Manchester City midfielder Javi Garcia admitted he would love to see Radamel Falcao joining the English Premier League champions, while Joey Barton termed Carlos Tevez a "mercenary" and the "epitome of what's wrong with modern players."
City and Chelsea have been heavily linked with a January move for one of the best strikers in the world today. With Atletico Madrid heavily in debt, a sale of their prized asset has not been completely ruled out, even though it is more likely Falcao will leave at the end of the season, rather than the January transfer window.
Garcia knows all about the qualities that Falcao possesses, having faced him against Porto while playing for Benfica.
"He's a great player and he can play in any league that he wants at the moment," Garcia told Sport360.
"Falcao has been fantastic. He is scoring a lot of goals in La Liga now and I already know him from Portugal where he did the same.
"I would rather play with him than against him. I faced him for Benfica against Porto when we were both playing in Portugal so I know what he can do. I'd be happy to have him in my team."
City manager Roberto Mancini is a big fan of the Colombian international, watching him during Atletico's 2-1 win over Malaga last weekend. Falcao has a release clause of £46 million (73.7 million), and both City and Chelsea will have to take the Financial Fair Play regulations into consideration before deciding to match the price.
Meanwhile, Marseille midfielder Barton hit out at Tevez's behavior last season, where the Argentine international walked out of City after a spat with Mancini. "Tevez? He's a mercenary. You can't really back him," Barton told The Times. "Sure, I'm a hoodlum, I've got into scrapes - but Tevez is someone who in the last six months has gone on strike, gone off to Argentina to play golf, tried to get himself sacked.
"If that's not the epitome of what's wrong with modern players, I don't know what is. And don't forget, Tevez punched me first."
Barton received a 12-game ban from the FA while playing for Queens Park Rangers after receiving a straight red card in the final game of the season, and the former City midfielder believes he was harshly punished. "The FA charged me for separate offences that took place in the same 25-second sequence," he said.
"Yet Pablo Mills threw a number of punches but was charged for one offence. Paolo Di Canio fights a player, gets sent off, pushes the referee over, raises his hands to Nigel Winterburn...
"In the cold light of day, no-one was dead. (Sergio) Aguero got a dead leg. It self-evidently didn't affect him because 20 minutes later he was scoring the winner. Tevez and (Vincent) Kompany were fine.
"I think the FA reckoned I'd appeal and they could make it nine games. Maybe by not appealing I won a small, perverse victory. Because it makes them look bad. John Terry got four games. Luis Suarez eight. So I'm Terry plus Suarez?
"What it says is, if I'd racially abused the City players I'd have got a lot less than for 30 seconds of the red mist descending. What message does that send to kids? Where does that leave 'Kick Racism Out Of Football?'"
