It is a terrible shame, because Tevez could have been a Blue legend, the kind of player whose name echoes through the ages, revered by the grandchildren of today’s supporters as much as by those fans themselves.
And yet, in several acts of selfishness and petulance, he has ensured that, as soon as he departs these shores, his name will be simply a stark entry in the record books.
Roberto Mancini’s hard line was the only option open to him. If he had allowed Tevez to get away with his seeming refusal to play in the Allianz Arena, he may as well have kicked open the door to chaos and indiscipline.
Mancini, whose power and influence at the club grows by the day, as well as his stature in the English game, had to ensure everyone knew he was the boss.
His stance was instantly backed by City fans, fed up with a man who disrespects their city, and shows a continual disregard for the team.
Now it needs the City board to back Mancini and those fans, and – providing the internal review has not uncovered some startling new evidence that Tevez is innocent – slap him with the maximum fine.
Natural justice might demand that the Blues terminate his contract and pursue him through the courts for the compensation for his actions having cost them a transfer fee, as Chelsea did with drug-taking Adrian Mutu seven years ago.
That would be a satisfying outcome for many Blues fans, as Tevez – if found to have breached his contract without just cause – could face paying the club as much as £30m.
But that path is fraught with difficulties, as well as being long and tortuous. The kind of path which is loved by lawyers, but which everyone else finds sapping and counter-productive.
Heart
Chelsea’s case against Mutu, who was found to have taken cocaine and was so clearly in breach of his contract, is still dragging on now, as the Romanian star takes his case to the European Court of Human Rights after being ordered to pay the club around £14m.
Much as it would be satisfying to make Tevez pay for his arrogance, head needs to rule heart.
If the Blues can sell him to the highest bidder in January, the matter is done and dusted, and the club moves on.
What also should not be forgotten is Tevez has been an important figure for City in the last two seasons, which will be looked back upon as perhaps the most important period in City’s history.
Recrimination is thick in the Manchester air, but Tevez – well-rewarded as he has been – deserves credit for his part in the Blues’ resurgence.
In among the lip-curls, sneers and tantrums, there have been moments of glory and joy, goals of world-class quality, and a willingness to work which has shamed some of his peers.
But when it came to the crunch, Tevez has refused to show any real regret for what happened.
His adviser Kia Joorabchian spoke for him last week, still denying that Tevez’s post-match interview was a clear indication that he had refused to go on.
Joorabchian blamed City’s part-time interpreter, and insists that the translation was wrong, even though every other interpreter has – when it came to the salient points – said the translation was correct and that Tevez had indicated he was not ready to go on the pitch.
A little contrition would not have gone amiss.
Surely Tevez can see that, regardless of how maltreated he feels he has been by Mancini, that not playing when asked is not only a gross breach of a footballer’s contract, but also utterly disrespectful to his team-mates and the City fans who had paid a large amount of cash to follow their team to Germany.
Attitude
With a club review under way, something which could have legal repercussions, his silence was understandable. But Joorabchian’s words last week show, other than a poor attempt at trying to apologise to the fans – although we are not sure for what he was sorry – there is no recognition of wrongdoing.
If Tevez is found to have been in the wrong, he can be fined six weeks’ wages, a cool £1.38m.
Then the club has to decide what is to be done with him until he can be sold.
Unless he shows a reversal in attitude, apologises to Mancini and promises to knuckle down and get on with his job, he needs to train alone. Not with the kids, where his disgruntled chat could fall on impressionable young ears.
Ideally, Tevez will realise he has done wrong, accept any punishment, get involved in some of City’s excellent charity and community work as an apology, and re-join the first-team squad a humbler and more balanced individual.
But he still needs to go, unless Mancini detects a real sea-change in his attitude.
Events of recent weeks have given more power to Mancini’s elbow.
The unfortunate departure of chief executive Garry Cook, with whom Mancini had clashed over player recruitment, strengthened his hand on the club’s tiller.
And his hard line on Tevez, his disciplinary action against Edin Dzeko’s show of displeasure, and the way he has guided the tempestuous talent of Mario Balotelli has made him a stronger figure in the eyes of the playing staff.
Mancini has already stated that he wants greater control over team affairs, and he has taken steps towards assuming the kind of position Sir Alex Ferguson has established at United.
He also has had no hesitation purging the squad of elements he felt were disruptive so Craig Bellamy, Emmanuel Adebayor and Stevie Ireland have all gone.
Tevez may be the final phase of that purge, shame though it will be.
What do you think? Have your say. Tweet
Comments
Login or Register to comment
Spot on SB - excellent article
Sounds like a plan!
I have three F's for Tevez as well, but mine aren't printable in a family newspaper
But surely we should have some sympathy with Carlos. What torture it must be for him to have to exist on a paltry wage of over £200k per week for another four years, what torture it must be to spend at least 90 minutes per week kicking a bag of wind about, what torture it must be to have to endure all his first class Continental flight plans to carry out such harduous and hazardous business. So you see, we should surely get right behind him in his struggle and help him into the real world of humanity by offering him alternative work in the mills or the mines.
Sounds a bit Iggy Pop to me but I like it!
I certainly agree with the "flog him" bit. Will it be in private or on the stage at City Square?
Sorry, Stuart, but there is no way back for Tevez. Also, Mancini has weakened his own position at the club, and there is NO way that he will be assuming more power.
Fine Tevez for an additional six weeks, and then send him to that mega-rich club in Russia. It will be interesting then to see if he fancies the weather or the restaurants there. I just hope we don't bring van Persie in to replace Tevez. He's also 28, and we've done enough to subsidize Arsenal's incompetence.
With regard to flogging Tevez, how about in the centre circle before the Villa game?
The priority has to be to get this distracting drama finished, otherwise City's attempts at silverware could be weakened.
That means getting Tevez, as quickly as possible, away from Manchester, and better still, out of the country.
Get rid, the sooner the better. Having Tevez hanging around 'till January is not a good idea; it would be like having a ghost around the club or training ground with the press constantly making stories up. The result would be disastrous for the club's focus on the playing field and chances of success in competition.
Therefore sacking him now on the proviso that he signs for a foreign league team is the best immediate policy. His new club should pay directly to City 30 million and get Tevez as a free agent, or hammer him in the courts for months. But get him out of the country immediately; the longer he is around, the more distraction he will be, ruining this seasons results and the cohesion of the whole club.
Mancini has stated that Carlos Tevez is "finished" at City and that is the only tenable position. Tevez's actions in Munich, as far as I can see, were a calculated act to settle a score with Mancini and City. What he did was a disgrace. He has wanted out, for one reason or another, for a while now, but the club quite rightly insisted on a transfer fee which reflected the player's value. It would have been an honourable parting of the ways if someone had bought him in the summer. But now his reputation is in tatters, his value has nose dived and the real Tevez appears to be the pathetic specimen that has to put up his agent to trot out ridiculous and humiliating nonsense about the translator's incompetence. Sorry Tevez - you WERE a hero and could have become a legend : now you're despised as a stupid disgrace.
The only article I want on Tevez is sold in January with a sell-on clause in the contract. No longer interested in any article about him from now until then!
Nice read Stuart. This for me is not just about Judez but also setting a strong precedence for the Future of Players conduct and instilling Mancini's authority over all playing aspects at City.
We need to make a mark in World football that this club will never again be messed with !!!
Players of course know that City are now at the very top when it comes to finance's but with that must come 100% professional attitudes etc etc. Whatever the outcome i hope Tevez suffers for his 'little school boy tantrum' CTID
Forza Mancini , adios Tevez
Stuart Brennan another hang em high reporter like all the others crawling out of the woodwork. Mancini can't, or wont back down even if he was wrong. So Tevez, has to be the fall guy and take all the crap from everyone, especially the wonderfull City fans. If they had let him go when he wanted to go instead of inflating the transfer fee, they wouldn't have to stoop this low now they have got a replacement. Talk about GUILTY UNTIL PROVED INNOCENT.
Stuart, that is the most balanced and objective article on Carlos Tevez I've read since Munich.
We all need to take a bex and wait to find out the "massaged" version of what happened. If Mancini had overlooked this incident then he was finished, so hope LW goes and soon.
Final phase in the purge???, lets hope so. Mancini's job has been difficult enough, but he's also had some right yo-yo's to deal with along the way, to boot. The job that he has done whilst sifting and showing the door to the numbers he has, is quite remarkable.
The "elements he found disruptive" is a very general description, but although not all have gone for the same reasons, the disruption it has or may have caused to squad/team focus has always been a threat to to long-term target reaching. From players who generally thought they were better than they actually were, to those who got involved in a drinking club, and others who felt they deserved different treatment particularly when they weren't making themselves consistently available because of injuries,............ they had have all been left on the roadside, and, what is most important, how many of them can we say that given what they have done since they went, has Mancini made a mistake with, a real rickets of an error of judgement???, I cannot think of one.
Besides, all the shennanagins in Munich, and everything prior to that, there are other aspects about Tevez that are not out in the public domain,......................I am led to believe, he had his own medical staff to tend to him, not City's, (a clause in his contract perhaps??), people who had to stand and watch, as I'm told, in disbelief, whilst he was "treated" by people from Argentina, who hadn't a hope in hell of getting him right, or certainly not in a timescale expected of a top sporting institution, things like that surely must rankle with , managerial, playing, and medical staff alike.
The sooner he's gone the better, and one thing's for sure, many thought Aguero was his replacement, but once he goes, City will bring someone else in who is probably better anyway, but who will certainly be more committed to the cause, and focused on behaving.
CT is a kid from the slums who can't handle fame & fortune, gifted with marvellous talent but must have no family support/guidence.
He needs help, he's been great for City but he's ruined it for himself and most of all the young fans who idolised him.
He can't play for our great club again, his market value has reduced considerably, he has done so much damage, what's going on in that mind of his.
He had the world at his feet, all gone now, we've lost our highly skilled goal scoring work horse and he's lost his marbles
so so sad!!!
CTID
I cannot believe that city supporters have fell for the media trial of Carlos before the finding of the club as been disclosed.On one point How many managers would have reacted the way Roberto did in front of the cameras,he should have simply said that the issue would be dealt with within the club in the club and not hes knee jerk reaction .Fun how we can now just get rid of a world class player when a few years ago we were having to watch journeymen.Lets hope that both parties can for the the goodness of the club sort it out.