Premiership Five Big Questions
Man Utd, Tevez and the Week’s Other Top Stories
1. Will Carlos Tevez ever move from West Ham to Manchester United?
The question of who owns Carlos Tevez appears to be getting more rather than less complicated.
West Ham, the FA and the Premier League have all asked Fifa to rule on the situation, but Fifa have recommended that the Court of Arbitration for Sport make the judgement. Unfortunately, Tevez’s representative Kai Joorabchian doesn’t seem happy with this and his companies have issued High Court proceedings against the Hammers.
With the 31st August transfer deadline fast approaching the question may not be whether Tevez will join United but whether he can kick a ball anywhere without both sides in the dispute showing up and starting a cartoon style fight in a cloud of dust.
2. Will Newcastle United be better off without Freddie Shepherd?
Despite recent indications to the contrary, Freddie Shepherd has now stepped down as Chairman of Newcastle United following Mike Ashley’s takeover and has been replaced by Chris Mort.
Highs during Shepherd’s years of service included the development of St James’ Park, two FA Cup finals and the Magpies coming within a wing’s width of the Premiership title. His continual willingness to open the chequebook may be forgotten, however, due to his apparent recent installation of a revolving door to the mangers’ office in the pursuit of silverware. Whether fans and the media now give the new regime time to restore some stability and consistency remains to be seen.
3. Will Liverpool’s revised stadium design receive Planning Permission?
This week Liverpool unveiled the amended plans for their new ground.
Fans will be pleased that the redesign requested by owners George Gillett and Tom Hicks has a new, 18,000 seater Kop as its heart to pump the life around the 60,000 capacity monster.
The big debate, however, lies in the stadium’s unique looks. Whilst architects HKS’ combination of glass and metal give a futuristic individuality, the extreme result may appear to some like a spaceship has crashed into a greenhouse. With construction due to begin as soon as possible and proposed completion in 2010, the city planners must now decide whether they feel the radical building is appropriate for its Stanley Park setting.
4. Will Leighton Baines stay at Wigan?
Sunderland are quickly discovering how difficult it is to attract the type of player capable of keeping them in the Premiership.
In a situation worryingly similar to the one they recently found themselves in with Preston striker David Nugent, despite meeting Wigan’s asking price for defender Leighton Baines the player has decided not to join the Wearsiders and instead hold out for a move to Everton.
Whilst this is disappointing for Sunderland, it also leaves Wigan in a very difficult position. Not only might this affect the Latics’ attempts to achieve full value for one of their top assets, but also their new manager’s efforts to make his changes to a squad that flirted far to closely with relegation last season.
5. Is Sven’s early spending at Manchester City wise?
Sven Goran Eriksson has continued his large scale rearmament of the Manchester City squad by splashing out on Atletico Madrid winger Martin Petrov.
After their poor performance last season and the frantic summer spending of other teams the Blues undoubtedly need new recruits, but the luxury of such a sizable war chest may also test Sven's coaching capabilities to the limit. Trying to integrate such a large number of potential first team players in such a short time may cause cohesion problems for the Swede and a slump instead of the surge everyone is expecting.
