Re: Corinthians make 35 million bid for tevez
A fearfully accurate centre forward, Clive Allen joined Queens Park Rangers as a youth player, making his debut in 1978 at the age of 17. Allen scored a hat trick on his full debut against Coventry City in a 5-1 win, but QPR were relegated at the end of that season and Allen became a first-choice striker in their quest to return to the top flight, scoring a phenomenal 28 goals in 1979-80, though QPR failed to win promotion. This prompted Arsenal to make a bid of £1,250,000 for him in the summer of 1980, which QPR accepted. At the time, it was the highest fee to be paid for a teenager by any British club.
There followed a most bizarre sequence of events which led to Allen leaving Arsenal within just two months of arriving at Highbury, having not played a single competitive match (although he did play three matches Arsenal's 1980-81 pre-season friendly campaign). He was sold in part-exchange to Crystal Palace in another seven-figure deal which saw England full back Kenny Sansom come the other way. There was a rumour that QPR and Palace had secured a deal for Allen on the condition that QPR did not sell Allen to Palace directly, and Arsenal acted as go-betweens. This has never been confirmed.
Call me cynical if you like but I wouldn't be surprised to learn that Kia Joorabchian has engineered a similar "arrangement" between Corinthians & Chelsea.
Full £50 million or he don't go anywhere.... plus a further sell on clause in case this is a scam to join Chelsea by stealth.