round FA Cup meeting next month. The FA stipulates that clubs must allocate 15 percent of their available tickets to visiting supporters. City, which is hosting the match, is only offering up 5,500 tickets (about 11 percent) instead of 7,100. That move is in response to United having a special ruling that allows the club to only offer up about 11 percent of seats at Old Trafford, which is in place because of the atypical large seating capacity there.

United has reportedly lodged an official complaint to the FA in order to seek the full 7,100 tickets, with a result pending. 

SUBWAY STRIKE THREATENS EPL GAMES

This year's Boxing Day slate in England could be a little less full than usual.

A planned strike by London's subway drivers may force clubs like Arsenal and Chelsea to postpone their Dec. 26 Boxing Day matches against Wolves and Fulham, respectively. The strike, which is reportedly over holiday shifts and wages, would also potentially impact London clubs in the country's lower division.

A strike would severly hamper supporters and stadium workers from being able to attend the matches, which in turn would force the clubs to push their games to another date. The strike, if executed, is slated for four specific days as opposed to one elongated stretch, meaning that the games could be played as early as the following day. A ruling that could prevent the strike from happening is expected on Wednesday.

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Where do you see Tevez ultimately winding up? Does Bruce coaching South Korea seem like a natural fit to you? Who do you side with in the ticket fiasco, City or United?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. Well, they are all uniquely Africans, Africa is the the most diverse continent in the world with a variety of different skin pigments facial structures and such. I know because I know many arabs from Africa and blacks as well.

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  2. Hey, in the image at the top of this thread doesn’t it look like Tevez chasing Tevez? Reminds me of the good old spy v. spy cartoons.

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  3. I have to disagree…

    In the Seattle vs Portland and with Vancouver as well there is set number of tickets.

    1500 If I’m not mistaken. That’s not a percentage. How does Seattle get screwed? It’s equal number on both sides. I personally think it should be more especially since there seems to be enough Portland fans that if Seattle took say 2500 fans the Timbers would still have over 18500 of their fans under the new expanded configuration.

    The fact is the rule is 15% of the tickets should be allocated towards away fans, Man U shouldn’t get a pass on that. And if they’re going to get a special ruling than Man City should be able to make the case that for games at Old Trafford Man City fans should be allowed the 15% because the demand is there considering they are in the same city.

    Then it would be fair to Man City to give up 15% of their seats to Man Utd.

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  4. Since my previous post, I have read the article and I agree that his argument has no basis. what I was objecting to was Mike’s apparent dismissal of the claim as bing BS…that being said, not all europeens are very nice to anyone from the continent of africa and perhaps that is why bouna made the comment but overall i agree that there is no basis for bouna’s argument

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  5. Stupid to set the away allotment by percentage instead of a set number. It means that a club with a larger stadium gets screwed when visiting a small stadium. They have the same problem with Seattle vs Portland. If you want to have more tickets when you are away, then you need to offer the same number to your opponent when at home, not a percenatge.

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  6. Pretty much everything is shutdown on Boxing Day except for the tube, so if the tube is down, nothing moves. That’s why it’s an effective day to strike.

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  7. I dont see any character assassination, just a lack of attention to detail in regards to the local headlines. The miss on the Coundoul story is particularly disappointing

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  8. Gnarls, you do realize that in this derby Man U are the away team that say they need more than the allocated # of tickets, right? The point Josh makes is that typically, when another EPL team comes to Old Trafford, they could not bring 11,000+ of their fan base (i.e. demand).

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  9. I am just referring to the general rule that United provide only 11% of tickets to away supporters. That is what seems to have people’s dander up around here.

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  10. Coundoul made no qualms about his view of the organizations supposed dubious decision making. “Last year, it was five Africans (on the team); Medhi Ballouchy (Morocco), Ibrahim Salou (Ghana), Tony Tchani (Cameroon), Danleigh Borman (South Africa), Macoumba Kandji (Senegal) and myself,” a slighted Coundoul detailed. “All of these players have been released, except for Medhi and myself. Moreover, the press failed to ask; ‘What’s between him and the Africans?'”

    So of five, three were released at the time he made the comment. This makes them racist?

    And the idea that all people living on the continent of Africa are of one race, is bigoted and racist in itself.

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  11. Seems to me that the fairest solution is to keep the % of tickets constant from one club/venue to the next. Putting a ceiling on #’s smells an awful lot like bad tax law (although here in the states, Man U would need to cough up extra seats since they have more!).

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  12. Well, United’s ground is 150 to 200% the size of most of the other stadia in the EPL. The 15% tickets for away supporters was determined by demand. I imagine there just isn’t demand for that high a number of tickets from away supporters. So you end up with empty seats that home supporters would have filled. I mean, 15% of 76000 is over 11000. That is a third of some of the EPL grounds.

    Just a non-conspiracy theory angle…

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  13. They have the rule because Old Trafford holds generally a minimum of 25,000 more fans than any other stadium in England (except for Arsenal at the Emirates). That means that on average, 3750 more fans of the away team would be able to attend matches at Old Trafford than Man U fans would at their away games.

    -from a liverpool fan

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  14. Why does United have their own rules? I mean we already know the officials cheat for them, but now they get to minimize how many traveling fans are allowed in the stadium?

    Man the EPL is messed up.

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  15. What an odd day it is when I side with Man City over anything, let alone two separate issues. Tevez needs to get the heck out of Manchester permanently, and City deserves a hefty paycheck. It must be tough being one of the wealthiest clubs in the world when it’s time to sell. No one can afford your asking price.

    And regards to the FA cup spat, I don’t blame City at all for sticking it to United. Seems totally fair.

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  16. Ives is missing alot of stories today. Rogers signing with Leeds. Bouna calls Backe a racist. Juninho leaves the Galaxy. Wow. Major stuff. Especially with the Red Bulls thing happening in his backyard

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  17. Mancini, you can’t sell your players because you overpay for the players and their wages are absurd. That’s how you sit at the top of the table. Noone else is going to pay them.

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