ROBIN VAN Persie is prominently in Roberto Mancini’s thoughts as Manchester City plan for life without Carlos Tevez and reluctantly prepare to take a huge financial hit on the Argentinian.
The potential availability of the Arsenal captain, who is in the last two years of his contract and showing no desire to negotiate new terms, has been discussed at Eastlands, with the Dutchman already under consideration even before the controversy that has left Tevez a pariah at the club.
Mancini believes City will be fortunate to get €23 million in the January transfer window for Tevez they valued at more than twice that amount in the summer. The club’s owners in Abu Dhabi are clinging to the belief they can still get close to their original asking price but, in Manchester, they think that unlikely in the extreme given those sums of money, with a €288,000-a-week salary also to be taken into account, put off potential buyers in the last window.
One senior figure has acknowledged Tevez’s value “is on the floor”. Likewise, the player’s camp are confident a €23 million bid will persuade City to sell and that it could be even less.
After that, City’s information is that van Persie, 28, can be prised from Arsenal on an increasingly well-trodden route that has seen Emmanuel Adebayor, Kolo Toure, Gael Clichy and Samir Nasri make the same journey in recent years.
As Tevez began his two-week suspension, Mancini summoned his players to a meeting before yesterday’s training session to make it clear he would not tolerate any more indiscipline.
There continues to be no sense of contrition from Tevez, despite the over-optimistic view from Abu Dhabi there could be an apology and reconciliation, and the club have begun interviewing the players who were alongside Tevez on the bench on Tuesday, when he apparently refused to play.
Mancini’s coaches have already sustained his complaints but the Tevez camp hope the players in question – Aleksandar Kolarov, James Milner, Pablo Zabaleta and Joleon Lescott – will be reluctant to give evidence against him. Tevez’s understanding is the players, unwilling to go against one of their own, will cite the noise inside the stadium as why they cannot be clear what happened.
Mancini’s preference is the club, investigating a possible case of gross misconduct, do not terminate Tevez’s contract, primarily because of the distraction a long, drawn-out affair, possibly heading to the courts, could cause. However, it is a reflection of how he has come to regard Tevez that his thinking is, in part, influenced by something more personal.
Mancini does not want Tevez to become available on a free transfer because it would make it easier for the player to secure the big-club move he craves. The manager would rather Tevez be isolated, training with the youth team or on a one-on-one basis with a fitness coach, and then sold in January, albeit for a cut-price fee. For City, however, it is not straightforward. Uppermost in their thoughts is that ostracising the player could give him grounds to claim constructive dismissal.
City also have to be mindful player contracts have been altered in the last few years to protect Professional Footballers’ Association members, and the union would almost certainly appeal on Tevez’s behalf if he were sacked. The club intend to fine Tevez two weeks’ wages, about €575,000, but if they want to increase that amount they have to put it to the PFA for approval. The maximum is a six-week fine and with Tevez sticking to his story it was “a misunderstanding”, the PFA will be obliged to defend him.
In the meantime Edin Dzeko has apologised to Mancini and his team-mates for his part in the controversy. “I know my reaction (to being substituted) was bad and I have spoken to the guys and to the coach,” Dzeko said. “I have apologised for the reaction and Roberto has accepted it and said that everything is okay and that we have to be positive for the next game.”
There are threatening to be ramifications for Tevez with the Argentina national team. Tevez was left out of the last squad, with the coach Alejandro Sabella’s explanation corroborating Mancini’s account that the player is out of shape. Sabella spoke of someone who was “not fully fit . . . not training well at the moment and (had) put on a bit of weight”, and will almost certainly exclude him for their forthcoming games.
GuardianService
