Liverpool skint: £50m Tevez transfer talk set to unravel?

Debt ridden Manchester United of all clubs cannot afford to laugh at the latest news surrounding Liverpool, whose owners have just suffered a £42m loss, but it was only a week ago that one of the gutter tabloids was claiming the Merseyside Reds were about to splash out £50m to sign Carlos Tevez. A week later and now it appears Liverpool could be on the brink of financial disaster. The news comes as no great surprise because earlier this week Liverpool were "blown out of the water" by Manchester City who ended up paying just £12m to capture Gareth Barry who has been a long-term target of the Merseyside club.

Meanwhile, the future of Carlos Tevez will be resolved in the next few days when the player returns from international duty. The latest rumours suggest the fans' favourite will - to the great annoyance of the vast majority of the Red Army - join neighbours Manchester City, who have been linked with just about every big name in the game, but it will take more than Carlos Tevez to turnaround their fortunes.

It's doubtful the Citizens' will come any closer to breaking into the accepted top four English clubs next season - even before a ball is kicked the best they can hope for is a top ten finish.

Money issues aside, we are told that Tevez's biggest gripe is playing fourth fiddle to Rooney, Ronaldo and Berbatov. In the case of the Bulgarian, there is surely no argument among the fans, because the vast majority would select the Argentine in preference every time.

Towards the end of the season following his penalty miss in the FA Cup semi-final, it seemed that just perhaps the penny has dropped with Ferguson, in that he has made a big mistake when acquiring a player who has often failed to show what is required to be a United player.

It isn't the lack of goals or indeed his link-up play - which has been good at times - it is that Berbatov simply does not work hard enough for the team and you can never say about Tevez, quite the reverse in point of fact and of course the Argentine scores and creates goals.

Prior to the signing of Berbatov, United undoubtedly did need to find another striker, someone who would bring something different to the manager's array of attacking options. After a full season it looks highly unlikely that the Bulgarian is going to win over the fans who want to see everyone in the red shirt giving 100%, week-in, week-out.

Berbatov has unfairly been compared by some to Eric Cantona - personally I do not like making such comparisons, what I would say is the former Spurs striker isn't fit to lace the Frenchman's boots.