Many foreign players arrive in the Premier League bursting with promise and potential, but ultimately have little or no impact on the pitch.

Others, however, leave their mark in quite dramatic fashion. And I don’t think anyone could really doubt that Carlos Tevez did that over his seven years in England.

The little Argentinean has, in fact, been involved in so many memorable events over that time that you could say he has been one of the game’s most prominent players, both in a good and bad way.

He burst onto the scene at West Ham United, helping to save them from relegation at the expense of my own Sheffield United. (Yes, it still hurts).

At the end of that season he was embroiled in the third party ownership scandal that ended up costing the Hammers £25 million (€29m) in compensation to the Blades. (That bit hurts a little less).

He did the unthinkable and moved to the blue half of Manchester

From there it was on to Manchester United where he won both the league and the Champions League and became, understandably, a bit of a crowd favourite.

However, that soon changed in dramatic fashion when he did the unthinkable and moved to the blue half of Manchester where he became City’s captain and led them to their first FA Cup win in 42 years.

But it wasn’t all roses at the Etihad. There was also the famous time when he went AWOL, numerous occasions when he said he didn’t want to play for the club again, and frequent complaints of homesickness.

And then THAT moment against Bayern Munich when he fell out with manager Roberto Mancini in the most dramatic fashion imaginable by allegedly refusing to come on as a substitute.

It looked like his City career was dead and buried – if not his entire football career – but he showed more durability than Silvio Berlusconi to come back one more time and help the club to its first league title in 44 years. Not bad as comebacks go.

But now he has said a final farewell to the Premier League, snapped up by Juventus for £10 million (€11.7m) in what can only be described as an absolute bargain for the Italian giants.

At 29, he is probably in his prime, and I’m fairly sure he has a few more goals left in him to add to the 200-plus he has already scored for club and country.

He won’t go down in history as the greatest ever foreign import to the English league – Eric Cantona has had that title sown up for years. He won’t even go down as the most prolific goal scorer or the most skilful player.

But he will be remembered as one of those players who came to England and actually contributed to the game, rather than just sitting back and soaking up the money.

And I think Manchester City – maybe even the league as a whole – will only realise how much they miss him now he is gone.

A determined Anfield

Whisper it quietly but it seems Liverpool might actually be taking next season seriously.

While most of the other top teams in the Premier League have gone into a summer lull, Brendan Rogers has been signing players left, right and centre.

Belgium international goalkeeper Simon Mignolet is the latest to be snapped up by Rogers, making a £9 million (€10.5m) move from Sunderland. He joins an Anfield influx that has also seen Kolo Toure, Iago Aspas and Luis Alberto join the club.

All decent signings and, when added to the January acquisitions of Daniel Sturridge and Philippe Coutinho, it really does seem like Liverpool are trying their best to close the gap on the top four.

Of course, there will be departures. Luis Suarez is almost certain to leave, and I can’t see Pepe Raina hanging around to watch Mignolet not making mistakes for long. Plus the other top teams are obviously going to start splashing serious cash at some point over the next couple of months as they start strengthening their own squads.

Both those things will see the gulf between the top four and Liverpool start to widen once again. But by making their signings nice and early and giving their new players a full pre-season to settle in, Rogers has given himself and his team the best possible chance of hitting the ground running come August.

I’m not going to make the same mistake I did a few season ago and claim that Liverpool could be challenging for the title this time round. I still get routinely laughed at for that one. Often in public.

But I would definitely put a crafty tenner on them sneaking into the top four.

Whatever the weather

The more cricket I watch, the more I fall in love with the sport.

I admit it can be a bit slow-paced at times, especially test matches that take the best part of a week to reach a conclusion.

But the shorter formats of the game – one-day and 20/20 – can provide excitement of the highest order.

Over the past couple of weeks, the International Cricket Council Championships were held in England, a tournament that brings together the best eight teams in a sort of mini World Cup.

It was eventually won by India, who beat England with the very last ball of a final that was heavily affected by the weather.

Which brings me to a point I have raised before but which I feel compelled to raise again: cricket needs to sort out its weather issues.

Although the first week of the tournament passed by without too much disruption it was downhill from there, with several matches abandoned or shortened because of rain.

The final itself was cut from 50 overs per side to 20 overs after a mostly miserable day in Birmingham. For long periods it looked like there wouldn’t be any play at all, which would have meant the trophy being shared.

How on earth can any serious sport allow the weather to disrupt it to that extent?

Can you imagine a football World Cup final being reduced from 90 minutes to 10 minutes each way just because it was a bit damp?

Or, worse still, abandoned entirely and the trophy shared?

I appreciate that conditions play a role in cricket in terms of the wicket itself and how much the bowlers can get the ball to turn. But those conditions are the same for both teams just like they are in football when the ground is soggy.

This situation frustrates me because I genuinely believe that if there were less of these daft weather issues, more people could be enticed to start watching the game. Then they might find themselves gradually getting hooked, in much the same way I did.

The Ashes start in a few days, so don’t try and speak to me while that’s on. England and Australia going head to head in five test matches in what is one of the most intense rivalries in any sport.

Should be 25 days of cricket to remember.

Although, when the weather has had its way, it will probably end up around 12 days…

The Scottish Pele

John Lambie might not be a football manager everyone has heard of. After all, he spent all of his managerial career in the Scottish leagues with teams like Partick Thistle and Falkirk.

But he was a man who loved good sound bites. And last week I was reminded of one of his best.

During a game, one of his players sustained a head injury and was carried from the pitch dazed and confused.

The physio explained the situation to Lambie, pointing out that the player was concussed and didn’t know who he was.

“That’s great. Tell him he’s Pele and get him back on,” was his superb response.

I wonder if something similar happened to Nicklas Bendtner at some point in his career…?

sportscolumnist@timesofmalta.com
Twitter: @maltablade