You know, I don't know what is more interesting. That City have signed such a talented striker as Carlos Tevez or that the fans of Real Madrid's feeder club are going absolutely apoplectic online at the news. Acting almost as nuts as the Liverpool fans when Owen signed for said same outfit.

Football, as I've said on a number of occasions, is big business. With so little time career wise. no one should be surprised that players will make such moves given the financial rewards that are on offer. Take your every day job. If your company's biggest rival said come work for us, here's a 5 year guaranteed contract and we'll double your wages do you honestly tell me that 98% of us wouldn't jump at that chance. There are exceptions of course. I happen to feel personal loyalty is singularly important and I've been most disappointed in situations where that trust was broken. But realistically in most cases people will take the cash.

We don't need to rehash the ability of Tevez here. If he's not world class then he's darn close and this is an impressive signing by Mark Hughes and the team.

Meanwhile earlier in the day the websites around the world were certainly buzzing. I've got a couple of Arsenal mates, actually at least five now I come to think about it. All you need to know about the Arsenal fans and how they feel about Emmanuel Adebayor was the post today from one of those Gooners "No-one is as excited about the Adebayor deal as the Arsenal fans. It's Christmas in July!" Brutal; but not an isolated reaction.

Now I don't think Adebayor is that bad. The Togo international suffers from the fairly fatal North London disease NHS. As in Not Henry Syndrome. Didn't matter who followed Henry, could have been the best in the world, the Arsenal faithful were highly unlikely to take him to heart. But you can follow a pattern of ill discipline from his days at Monaco and the Togo National squad. How such a character will respond to Mark Hughes is anyone's guess.

I've also seen it said that City don't need him and in this I disagree. RSC is a great presence in the middle, but there will be times when the Paraguayan is injured, suspended or the team tactics call for two central strikers; or City are playing Spurs. Certainly a striker of Adebayor's quality is a bit of overkill given the number of quality players the club now have, but in this case if the player is coming to the club I'm going to trust the manager.

The news of the continued foot injury to Vincent Kompany is worrying especially coupled with the resulting update that he will miss the start of the season. Would be really nice for City to pull a rabbit out of the hat, ala Gareth Barry, and maybe bring in a quality young central defender from the Bundesliga.

Elsewhere... A stray thought for you. Since the Premier League started with the exception of 01-02 every year at least one of the teams relegated had been promoted the previous year. As I see all the moves that are being made, and more importantly the moves that are not, I'd be curious to see what kind of odds you could get on that not happening this year. It's not that Wolves, Birmingham or Burnley strike me as particularly good, rather that Portsmouth, Wigan and Hull all seem to have serious issues which leave me expecting them to struggle this year.

We also send along our best wishes to John Hartson and hope for a speedy recovery. An all action rough and tumble forward who was fun to watch in every game the news of his cancer diagnosis is a shock to everyone connected with the game.