Dani Alves playing for Juventus in the 2016/17 Uefa Champions League final against Real Madrid at The Principality Stadium in Cardiff, south Wales.
Dani Alves playing for Juventus in the 2016/17 Uefa Champions League final against Real Madrid at The Principality Stadium in Cardiff, south Wales.
Dani Alves playing for Juventus in the 2016/17 Uefa Champions League final against Real Madrid at The Principality Stadium in Cardiff, south Wales.
Dani Alves playing for Juventus in the 2016/17 Uefa Champions League final against Real Madrid at The Principality Stadium in Cardiff, south Wales.

Dani Alves snub means it's back to the drawing board for Man City


Richard Jolly
  • English
  • Arabic

If Manchester City's aim this season was to emulate Chelsea, it was an unfortunate way of copying the champions. A few days after Antonio Conte had an unwelcome surprise when Romelu Lukaku, who he thought was set to sign, instead joined Manchester United. City could not beat Chelsea last season. They joined them in the group of those who have experienced public rejection when Paris Saint-Germain announced they were signing Dani Alves.

Up until then, City had remained confident Alves would join, probably this week, and that he would be on the plane to the United States on Monday. The deal seemed all but done. Then came an unwanted reminder that late drama is not confined to the pitch. It can come in cruel fashion in the transfer market.

It is tempting to revisit Alves’ recent statements. It seemed he had negotiated his release from Juventus to engineer a Barcelona reunion in Manchester. “Everyone knows my admiration for Pep Guardiola,” he said last month. He went further in an article he wrote for the Players’ Tribune. “If you turn the word football backwards, it spells Pep,” he said. “He is a genius. I’ll say it again. A genius.”

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Equally, and while such comments can make Alves seem duplicitous, focusing on the man who spurned them will not benefit City at a time when they require two right-backs, and soon, if the rookie Pablo Maffeo is not to be thrust to prominence. More than most managers, Guardiola needs time on the training ground to give his players an understanding of his methods and tactics. City's pre-season tour of America was supposed to offer an education to a remodelled squad.

City made a superb start to transfer window, with deals for the much-needed Ederson and the much-coveted Bernardo Silva tied up by the end of May. Yet they remain the only incomings, though some other targets – Alexis Sanchez, Benjamin Mendy and right-back Kyle Walker – are well-known.

Alves’ rejection certainly strengthens Tottenham’s bargaining position. Their chairman, Daniel Levy, is an infamously tough negotiator. There is unlikely to be a discount on Walker now. Equally, City should remember that Spurs have readied themselves to sell. Kieran Trippier was considering his future a few months ago. Now he has signed a new five-year deal after displacing Walker for the FA Cup semi-final and the marquee matches against Arsenal and Manchester United. They are planning for life without Walker, a detail Levy is unlikely to mention in talks.

But the fact remains that, after the departures of Pablo Zabaleta, Bacary Sagna and even the possible back-up Jesus Navas, City need two right-backs. In a summer when they may be making five other major signings, Alves’ availability on a free transfer formed part of his appeal. Now City’s budget will surely have to be stretchered further.

Alves had a further advantage. His knowledge of Guardiola meant he should have slotted straight in. He promised an immediate impact. He would not have been a long-term signing, but exceptions can be made for special cases. Alves was one such.

At 34, he still had the potency to determine a Uefa Champions League semi-final almost single-handed, with two goals and an assist over 180 minutes against Monaco. He could still prove a one-man right-flank. He had the athlete’s energy and the midfielder’s technical and passing ability that Guardiola demands in a full-back.

Try finding someone with his quality, his skill-set and his winning habit (35 trophies and counting). There are not many, even before most right-backs are disqualified because they do not meet Guardiola’s criteria. So City’s task is a tough one as they are in the unusual position of seeking to replace a player they never actually signed.

The Transfiguration

Director: Michael O’Shea

Starring: Eric Ruffin, Chloe Levine

Three stars

Conflict, drought, famine

Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.

Band Aid

Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.

CHATGPT%20ENTERPRISE%20FEATURES
%3Cp%3E%E2%80%A2%20Enterprise-grade%20security%20and%20privacy%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%E2%80%A2%20Unlimited%20higher-speed%20GPT-4%20access%20with%20no%20caps%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%E2%80%A2%20Longer%20context%20windows%20for%20processing%20longer%20inputs%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%E2%80%A2%20Advanced%20data%20analysis%20capabilities%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%E2%80%A2%20Customisation%20options%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%E2%80%A2%20Shareable%20chat%20templates%20that%20companies%20can%20use%20to%20collaborate%20and%20build%20common%20workflows%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%E2%80%A2%20Analytics%20dashboard%20for%20usage%20insights%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%E2%80%A2%20Free%20credits%20to%20use%20OpenAI%20APIs%20to%20extend%20OpenAI%20into%20a%20fully-custom%20solution%20for%20enterprises%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Full Party in the Park line-up

2pm – Andreah

3pm – Supernovas

4.30pm – The Boxtones

5.30pm – Lighthouse Family

7pm – Step On DJs

8pm – Richard Ashcroft

9.30pm – Chris Wright

10pm – Fatboy Slim

11pm – Hollaphonic

 

The specs

Engine: 3.0-litre flat-six twin-turbocharged

Transmission: eight-speed PDK automatic

Power: 445bhp

Torque: 530Nm

Price: Dh474,600

On Sale: Now

The specs: 2018 Mercedes-AMG C63 S Cabriolet

Price, base: Dh429,090

Engine 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8

Transmission Seven-speed automatic

Power 510hp @ 5,500rpm

Torque 700Nm @ 1,750rpm

Fuel economy, combined 9.2L / 100km

The specs: Hyundai Ionic Hybrid

Price, base: Dh117,000 (estimate)

Engine: 1.6L four-cylinder, with 1.56kWh battery

Transmission: Six-speed automatic

Power: 105hp (engine), plus 43.5hp (battery)

Torque: 147Nm (engine), plus 170Nm (battery)

Fuel economy, combined: 3.4L / 100km

UAE SQUAD

UAE team
1. Chris Jones-Griffiths 2. Gio Fourie 3. Craig Nutt 4. Daniel Perry 5. Isaac Porter 6. Matt Mills 7. Hamish Anderson 8. Jaen Botes 9. Barry Dwyer 10. Luke Stevenson (captain) 11. Sean Carey 12. Andrew Powell 13. Saki Naisau 14. Thinus Steyn 15. Matt Richards

Replacements
16. Lukas Waddington 17. Murray Reason 18. Ahmed Moosa 19. Stephen Ferguson 20. Sean Stevens 21. Ed Armitage 22. Kini Natuna 23. Majid Al Balooshi

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The Bio

Favourite vegetable: “I really like the taste of the beetroot, the potatoes and the eggplant we are producing.”

Holiday destination: “I like Paris very much, it’s a city very close to my heart.”

Book: “Das Kapital, by Karl Marx. I am not a communist, but there are a lot of lessons for the capitalist system, if you let it get out of control, and humanity.”

Musician: “I like very much Fairuz, the Lebanese singer, and the other is Umm Kulthum. Fairuz is for listening to in the morning, Umm Kulthum for the night.”

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6

Developer: Treyarch, Raven Software
Publisher:  Activision
Console: PlayStation 4 & 5, Windows, Xbox One & Series X/S
Rating: 3.5/5