It only takes the Tevez saga to highlight a striking yet mystifying component of the Beautiful Game. To think the problem begins and ends at Carlos’ alleged refusal to warm-up and play in City’s Champions League defeat to Bayern Munich, would be highly naïve but unfortunately typical of the Bob down the pub fan.
If you are to believe circulated stories that Mancini got into a foul-mouthed argument in October 2010, you might find the flared half-time debate between newly-appointed captain and manager to be the moment the flare was lit at both ends and just under a year later, after many false starts, the two fiery ends have finally met in the middle.
Whether you’re in the majority and are happily criticizing the Argentine or whether you’re trying to balance the situation and apply logic to a heavily media saturated occurrence, one thing, one beautiful characteristic shines through; if Carlos Tevez did refuse to warm-up and play in potential protest to being dropped, stripped of captaincy and publically criticized, what is life like for the #2 ‘keeper on the bench week-in-week-out?
Being a #2 can seemingly go one of two ways; you can either spend practically your entire career in the shadow of your tutor, filling in for early-round cup ties, warming the #1 up and going on the occasional emergency loan or you can become a cult hero for your career long patience, willingness to step in when needed and one day, when you’ve become long written off, become the #1 late on in your career.
It’s a career that can resemble an electrocardiogram; it peaks and troughs, he plays once, he drops off, he plays once, he drops off. Yet seemingly, much like a heartbeat, they’re there until the end, reliability is their best asset and when one stops working, you’re suddenly pretty screwed.
Yet imagine if they had Tevezitis, imagine if they were fed up of being on the bench every week, only playing against teams divisions below and between the sticks for the Reserves. Suddenly there would be a problem. Suddenly, the funny figure of Rio Ferdinand and John O’Shea playing the last five minutes of games in goal would become regular, goal-keeping standards would probably drop through lack of competition and stories like the one of Javi Varas.
At 29 the Andalucían ‘keeper has only amounted 49 La Liga appearances for his club Sevilla, in a career that was non-starter for many years. He was snapped up by Sevilla just to be dropped, but the season-ticket holder at the club continued to play for the supporters’ club and was picked up once more in 2005. Having played numerous games for the “B” team, the Spanish equivalent of a reserves league, yet never coming near the first team, Varas twice came close to walking out on the game and the team he loves.
However the persistence, so recognisable in goalkeepers, shone through and he made his first team debut in 2009 six years after first signing for Sevilla. Appearances were still few and far between and his cup runs, a highlight of most #2s, were often cut short as Sevilla made the later stages and Palop, the then #1 took over. But now, after season upon season of watching other keepers come and go as competition for his #2 spot and watching Palop as #1, Varas is taking his much awaited turn and Sevilla sit in 4th, their best start for 66 years. Furthermore, only Levante have let in fewer goals by one – five – and they sit top of the league by one point ahead of the El Clasico giants, unbeaten and sitting on their best start in their 102 year existence.