The Problem with Carlos Tevez

Well, as a United fan, I get a certain degree of pleasure from witnessing all these events unfold with Tevez at city. Mancini says he will never play for the club again, Tevez says he was misunderstood. A club in crisis? Not quite. A club with too many big-headed ego-inflated players? Definitely.

With Dzeko getting in a strop after being subbed off and Tevez ‘refusing’ to play it’s a bit of a farce. Throw into the mix Balotelli and you have 3 centre forwards that don’t seem to show any regard for their manager, the club or any discipline.

But, with Tevez, really, Man City fans should have seen it coming. If we track Tevez’s senior career, it looks like this:

Club	Transfer Fee Paid	Joined	Left	Appearances	Goals
Boca Juniors	-	2001	2004	75	26
Corinthians	£13.7 million	2004	2006	38	25
West Ham United	£12 million	2006	2007	29	7
Manchester United	Loan	2007	2009	97	34
Manchester City	£27 million	2009	-	91	53

Figures taken from BBC football

Notice two things about Carlos Tevez? Firstly, he has scored goals at a very high rate for every club he has been at. And secondly, and more importantly from the aspect of this blog, he has never been at a club for more than three years.

There is also an argument that at each of his past clubs, he has caused problems and aggravated a move away from that club (except Boca).

If we start with his earliest club, Boca Juniors, surprisingly he left the club under quite ordinary circumstances. He had won all he could with the club (winning Copa Sudamericana, Copa Libertadores and Intercontinental Cup in 2003) he decided to leave at the end of the 2004 season.

At Corinthians, Tevez caused a major stir by becoming part of the biggest ever deal of South American football. After the Brazilian giants agreed a fee of £13.7 million for the Argentinean, they agreed to offer him a £6.75 million 5-year (£1.35 million a year) contract which was funded in-part by the now infamous Media Sports Investments - enter Kia Joorabchian.

After captaining the club to the 2005 Brazilian league title, he was named the best player of the league season. However, it all went sour for Corinthians as Tevez refused to play any further part for the club and announced that he, along with Javier Mascherano, had been granted a move to the Premier League with West Ham United.

Tevez is more than likely to spit his dummy out after 2 season at any club.

The proposed move went through and West Ham had pulled off a remarkable transfer coup on the 31st August 2006. However, this transfer has now gone down in history because, with the purchase of Tevez and Mascherano - who were partly owned by Kia Joorabchian's Media Sports Investments - came a whirlwind of problems. This culminated in a fine of £5.5 million for the East London club and the payment of £4 million a year in compensation to Sheffield United for five seasons.

Following this, more controversy revolved around Tevez and his ever-present representative Kia Joorabchian. After rejecting an apparent move to Italy to play for Inter Milan or AC Milan, Tevez fell out with West Ham and demanded a move once he heard Manchester United were interested. A transfer saga followed which eventually ended with Tevez going on a 2-year loan deal to Man Untied. Strangely the player was loaned from Media Sports Investments rather than West Ham, although a fee was paid to the London club in the region of £4 million.

At United, Tevez made himself into a hero and a crowd favourite, only to ruin it all by moving to neighborly rivals Man City. He complained that United didn’t offer him a decent enough contract for a player of his stature, a statement which was refuted by Fergie who claimed the club had offered to make Tevez the highest paid player at United.

Fast-forward to 2011, and the trouble that Tevez is causing at his present club. After moaning about everything and anything to get out of the club in December, being quoted to say that he will never return to Manchester as there was nothing to do and insisting he must move closer to his family (it surprises me how much closer apparently Italy or Spain is to Argentina than England) he eventually ended up staying in the blue half of Manchester and withdrew a transfer request. As a move never materialised to a new club, Tevez stated he would give his all for City and even in an interview after the Bolton game stated, "I’m happy at City and I’m not moving from there”. 

Kia Joorabchian, not welcome at Old Trafford or in World Football.

He doesn’t strike me as a player that is happy when he refuses to come on as a 2nd half substitute. You can tell that he is still angling for that move, and you can only feel that as much as the player makes his own decision, he is probably being influenced by Kia Joorabchian.

I feel, after looking at Tevez’s past and his continued involvement with Kia Joorabchian, only trouble and problems will follow him where ever he goes. Manchester City should have seen this coming and have only themselves to blame. Although with a club full of superstars it will not be easy to keep them all happy and seemingly only a matter of time before the wheels began to come off.

This attitude from Tevez in Munich has caused an angry but necessary reaction from Mancini. The Italian will be hoping that his firm stance with Tevez, insisting that he will never play under him again, will scare others into keeping their discipline.

All that is left to do is for Manchester City to get rid of Tevez to the highest bidder and, more importantly, the Premier League and FIFA to get rid of any involvement Kia Joorabchian has in world football.

Dave