Play well at the World Cup and you’re made for life – at least that’s how it seems to work.

Some players emerge from nowhere to earn mega-money deals at top clubs, while established stars merely see their stock shoot through the roof if they play well during the biggest show on Earth.

One example of someone enjoying a terrific tournament is Carlos Tevez, though this comes on the back of a terrific season with the Blues and, it has to be said, a fantastic career to date.

Refreshingly, rather than link the Argentine superstar with the usual suspects (Inter, Real, Barca... yawn), Martin Blackburn in The Sun leads with ‘Carlos going nowhere’.

“Manchester City insist Carlos Tevez is staying put,” writes Blackburn in the Football Confidential column. “Jose Mourinho is said to be weighing up a £40m swoop for the Argentina striker.”

Blackburn adds a City source has responded by saying, “Carlos is going nowhere. He is happy and we are looking forward to welcoming him back next month.”

Meanwhile, John Cross in the Daily Mirror reckons the Blues are doing some weighing up, too, with Landon Donovan a surprise target. His evidence seems a little flimsy, however: “Megabucks City watched Donovan at the World Cup,” he writes. Presumably this could apply to 300 others at the tournament, too?

Back in The Sun, Pat Sheehan makes an interesting point about a comment from Fabio Capello that the England players were tired during the World Cup. “But the exertions of the last campaign do not seem to have done Argy livewire Carlos Tevez or Holland’s Dirk Kuyt too much harm,” notes Sheehan.

“Tevez played 2,868 minutes in 34 league appearances for Manchester City last season while England flop Wayne Rooney played 32 league games for Manchester United and clocked up 2,723 minutes.”

Based on those figures and then adding in Kuyt’s 3,016 minutes’ action for Liverpool during the 2009/10 campaign and Fabio’s explanation for his players’ poor performances, itself, looks a little tired...