Why City were never going to bewitch Verón

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Because you are a mercenary.
Because you were rubbish at Manchester United.
Because you were rubbish at Chelsea.
Because you canâÂÂt dribble round a lamp post.
Because you are too old to keep playing.
Because you drive a Ferrari to training.

There are 74 more reasons, similar to those above, that have led one particularly angry (and arguably unbalanced) individual to dedicate considerable time and effort into putting together a website reasoning why we should all hate Juan âÂÂ$eba$tiánâ Verón.

That said, âÂÂhateâ is too mild a term to express this supporterâÂÂs bile towards the midfielder.

So it is that most of the 80 Reasons To Detest Verón are unpublishable on several grounds - they are mostly litigious, based on ridiculous rumours, highly offensive, and in several cases, just plain wrong.

The website, together with links to âÂÂevidenceâ that Verón was on England's side in the 2002 World Cup, does serve one purpose, however.

Like Guns n' Roses guitarist Slash, the divide is fairly easily drawn.

VerónâÂÂs relationship with most Argentina supporters never recovered after the 2002 World Cup, with the Brujita â Little Witch â shouldering the blame for the AlbicelesteâÂÂs early exit.


"Here you are, old boy"

As Manchester United and Chelsea fans can confirm, however, the early noughties were far from providing the high water mark in VerónâÂÂs career.

After a spell at Inter Milan, Verón decided to return to the club where he started out â Estudiantes.

Verón had broken into the PinchaâÂÂs first team in 1994 and helped the club gain promotion back to Argentine top flight.

He then came within two minutes of emulating his father Juan 'El Brujo' VerónâÂÂs achievement from 1968 - winning the transatlantic showdown with the European champions.

Barcelona, however, were too busy finishing off a remarkable year to allow the Veróns another moment of glory.


They can't take this away...

Despite the silverware, and despite recently winning a second consecutive South American Player of the Year award, VerónâÂÂs tie with Estudiantes is tighter than any other player.

The money he gave up was part of the agreement â it would pay for new installations and also buy a new bus to transport the Estudiantes youth team players to games.

Any references to VerónâÂÂs performances in or against England are ignored.

"You have to remember," one devout Pincha fan once told Argie Bargy, "that for Estudiantes fans, and in La Plata, Verón is God."

It's not just gestures like renouncing money that elevate Verón to that status.

He's still regularly producing goals like this one, and perhaps it was that which made City try to lure him back to Manchester.

City reasonably believed that an economically-challenged club in Argentina wouldnâÂÂt turn their nose up at ã7 million for one of their players.

They also reasonably thought that at 34 years of age, the player in question wouldnâÂÂt turn his nose up at a final payday. (Patrick Vieira certainly didn't).


"I couldn't leave you guys"

Yet not even the promise of seven million petropounds all for himself was enough to convince Verón to join Manchester City â or more to the point, to leave Estudiantes.

At most, Verón has two years left in him before quitting the game.

An upstairs role at Estudiantes â one which will pave the way for him to become club president in the future â awaits.

For now he is still the clubâÂÂs most important player. The slower game in Argentina allows him to dictate matches, something which is hard to imagine him doing in the Premier League.

And that is surely one reason to like Juan Sebastián Verón.

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