Farewell Tevez

This week saw the end of a saga in English football which has dominated the last seven years.

Arriving on transfer deadline day direct from the 2006 World Cup from Corinthians to West Ham, Carlos Tevez has remained an enigma since that day.

Why gritty east London? Why there, and the questions we would ask later - why did it take you so long to score your first goal and who actually owns you and your contract?

The former seemed to be sorted once he scored his first goal against Spurs, the second resulted in a £5 million fine and some would argue, the relegation of Sheffield United.

His move to Manchester United was undoubtedly a success, paired with Rooney and Hernandez he was a part of the team who won the 2008 champions league and he played in the 50th anniversary of the Munich air disaster.

His move to noisy neighbours Manchester City didn't work out so well; yes he scored, but he lost his crazy man image to Mario Ballotelli, had to battle for first team places with Aguero and Dzeko and the Bayern Munich incident and subsequent strike lost him more fans.

Now he will be wearing the black and white of Juventus, and he will wear the number 10 formerly worn by legend Alessandro Del Piero. It's a loss to English football no doubt, as he leaves a mould of a scarred, battle hungry footballer who most teams (mine included, rumour was Spurs tried to sign him in early 2012) wanted in their starting eleven.

More than 30 years since the Falklands war, it seems that we love Argentinians again - from Ardiles and Villa to Aguero and Messi, not missing Maradona, they bring a certain panache of dogged spirit to the game without the career decline seen in so many brazilians.

Farewell Carlos, here's hoping you keep the silverware coming back to Turin.

Things are on the up - an optimistic look at Liverpool this past season and future.

Cast your mind back to last summer. Liverpool had parted company with Kenny Dalglish. Finishing eighth,winning the League Cup and reaching the FA Cup Final was clearly not enough for the Liverpool owners and so a search for a new manager had begun. Many names were mentioned but it came to being the manager of Swansea FC, one Brendan Rodgers. Many people saw it as a strange choice but ultimately a brave choice.

He took some risks during the summer and notably the transfer deadline day debacle which saw Andy Carroll go on loan but no other striker brought in albeit not for the want of trying. This had left Suarez as the main goalscorer.

Rodgers had a vision and wanted to restore pride to the club. The famous This is Anfield sign from the 74-98 era was back up on the tunnel. This vision to restore the club back to the dizzy heights of success may not be an overnight return but a journey that even took the great Bill Shankly a period of time.

The season ended with Liverpool finishing seventh but ultimately another striker purchased before deadline day would have seen Liverpool further up the table. In fact from the start of 2013 Brendan Rodgers Liverpool side suffered only three Premier League defeats which saw Liverpool finish on a run which included sticking 6 past Newcastle United in one of the games with Suarez banned.

Liverpool's home record seems to be steering in the right direction. Whilst the loss column may have gone up one to four since the departure of Benitez, the win column appears to be more than the draw column. This may be Rodgers first season, but the signs are optimistic. Anfield remains a tight ship defensively. The goalscoring issue that helped to cause so many home draws looks like disappearing. Liverpool bagged 33 which was more than the previous season where the reds at home only managed 24.

The away form which hadn't seen a positive win loss record since the club finished second in 2008/09 season, saw Liverpool under Rodgers halve the defeats and finish with a record of 7 wins, 7 draws and 5 defeats. Notably though was the number of goals scored. Liverpool bagged a record 38 goals scored on the road. This was two more than the Benitez side that finished second.

Despite all those willing to aim cheap shots at Liverpool during the last season, Liverpool's transition upwards may well be comfortably in that direction.

In a season which saw Fergie retire, Mancini sacked, Mourinho return to Chelsea from the Real Madrid saga, Moyes appointed Everton manager. I wouldn't be surprised to see Liverpool pushing their way through.

To those Everton fans who think that the blue half of Merseyside is the dominant force in Liverpool, I would think again.