Carlos Tevez: Mistaken, misunderstood, misguided.
Tevez allegedly refused to come on as a substitute in Manchester City's 2-0 defeat to Bayern Munich on Tuesday
It’s been labelled the night football went mad. Manchester United threw away a two goal lead at home, two players of the same team started fighting in the centre circle, and Carlos Tevez – a man who reportedly earns £250,000 per week – refused to come on as a substitute in a massive Champions League clash. The cynical would say that this sort of action by a footballer has been coming for some time, and they would probably be right. They would probably also say that it is what Manchester City deserve for the direction they have driven the financial climate of world football. Solely on a professional level though, this sort of behaviour is absolutely despicable and can never be allowed to happen again. Tevez pleaded his innocence when he met the media after the game, claiming that he had warmed up and that he did not refuse to go on, but did have an exchange with Roberto Mancini. If you believe that, you’re a fool. What possible other explanation can there be for Tevez? And why would Mancini make those claims firm in the knowledge of what a media furore it would cause? It is all completely farcical. A man who refuses to do his job in any other profession, gets sacked, it’s as simple as that. It would be an insult to the rest of the City team if Tevez ever played for the club again. The closest precedent in recent times to this was Adrian Mutu at Chelsea in 2004, who was sacked for gross misconduct after failing a drugs test for cocaine. Another case is Roy Keane at Manchester United back in 2005, he criticised the team and was promptly shown the exit door. Will Mancini take the same action? It’s difficult to say considering the financial implications any contract termination could incur, which is a detail that complicates the matter further. If it was down to principle, and principle alone, then Tevez would be out the door, but that would represent a huge financial loss for both club and player, and is therefore an unlikely scenario. This means the most likely outcome is that Tevez will be fined, left to train on his own (as Mancini did with Emmanuel Adebayor in the summer), and moved on for whatever price in January; an outcome that does not suit anyone but makes the most financial sense.
What you must also consider is that all of this stems back to the summer, when City could, and should, have sold Tevez. They will now be wishing they had taken a cut price offer to him and let the fans wave him a fond farewell. Fans are now saying that if Tevez was that desperate to be with his family he would have pushed through a move and taken a pay cut. There will be no such goodbye when he leaves now, despite the player’s apology to the fans, and the list of suitors will have diminished significantly after last night’s behaviour. It’s all a hugely messy situation with Mancini claiming in the aftermath of the Bayern game that him and Tevez were “finished”, it would take a weak manager to go back on those words. Tevez is still a class player, one of the best in the world on his day, but there just seems to be too much baggage with him and he may find himself joining a long list of players who had it all and threw it all away.
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