With all the excitement of Arsenal very nearly making the biggest comeback of the Champions League era, one footballing event on Tuesday seems to have gone under most peoples’ radar. For the first time in over three months Carlos Tevez played football in front of a crowd for Manchester City, albeit the reserves. He even managed to stop from falling into a reverie of golf and Argentinian beaches long enough to grab himself a goal. That’s the issue with Tevez though; off the pitch he has shown himself to be selfish, egotistical and a bit of an idiot.
On the pitch he is peerless in his ability to combine an incredible technical ability with the fact that he doesn’t really seem to know how to stop running. Despite his many shortcomings he is undoubtedly a wonderful player. But is he worth it? Some say yes, some say no but most are still undecided.
However, what a lot of people don’t know is that Manchester City’s current Golden Boot holder may be surplus to requirements sooner than he would like to think.
Fast forward to this season and the nineteen year old Swede is making quite a name for himself. Having been loaned out to Feyenoord he’s managed to get himself 18 goals and 5 assists in just 17 appearances (two as a substitute) and is adored to the point of being a hero to the fans. After becoming the first player to score three hat-tricks in a season for Feyenoord since Dirk Kuyt managed it in the 2004/05 season, he’s been described by former Dutch Footballer of the Year and current Feyenoord manager Ronald Koeman as “phenomenal”. All of this has led to the Feyenoord faithful creating a petition to keep him there; admirable but you can’t help but feel it’s in vain.
Of course performances in the Eredivisie don’t necessarily carry across into the Premier League. For every Robin van Persie there’s a Marvin Emnes. For every Dirk Kuyt there’s a Mateja Kezman. The most worrying statistic for Guidetti is that the only player who has a better appearance-to-goals ratio in the Eredivise is Alfonso Alves. The Alfonso Alves who, after scoring 47 goals in 39 appearances for SC Heerenveen, made a move to, then Premier League club, Middlesbrough for a fee estimated to be around £12.7million. He only managed four league goals in his disappointing second season in England as the club ended up being relegated to the Championship, resulting in him being shipped out.
At 19 though, Guidetti has more than enough about him to develop as a striker and become a household name across Europe. A lot of this hinges on whether Mancini is prepared to risk a young striker who’s unproven in the Premier League though. But if he keeps his free-scoring exploits up and his head down then you can’t think of many reasons why a diva like Tevez or inconsistency itself in Edin Dzeko deserves to be playing any more than he does. Who knows, maybe the richest club in the world might have a star on their hands and they didn’t even have to pay out £30million for him this time.
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He has been called up for the sweden team for the friendly this month first call up.. He looks like he will be in the euros.. If he can perform in the European stage he might be suited to the premier league… time will tell though.