Tuesday Gossip

Tue 04 Oct 2011, 8:40AM
Posted by Peter Ferguson

Well, we said that player quotes would be a daily staple of the build-up to Friday, but that doesn't necessarily mean they'll all be from City's England contingent.





Mail man John Edwards was at the Blackburn game and clearly took the opportunity to buttonhole Stefan Savic as the poor lad wandered innocently back to the team coach afterwards.

"Buster" has long been a relentless interrogator, but Savic is savvy enough to avoid predicting another 4-0 in Montenegro's favour when the Euro 2012 rivals collide this week.

The Mail story runs: "Stefan Savic has played down the chances of an upset against England on Friday by admitting Montenegro have set their sights on second place in Group G.

"England need a point from their last game in Podgorica to be sure of pipping their nearest rivals to the one automatic qualifying place.

"Manchester City centre back Savic, a £6million signing from Partizan Belgrade, said: 'If we want to overhaul England and finish first, we have to win both our games, and that is going to be hard.

"'If we don't beat England, we have to think about taking a point off Switzerland. If we can be first, it's good, but second place will be very good for us.'"

The Telegraph weighs in - it's too early yet for official England press conferences - and Raf Sanchez unearths the line that there's been a bit of, er, banter with City's England players.

They quote Stefan: “They keep asking me: ‘Where are we going?’ and saying they don’t know where Montenegro is, because we are such a small country.

“We have only 800,000 people in our country but everyone is proud of what the football team means, and of the results this team has had in this qualification campaign.



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It should be a good game for both teams, but I expect a good result for us





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The Telegraph's Chris Bascombe, late of the News of the World, still can't resist a good investigation and targets the popularity or otherwise of Carlos Tevez.

He reveals: "His fall from hero to zero has been underlined with his tumble from the top to the bottom of the club’s shirt sales.

"Before his first transfer request last December, his name and No 2 sold by far the biggest number of jerseys in City’s club store. Since then he has sold the fewest of the club’s big-name stars, with recent requests falling to none."

Shocking. Oh, and that Tevez shirt, Chris? The 3 has obviously fallen off, bring it in and we'll stick another one on for you. You're welcome.