Carlos Tevez looked like a finished man in Manchester City, after months of battling Roberto Mancini and the club. The player known for his endless quest for better terms and an exaggerating pride looked as the next victim of Mancini’s hard leadership. Then suddenly things changed...
Tevez signed Manchester City in 2009 and was almost seen as a saint stolen from the rival Manchester United. In the 2010-2011 season, the Argentinean national player wanted to leave because of family reasons, but he was forced to stay in the club for the 2011-2012 Premier League. The whole Tevez saga started back in September 2011, when Roberto Mancini stripped the captaincy off the Argentinean, because he had perceived disloyalty over the summer. Mancini said:
"Carlos wanted to leave for family reasons. I respected his opinion, but Carlos is still here because we didn't find a solution for him. He's a fantastic player for us, someone who can score 20 goals a season, but I decided in the summer that Vinnie was the captain."
However, Carlos Tevez had another view on the situation as he felt he was held in the club against his will and spoke of a “love-hate language and love-hate relationship” with Mancini. To make things even worse for the Argentinean striker, he was no longer a part of the starting line, having lost his position to Sergio Agüero and Edin Dzeko. This was a hard punch for the proud striker who had been a regular part of the starting XI in the past season. Everything escalated the 27th of September when Tevez refused to come on as a second half substitute in the 2-0 loss against Bayern Munich. It was a furious Mancini who met the press after the match, claiming he wanted a meet with the club owners, Abu Dhabi Group, to get Tevez out of the club.
"It may not be my decision, but if I'm deciding then, yes, he goes. For me, if a player earns a lot of money playing for Manchester City in the Champions League and he behaves like this – he cannot play again. Never. He has wanted to leave for the last two years. For two years, I have helped him, and now he has refused to play. Never again."
Meanwhile, Tevez gave a rather weak explanation on the situation, saying he “didn’t fell right to play, so I didn’t”. A statement he denied the next day saying, "There was some confusion on the bench and I believe my position may have been misunderstood” and that he was "Going forward I am ready to play when required and to fulfill my obligations."
Manchester City chose to suspend Carlos Tevez for two weeks and fined him £500.000, while the lawyers researched which actions they could take against the player and how to find him guilty of misconduct. The fine given to Tevez was the largest ever given in English football. In October 2011, the club was ready to have a disciplinary interview with the player, how was to be charged with gross misconduct. A club statement said:
"The club has now reached a stage in its investigation where it has concluded that there is a case for Carlos Tevez to answer of alleged breaches of contract. Accordingly, the club has informed him that he will face disciplinary proceedings and the hearing will be convened shortly."
Carlos Tevez’ advisor Kia Joorabchian defended Tevez saying the the player did not refuse to play but to warm up, as he was already warm. However, the club found him guilty of refusing to play against Bayern Munich. Tevez stated that would fight the allegation as far as possible and demand an apology from Mancini. At the same time, the club contacted The Players’ Union, PFA, as they wanted to invoke a punishment which needed approval. The punishment sounded of additional four weeks suspending plus a fine of six weeks wages. On Carrington Training Ground, home of Manchester City, Tevez was training alone; isolated from the first team squad, while the club banned journalists from asking about him. The Argentineans former employer West Ham United opened the door bringing Tevez in on a loan, but City was unwilling to pay the large proportion of his £250.000 a-week salary. Another former club, Boca Juniors, was also reported to be interested as they were in the summer.
The Manchester club announced on the 25th of October that the player had been found guilty of five breaches of conduct (without any further explanation) and charged with misconduct but nor sacked. Instead, he was given a £1m fine and a written warning. Mancini also revealed that the club would not sell the player for a cut price in the January transfer window. Another former club, Corinthians, announced that they were planning to make a bid on Tevez, for a cut price. Andrés Sànchez, President of Corinthians, said:
"Although many people do not believe it, Tevez is much closer to the Corinthians than you can imagine. The initial offer was €40m, and that is now €18m (£16m) because of all the problems he has faced back in England."
However, the City owners announced they were ready to keep the player until his market value was met.
When PFA, prevented a four week fine and backed up Tevez, saying he did not refuse to play, they left the club furious claiming there was a conflict of interest. Manchester City claimed that it was a conflict of interest, when the PFA chief Executive represented the player. The Players’ Union denied.
In the start of November, Roberto Mancini, offered Tevez another chance if he would just apologies to the club. However, Tevez does not apologies but decides not to appeal the fine he was given. But the striker is about to make things worse as he fails to show up for training. The reason: He has left the country to visit his family in Argentina, even though City had told him to stay and work on his fitness. Tevez defended himself saying he had tried to contact Mancini because he needed a rest away from the club. Once again Mancini said that Tevez would never play for the club again and with the current success for the club, at the time, it seemed to be the truth. This opened for a transfer situation that could be compared to the “Cold War”. First AC Milano wanted to bring Tevez to Italy on a loan – for free – City declined as they were only looking to sell him. The Argentinean’s advisor told that the striker was in decent shape and was looking forward to be a star player on a European team from January. Now, French PSG was reported interested, as well as Italian Juventus had offered £21m for the player. The President of AC Milan then said that there was only one club for Tevez, however, they could not afford to buy him and therefore decided to pull out of the race. PSG and Inter now gave a bid for the player, but on the last day of the transfer window, all suitors were gone.
It was now known that the whole saga had costed Tevez none the less than £9.3m in fines, lost wage and bonuses since the start of the season, and to make it even worse, he was fined with six weeks wages for absence on the 31th of January. This may be why Roberto Mancini on the 3th of February announced that Carlos Tevez was not an option at the moment “but it is possible in the future if he comes back" and that he hoped he had “been training in the last three months to help his condition. There is only one thing on my mind, the Barclays Premier League. But if he comes back – and he is fit – it is possible." One of Tevez advisors, Paul McCarthy also announced that:
"Carlos will be back at Manchester City tomorrow. He wants to be back playing football, and that's what he's best at doing. In the couple of seasons before this year, which has obviously been fairly awful in terms of everything that has gone on post-Munich, he was the leading goalscorer for Manchester City. He needs to be back, he needs to be pulling on a Manchester City shirt again, he needs to be doing what he does, and that's score goals and help his team. And he wants to help Manchester City to win the title, and I think Roberto Mancini has opened the door now. Once Carlos is back in the country, once Carlos gets his fitness back, I think he will be an asset for City."
Just before, the strike left Argentina, he simply had to give a last comment about Roberto Mancini. To the Buenos Aries TV he said that Mancini had treated him like a dog. A statement the Italian manager denied. However, Tevez decided to apologies to the club and manager for the previous drama by saying:
"I wish to apologise sincerely and unreservedly to everybody I have let down and to whom my actions over the last few months have caused offence. My wish is to concentrate on playing football for Manchester City."
The club and manager accepted the apology and said that he would consider Tevez for selection to the team, when he was back to fitness. The comeback was greeted by fellow player Joe Lescott:
"No one here sees Carlos as a disruption. If we can all get together and push in the same direction I am sure it's a positive for the club. With us, Carlos has never been an issue, and we are confident that if he does get his chance, he will score a lot of goals."
Defender Micah Richard was also happy to see Tevez back in the squad and said to the Guardian:
“Before all this went on with Tevez he was outstanding. Last season he was inspirational, and if he can bring that back to us … I know we've got a lot of players doing well like Sergio [Agüero] and Edin [Dzeko] scoring again [against Porto in the Europa League], so it will be hard because I'm sure the other strikers will be thinking they've done well but now Tevez is going to come back and play I'm sure the manager will sort it out. It is some firepower isn't it?"
When the player had his first match for Manchester City since his comeback, he was cheered by fans when he scored his first goal against Bolton Wanderes reserves, and soon after, on the 22nd of March he had his comeback for the first team. A comeback with two assists and a Tevez as we know him. Mancini hailed the Argentinean:
“I spoke with Carlos every day in the last six weeks. He knew he would be on the bench in this game and probably did well to play for more than 20 minutes. He is an important player, though, and he needs another two-three weeks to get good form."
The question is now how long it will be before Carlos Tevez is unhappy with his situation, and if he is satisfied with not being the star player of the team. His attitude does not seem to have scared other clubs, but maybe his wages have. It is going to be interesting to see if Tevez will be in the club from next season. Or if he has bursted up with Mancini again… I know where I would put my money.
