Manchester City are on the verge of signing West Bromwich Albion’s captain, Jonny Evans for £30m. Nothing wrong with that you may likely say. But if you put into consideration the fact that Evans was raised in the youth academy of local rivals, Manchester United where he spent eleven years, 2004 to 2015, everything takes on a different meaning.
Although Evans now plays for West Brom, he has always considered himself and has been considered by most people as a Man U man through and through. All that is about to change now if he moves across the border to join the “enemy”.
Now let’s take a look at some of the more controversial cross carpeting in the premiership.
SOL CAMPBELL came through the ranks at Tottenham Hotspurs and he spent nine years there, four as club captain. When his contract was running to an end, he reportedly verbally promised to sign a new contract at the end of the season, instead, he allowed the contract to run out, refused to sign a new one, rejected several offers from clubs in Europe and…er..joined bitter rivals Arsenal on a free transfer!! Talk about a death wish. Only a very brave man or a very stupid one would make such a move. The jury is still out on which one Sol was. He won premiership titles and FA cups with Arsenal but when you put into consideration that he still can’t move freely in some parts of North London, when you remember that he is still called Judas and traitor up till today several years after he stopped playing for Arsenal, when you hear Spurs fans still drop hints about his sexuality, you can’t but wonder whether it was all worth it. Spurs’ fans were angered enough that he joined the old enemy, but what really pissed them off big time was that he deceived the club management and joined Arsenal on a free transfer.
ASHLEY COLE is seen as one of the premier league’s less intelligent players. He is fantastic on the pitch, but his sense of reasoning off it is something else. Remember how he ruined a lifelong friendship with the Ferdinand family when he went to court to testify against Anton in his racial abuse case with John Terry? He also gave evidence at the FA, which was not considered valuable because Terry was still found guilty. Cole’s stupidity is further enhanced when you realise he had a multi-million pounds movie producing partnership with Anton’s brother, former Manchester United player, Rio Ferdinand. All that went into the bin just because he wanted to help his then captain escape a few weeks ban and his then club escape possible fine. To make matters worse for him, Ashley Cole was kicked out of Chelsea not too long after the court case.
With the above scenario, you should not be surprised to learn how Ashley Cole left Arsenal to join city rivals Chelsea. In 2005 he was caught in a London hotel with then Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho and the club’s chief executive Peter Kenyon in a tapping-up meeting. He was found guilty by the FA and fined £100, 000. He went on to accuse Arsenal management for feeding him to the sharks because they reported the tapping up!!! He signed a one-year extension to his contract that year but left for Chelsea the next year in 2006, in a deal that involved Chelsea player William Gallas going to Arsenal. The reason Cole gave for dumping Arsenal for Chelsea was because his old club only offered to increase his weekly salary by a mere £5000. He was earning £50,000 per week and he was offered £55,000 per week, that almost made him drive his car off the road with rage and shock at the “insult”. He was public enemy number one at the Emirates, anytime he returned with Chelsea. The irony of it all is that he signed to play for LA Galaxy earning less than £4,000 per week, about £1,000 less than the amount that turned him from hero to zero at Arsenal.
WILLIAM GALLAS is not your typical moaner. He was a hardworking defender, ready to make sacrifice for the greater good. Originally a centre back, he settled to play left back for Chelsea with occasional forays in his favourite position. So a lot of people were surprised when he allegedly tendered a transfer request at Chelsea. So much more people were shocked when Chelsea released a statement claiming Gallas threatened to score own goals if he was not allowed to leave the club as he requested. The French defender denied this, describing Chelsea management as “very, very petty” and lacking class. He ended up being made a makeshift in the Ashley Cole move to Chelsea, with Arsenal getting an extra £5m from the exchange.
CARLOS TEVEZ arrived the premiership enveloped in controversy. Tainted with third party ownership, not many clubs wanted to touch him, except well, West Ham United. After a season where he helped West Ham to escape relegation, Manchester United decided to buy him outright. But with complications developing from his contract with West Ham and his true owners, the Media Sports Investment the club settled with a two-year loan worth £10m. At the end of the two years, MSI still wanted £25m Tevez to make the move permanent. Sir Alex Ferguson was not willing to spend £35m in total on a player who was down in the pecking order to Wayne Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo and Dimitar Berbatov. Tevez felt unwanted and his ego was affected. As payback, he decided to join bitter rivals, in the blue corner of Manchester to make a big fuss of what they erroneously thought was a coup. They erected a huge billboard in the city centre welcoming Tevez to Manchester, a move that sounds petty and silly considering the player has been in Manchester for two years prior to the time. This prompted Sir Alex to describe Manchester City as the “noisy neighbours” and a small club with small club mentality. Funny enough, at first, United fans felt no malice against Tevez, it was he who was acting like a scorned woman who took every opportunity he had to attack United and its legends like Gary Neville and Ryan Giggs.
ROBIN VAN PERSIE spent eight years at Arsenal football club. He won the golden boots with them, he became their captain, but the one thing he wanted dearly was eluding him year in, year out and that was to become the league champion. So in 2012, with one year left on his contract, he decided to join Manchester United. This move jarred Arsenal fans to no end and he became the new enemy number one. Arsenal fans openly wished him long term injury to terminate his stay at Old Trafford!! Unfortunately for them, he not only retained his title as the league’s golden boot winner, he won the premiership with United at first attempt!! To add to the perceived betrayal and insult, van Persie told the English media that what surprised was how heavy the premier league trophy was and how it took him nine years in the country before he had the chance to lift it. Arsenal fans got their wishes in Persie’s last two seasons at Man United because he was plagued with injuries and made few appearances until he was let go by his countryman, van Gaal who was then manager at Old Trafford in 2015.
All said and done, it is very unlikely that Manchester United old boy Jonny Evans would be received at Old Trafford with hatred, he will be seen more like a prodigal son, that is if Manchester City officials don’t do something as silly as putting up a billboard welcoming him to Manchester!!!
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