CARLOS TEVEZ is set to end his strike at Manchester City after reluctantly accepting the Premier League leaders may have priced him out of the transfer market. Tevez is pessimistic about the chances of a move to Milan happening before Tuesday’s transfer deadline and intends to report back for duty despite still nursing a huge grievance against Roberto Mancini.
That much became clear in an extraordinary interview with Kia Joorabchian in which Tevez’s adviser admitted for the first time the player had not wanted to go back to Argentina to be closer to his family, as they have always stated, but left because of his “feuds with the manager”.
Joorabchian, speaking to TalkSport, went on to accuse Mancini of mismanaging the club, of being to blame for Tevez’s problems and of creating an “unsustainable” situation that had forced the player to quit. It was a sustained attack that reinforces the view that, even if Tevez does return, it would be premature to believe he will wear the club’s colours again.
Mancini has made it clear the only way Tevez will be allowed to return to first-team training is if he apologises. Joorabchian says that will not happen. “What is he apologising for? It’s almost like a false ‘I’m sorry’. He doesn’t believe, deep down, that he did anything wrong.” Joorabchian believes City are contractually bound to reintegrate a player who has lost €11 million in wages, bonuses and fines because of the offending that led to him being marginalised and then flying to Argentina on November 7th and that culminated in him being found guilty of gross misconduct.
“Mancini has to understand Carlos has a contract for the next two and a half years,” Joorabchian said. “Carlos has come to terms with the fact he has to come back and live with Mancini.”
Tevez had been pinning his hopes on Milan meeting City’s asking price of €30 million but the Serie A club have been unwilling to go higher than €25 million, although reports suggest they may make one further bid.
Joorabchian maintains Tevez has been badly treated and blames the manager. “The relationship with Mancini, ever since Mancini came into the club, has not been good. There was a point when Carlos said: ‘You know what, I can’t get on here. ‘And he’s not the only one. [Craig] Bellamy had to leave in an awkward way, [Emmanuel] Adebayor had to leave in an awkward way, Shay Given had to leave in a semi-awkward way.
“He [Mancini] has done a good job as a coach but I don’t think there are many coaches in the world who would be given the opportunity to say: ‘I’ll throw away Adebayor and someone will buy me Edin Dzeko, I’ll throw away Carlos Tevez and someone will buy me Sergio Aguero, I’ll throw away Craig Bellamy and someone will buy me Mario Balotelli’.”
Joorabchian was asked about the night Tevez refused to leave the bench when Mancini wanted him to come on as a substitute at Bayern Munich. “There are always two sides to the story and, if cooler heads and maturity prevail, these things don’t get out of hand. Carlos served a two-week suspension, then he was training on his own and then training with the reserves and at some point you have to say: ‘He’s served his suspension, now integrate him back’. But there was never any door to that, which is probably why he left.”
