City elbow Utd out of way to become Sporting Lisbon partner

• Poignant

  12 Jan 10, 19:35

  Man City elbow Man Utd out of way to become Sporting Lisbon partner

  Manchester City have rattled Manchester United by replacing them as Sporting Lisbon's English partners.

  The Guardian says City's attempt to corner the transfer market and use every method possible to gain an advantage over Manchester United has seen them replace their neighbours in a partnership deal with Sporting Lisbon that will give them first option on signing players from the club that produced Luís Figo and Cristiano Ronaldo.

  City have moved in after learning that United's arrangement with Sporting had expired and that relations between Old Trafford and the Estádio José Alvalade have never been fully repaired since the clubs fell out two years ago over the Portugal international Miguel Veloso.

  Luís Vicente, a Portuguese lawyer who represents Figo, has been working on a deal which should be announced in the next few weeks and will see the world's most financially endowed club moving ahead of the Premier League champions when it comes to cherry-picking some of Portuguese football's brightest young players.

• CKeer

  12 Jan 10, 21:03

  Does City need to resort to this partnership? They have the money to compete so why do they still need to have partnership?

• stellazio

  12 Jan 10, 21:05

  its more then just money..its also about pride and status..

• Poignant

  12 Jan 10, 21:09

  Originally posted by stellazio:

  its more then just money..its also about pride and status..

  exactly.

• Rooney9

  12 Jan 10, 21:12

  city copycat one lar. last time united target is robben, when roman took over chelsea, first thing he went to poached united CEO and then united target robben. then they also went in for united target mikel.

• I-like-flings(m)

  12 Jan 10, 21:13

  Originally posted by stellazio:

  its more then just money..its also about pride and status..

  
  it's also about 1 stone 2 bird ar

• Rooney9

  12 Jan 10, 21:16

  very soon city will target benzema, united no 1 target.

• Poignant

  12 Jan 10, 21:16

  Originally posted by Rooney9:

  city copycat one lar. last time united target is robben, when roman took over chelsea, first thing he went to poached united CEO and then united target robben. then they also went in for united target mikel.

  not to forget essien.

• zocoss

  13 Jan 10, 02:44

  This is nothing to shout about... Their contract ended and United didn't renew it so Sporting look for another offer and City came in... It's not like they are going to produce a Ronaldo very year or every ten years... They produce more Nanis than Ronnys... lol.

  And even if they had another above average player coming up, they are going to priced him very high like in the case of Veloso... 

  United were very keen on Veloso but they priced him so high that the partnership is really of no used... And lucky United didn't paid the $20m... or he might turn out to be another Nani... lol.

  Present day partnership is really of not much used... Football is changing. If City can pay a lot more, what's the point of having first option unless you are able to match their offer right? Or it will only be they calling to tell you someone else bid higher so are you willing to go higher?

  So when you think of it, why bother to stay in a partnership and still must help them in some financial ways? Just to get first option? Its not worth it anymore... They got their Ronaldo, time to move on...

   

• hamidisaidi

  13 Jan 10, 10:11

  yup.....sporting lisbon is not producing much talent nowadays that is even worthy of a starting place in Man City. Veloso is not consistent and drifts in and out of games. They already have a lot of central midifelders. And other positions are not even worth a look in the Sporting team.

  Its all about sensationalism...for the club and fans to bask themselves in having one over their rivals, Man Utd..remember the Tevez banner?