City need Silva to strike gold

It is getting to the time of the year when some people like to talk about Alex Ferguson’s mind games, and he obliged them before the weekend with some mildly provocative comments about Manchester City’s recall of Carlos Tevez.

“Could that come under the description of desperation?” wondered Ferguson, in response to Patrick Vieira’s suggestion that the return of Paul Scholes showed United were desperate for reinforcements.

The most notable aspect of what Ferguson had to say was his merry, almost playful demeanour while saying it. There was none of the narrow-eyed rancour to which Ferguson can succumb when he is under pressure, and if there was any wider agenda to the remarks beyond pointing out the obvious, it may have been to demonstrate how super-relaxed he is now that his favourite time of the season has come around.