Scott Parker is a midfielder who plays for English side Tottenham Hotspur and England. Parker was a graduate from The Football Association’s School of Excellence at Lilleshall before joining Charlton Athletic’s youth academy. He reached Charlton’s first team and established himself while they were a Premiership side. In the middle of the 2003/04 season Parker was, at age 23, sold to Chelsea for £10 million. That season he got his first senior England cap and was also named Young Player of the Year in English football. The following season he was struggling for a place in a strong Chelsea midfield with the likes of Makélelé, Lampard, Robben and Tiago. That season he also only got one more England cap.

In July 2005 Parker transferred to Newcastle United for a fee of £6.5 million. He quickly established himself in the team and looked likely to win a place in the England squad for the 2006 FIFA World Cup but unfortunately became sick with glandular fever just a couple of months prior. The following season he was made captain for Newcastle and again he delivered consistently strong performances in the Premier League. He also won his third cap for England. At the end of the season Parker signed for West Ham for £7 million.

Parker played four years for West Ham. The first was marred by several injuries but the next three seasons had him voted Hammer of the Year by the supporters. After the 2010/11 season he was voted the Football Writers’ Association Footballer of the Year in England. West Ham were still relegated to the Championship and on 31 August he signed for Tottenham, for a fee of £5.5 million. Parker has started the season at Tottenham in fine form and has in 2011 also finally established himself as a regular in the England team. He put on a Man of the Match performance when England beat World Champions Spain in a friendly at Wembley on November 12th.

Gervinho is a winger who plays for English side Arsenal and Côte d’Ivoire. Gervais Yao Kouassi came through the ASEC Mimosas youth academy like a string of other Ivorian talents have done. That’s also where he was given the nickname Gervinho. He turned professional at 15 with Toumodi FC before leaving the Ivory Coast for Belgium two years later. Gervinho spent three seasons with the Belgian club Beveren, the last two as part of the senior team. In 2007 he joined the French Ligue 1 side Le Mans. In November that year he also made his debut in the Côte d’Ivoire senior national team, aged 20.
In July 2009 Gervinho transferred to Lille on a three year contract. They finished the 2009/10 season in 4th place before having a great 2010/11 season winning both the league and the French Cup. Gervinho made a big contribution by scoring 18 goals and caught the attention of several European clubs. On 12 July 2011 he signed for Arsenal, for a fee of £10.7 million. He received a red card in his Premier League debut but has since then rapidly settled in as a key player for the club.

Mario Balotelli is a striker who plays for English side Manchester City and Italy.
His parents were immigrants from Ghana but they gave him up for adoption at the age of three. His Italian surname is from his adopted family and he gained his Italian citizenship when he turned 18 years old. Througout his career in Italy he has been subjected to racial abuse from fans of other teams.
In Balotelli’s early years he came through a local team in Lombardy called Lumezzane. He made his senior debut for them aged 15 and then travelled to Barcelona on a trial. That was unsuccessful and he soon returned to northern Italy. Internazionale signed the motivated teenager on loan from Lumezzane, which Inter made permanent just before he turned 17. Later that year, in December 2007, Balotelli made his Serie A debut. He soon scored for Internazionale both in Coppa Italia and in Serie A and the season ended with them winning the Serie A title. Manager Roberto Mancini was still sacked because of their early departure from the Champions League that season. Mancini was replaced by Jose Mourinho. The following season also had the young Balotelli scoring in the Champions League and with Internazionale again winning the Serie A. Balotelli was hovever having a mounting amount of disciplinary problems. Mourinho accused him for not putting effor into his training and these problems continued into the next season. Several controversial incidents led to some fans and team mates also turning against Balotelli.

In August 2010 his former coach Roberto Mancini signed Balotelli to Manchester City for a fee of £24 million. His first season in England was troubled by an injury and some lack of control of his temperament. He received two red cards during the season but also scored some important goals. Manchester City finished the season by winning the FA Cup final and Balotelli was named man of the match. He has followed this up by starting the 2011/12 season in fine form, scoring and assisting several goals.

The dust has barely settled around Luka Modric at Tottenham before they have a new problem in Rafael Van der Vaart. The Dutchman was last season’s top scorer for Spurs, with a lot of their games planned around his movement and style of play. His abilities as a finisher have never been in doubt. The price Spurs might have paid last season was less play-time for their strikers and, in the end, an acute lack of goals from them (Defoe, Pavlyuchenko and Crouch).
Van der Vaart’s influence has sometimes shown to be a bit of a double-edged sword. When things haven’t gone his way he has not held back his frustrations, earning himself bookings and being sent off – indeed he has even substituted himself off and walked straight to the changing rooms. When manager Harry Redknapp has substituted a visibly tired VDV, it has sometimes almost translated to disgust from the Dutchman. His nibbling injury problems, notably with a weak hamstring, has often been a problem. The injury problems was the reason Redknapp decided to omit Van der Vaart from Tottenham’s squad for the group stages of the Europa League. Van der Vaart spoke out in the media against that decision.

When Tottenham beat Arsenal last Sunday VDV was substituted in the 63rd minute. In the 1st half he had put his team ahead with a brilliant goal but displayed his short-comings in tracking back and helping the team to defend. To facilitate both Jermain Defoe and newly arrived loanee Emmanuel Adebayor as strikers, Redknapp had deployed VDV on the right side of the midfield. Van der Vaart has expressed before how he doesn’t prefer to play in that position. After the match Van der Vaart again decided to come out in the media and criticised Redknapp for playing him in that position and for substituting him.

Harry Redknapp has responded to the media by saying,
“Yes, it does seem to be a problem. Rafa can’t run back and chase the full-back. Against the better teams it is a problem.
“Rafa’s best position is in the middle, playing just behind the front man. The only problem is that Jermain Defoe plays there too and Jermain is playing very, very well at the moment.
“So, I guess I have got a decision to make, haven’t I? I suppose it’s now between Rafa and Jermain over who plays in the team.
“Rafa is a terrific footballer. He has great skill. But if you’re in the team and asked to do a job, really, you should just do it.”

Tottenham supporters are left to wonder why this discussion goes through the media, and where is the relationship between manager and player heading next time Van der Vaart is unhappy with a Redknapp decision.

Carlos Tevez turned his back on Manchester United. He hates the city of Manchester and he has been one long saga of troubles at Manchester City. Nobody denies his top scoring talent but he has been a nightmare to handle for City manager Roberto Mancini. After Tevez refused to come on as a 2nd half substitute in yesterday’s 0-2 loss to Bayern München in the Champions League, Mancini has had enough.
A furious Mancini has declared Tevez to be finished at the club. He has called for an emergency meeting with Manchester City’s wealthy owners from the Abu Dhabi United Group.

Mancini says the situation is impossible. When he was asked why Tevez refused to take to the field, Mancini replied: “He just refused to go on. I don’t know why. I cannot be happy with this situation. Would something like this happen at Bayern Munich, AC Milan or Manchester United? I am the manager. I decide everything. Carlos didn’t play at the start of the season because he has not had a pre-season for three years. He was not ready to play. If it was another player maybe this could happen, but for a player to refuse to go on in an important game like this is not right.”

Straight after the match Tevez told journalists: “I didn’t feel like playing, so I didn’t..” Today he has retracted it all as a misunderstanding, that he didn’t refuse to play. That’s certainly not Mancini’s view of the events.

Roberto Mancini stripped the Argentinian of the captaincy at the start of the season. Since then he has also discovered that being a regular starter is something he has to earn as well. Yesterday’s events could be the final nail in the coffin for Tevez. The manager is clear: If we want to improve like a team, like a squad, Carlos cannot play with us. With me, no – it is finished.

“It may not be my decision but if I’m deciding then, yes, he goes. For me, if a player earns a lot of money playing for Manchester City in the Champions League and he behaves like this – he cannot play again. Never. He has wanted to leave for the last two years. For two years I have helped him, and now he has refused to play. Never again.”