It has been announced this week that Manchester City striker Carlos Tevez has lost out on £9.3 million during his bitter dispute with the club. Just to reiterate, that’s £9.3 million. An incredible figure that consists of unpaid wages (a £200,000 weekly salary which hasn’t been earned since November), bonuses and a hefty £1.2 million gross misconduct charge from his club.
All of this following a crazy night in Germany at the end of October. A night on which the Argentinian striker refused to come on as a substitute and help out his team-mates as they laboured to a 2-0 defeat to Bayern Munich. A night which consequently was the last straw for Tevez and saw him exile himself back to his home country – where he still finds himself now.
During that time City have all but forgotten about little Carlos and gone about their business in emphatic fashion. They find themselves three points clear at the top of the Premier League and are red-hot favourites to win the title. It’s clear that he’s not needed or wanted around Manchester but, lest we forget, he’s still their player. How does Roberto Mancini get rid of such an odious character? And who’d want to sign him up after such a tumultuous few months?
AC Milan have expressed their interest in the player. However, talks were abandoned due to their Brazilian striker Alexandre Pato choosing to stay at the club rather than venturing to Paris Saint Germain. Inter Milan also tabled a bid but their offer of £20.7 million was rejected as City are reported to be holding out for a fee of around £25 million. PSG themselves were sniffing around the forward but recently ruled themselves out of the running due to the high valuation slapped on the Argentine’s head.
It’s a very strange situation that club and player find themselves in; both parties would like a departure but how could a club take a risk on such a player? Inter or AC Milan would give Tevez a good platform – Champions League football, glamorous city, surely a healthy wage. But how long until he gets bored and starts falling out with club hierarchy? In some ways, t’s quite a shame because there was once a time in England when Tevez was quite a respected player.
During his spells at both West Ham United (where he almost single-handedly kept them in the Premier League) and Manchester United (whom he helped to a Champions League trophy) he showed flashes of brilliance – his industry, energy and goal-scoring prowess proving invaluable for both clubs. Indeed, he showed much of the same during his first two seasons at City; firing himself to 43 league goals in little over 60 league games – a darn fine goalscoring ratio. It was at the early stages of this campaign when he started to express his desire to be elsewhere and then the bad vibes and general bad attitude crept into his persona.
You could say his bad attitude has always been there, mind. He joined West Ham after refusing to play for Corinthians, he left West Ham after less than a year at the club, he departed from Man United after failing to agree a contract with the club (Sir Alex Ferguson doesn’t suffer fools gladly – he probably had his card marked) and he now finds himself in turmoil at City. Whomever takes a chance on this little, troublesome Argentine will no doubt have a job on their hands. His talent is there, yes. He’s a fine player. But is his head in the right place? Is he even sure he loves the beautiful game as much as we do? As Man City edge towards potential domestic domination the last thing they need is passengers and Carlos Tevez is certainly that right now. Time for a decision to be made.
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