Is Carlos Tevez Man City’s Angel or Demon?

I think it would be fair to say that Manchester City fans have been through a lot in recent years. Relegation to the third tier of English football followed by promotion finally back to the Premiership. Numerous managers, including former England manager’s, who all failed to provide the club with the stability they desired. An owner from Thailand of, shall we say, questionable moral standings, finally replaced by the disgustingly rich Saudi oil baron Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan. With a seemingly bottomless bank account, the club set about transforming itself into a footballing superpower, both on and off the pitch. The jewel in the crown for City was the acquisition of Manchester United striker, Carlos Tevez.

Since then, Tevez has been positively on fire, topping their scoring charts and receiving plaudits galore. City have managed to move themselves into contention not only for a Champions League place, but with a chance of winning the league. Whilst this is a remarkable improvement on what the majority of City fans are used to, should City fans expect more from the team? There has been a huge investment in the playing squad totalling well over £400m. Shouldn’t City fans feel that their team should be running away with this league, especially with the traditional ‘Big 4’ clubs faltering? Quite frankly, they should. And in my opinion, the main reason they haven’t taken the big step is because of Carlos Tevez.

Whatever your opinion of Carlos Tevez, whether you think he’s a footballing genius or a money grabbing whore, you can not argue with the man’s history so far in football. Boca Juniors, his first major club, after two years in the first team Carlos gets sick of the intrusion of the press in Argentina. He publicly argues with his coach and eventually gets move to Brazilian side Corinthians. Everything is rosy for all of ten minutes until Senor Tevez begins to argue with practically everyone associated to the club. Fist fights in training, bust ups with another coach and even an argument with the club president. Carlos is then granted his move to Europe, signing for West Ham United with Javier Mascherano. He lasted one season at Corinthians.

Carlos Tevez is fondly remembered at Upton Park by the fans as he almost single-handedly saved them from relegation that year. What those fans forget is that he caused massive disruption in the squad by falling out with players and the manager. He threatened to go on strike after being substituted and went AWOL to Argentina at one point. After the glories of keeping West Ham in the Premiership and gaining the adulation of the fans in East London, Tevez rewards them for their support by jumping ship to Manchester United after one solitary season.

His time at Old Trafford is one of mixed feelings for United fans. He was part of one of the most successful sides in United history. Forming part of a modern-day trinity with Rooney and Ronaldo, the attacking football wowed fans and pundits alike. However his time at United wasn’t without its knocks. After his first season, he complained of being fatigued and that he played too much football. After the arrival of Dimitar Berbatov, Tevez was relegated to more of a substitute’s role in his second season. This did not sit well with Carlos and he complained of not playing enough, despite only scoring five goals all season. Once the season was over, Tevez claimed no contract was offered to him by United whilst the club spoke of an offer being made. The writing was on the wall, he was off to City. In the two seasons he was with us we won the league twice and the Champions League in Moscow. These achievements will always be tainted with a sense of betrayal due to his move across the city to the blue half of Manchester.

This leads us to where we are now. King Tevez, the pride of Eastlands. Goal scoring sensation in his first season. Poster boy pin-up of infamous PR stunts across the city of Manchester and a vital cog in the City machine. Tevez is always golden for one season. His second season started off similar to the first. Goals started to pour in but so did the newspaper headlines. Obvious dissent on the pitch when substituted and this from the captain of the side. Threats of retirement from the game due to his feelings about football being ‘all about money’. Falling out with the manager and the club executives despite being the clubs highest paid player. Finally he hands in a transfer request, only to withdraw it less than a week later. Doesn’t all this sound so familiar? (see above)

There is one thing you can take from all the above information, Tevez is clearly a disruptive influence on his club and teammates. Having so much negative press causes additional stress on management which eventually filters down to the team. This can be seen in the recent form shown by City and the almost tactual ineptness of Mancini against Everton (leaving Zabaleta off for so long and costing them the second and crucial goal). The pressure cooker that has been built by the massive burden of the oil billions has been further increased by Tevez’s ill advised actions and even worse comments. Yes, he brings you goals and often moments of magic on the pitch, but the question City fans must surely be asking themselves now is ‘Is it all worth it?’, ‘Is Tevez holding us back from breaking into the upper echelon?’.

I know exactly what will happen from this article. I will receive vast numbers of comments from City fans who probably think that I wrote this piece because I’m a ‘jealous red’ or a ‘dirty rag’. Instead, maybe their time would be better spent reflecting on the facts, which all point to Tevez being a bittersweet pill to take. United fans had to do some reflecting themselves in October with Wayne Rooney putting us in a similar situation. The difference between the two being the Fergie is a master of deflecting negative press away from the team as he has shown a number of times in the past 24 years. Mancini, who is still relatively inexperienced as a manager, does not come across in the same manner. The fact still remains though that Tevez, whilst probably not 100% responsible, has played a massive part in disrupting what should have been a massive season for City.




About Steve Ferguson 886 Articles
Steve Ferguson had taken over & re-branded The Faithful MUFC website back in the summer of 2014 and is now the owner and editor of the site. Steve, from Ashton-Under-Lyne in Greater Manchester, is a 35-year-old life long Manchester United fan, travelling over the globe to see the Reds play. Steve has been lucky enough to be at both the 1999 and 2008 Champions League finals, seeing Manchester United lift the biggest trophy in the World, none more exciting than that faithful night in Barcelona in 99. The website is a blog, but also hopes to deliver the latest Manchester United news from around the internet too, linked up with our growing twitter account which is @TheFaithfulMUFC, give it a follow as we will follow you back as soon as we can.

7 Comments

  1. Blame is as much with the agent rather than the player. Think he is genuinely homesick to a point having had a bad break up with his wife/partner and his two young kids are back in Argentina miles from him.

    I have to disagree with your tone in the last paragraph that suggests Mancini didn’t handle it well. On the contrary I thought he stuck to his guns and wasn’t bullied by the player. He said all the right things and refused to blow it out of proportion. He didn’t drone on about it an make a meal about it.

    As it happens in terms of is Tevez holding them back? Well no…his performances on the pitch are unquestionably good and his effort as always can’t be brought into question. Love him or hate him as a person, no one can argue he’s not a very good footballer.

    There are more disruptive players than him at City. Certainly his inability to speak English suggests he couldn’t really be verbally disruptive.

    I also don’t think how City choose to portray him is his fault. He has said he was uncomfortable with the poster and although his conduct towards United has been poor, I don’t think that he’d have chosen to be the menacing prat he’s been especially towards United given the choice. Much of the blame for that lies with city.

    The biggest thing which you’ve overlooked RE his time at United was in fact that he rejected us! That’s why I have so much disliking for him. After all the fuss we agreed a fee and offered what he wanted but he said no and trotted off to City.

    Trouble or controversy does seem to follow him around and I think he needs a good manager who will put an arm round him. Honestly I think Mancini would do that and has done that. That said, he’ll no doubt want to leave in the summer and the talk of wanting to go back to Argentina must be accurate – who can blame him for wanting to be near his kids! He is a money grabbing so and so but most footballers are today (hello Rooney), he’s a very talented player and he is disruptive but I think you miss that some of his problems are to do with his agent and City themselves.

  2. Nothing new to report then?
    I think Scott The Red at the Republik of Mancunia gave a brilliant time line and sequence of the events regarding Tevez..He normally calls it correctly and fairly.
    Dont be disillusioned it is agents.Most of these “Stars” we look up to couldna give a flying..Fcuk about us fans.I say cap the wages and defeat Euro laws of rights! Do i not have a right too require the Club I support to have players fully behind my “Team”.
    There is not a fricken thing today that comes close to loyalty and allegiance other than the fans that support our Clubs history and tradition.I say a root branch and trunk review of the whole system is needed to achieve radical change.
    As an example, Qatar holding the World cup in the early months of the year, because of the heat! Did Sepp Blatter not know this and his worthies before they made the “Gas” decision.Of course they did.It will be the climax of the biggest and most watched league in the world if they “Pull” this off.
    Moolah, spondooliks, green backs, bank balances.

  3. Maybe you should do you’re research extensively, educate self then we might just take your points with credibility. For the record, sheik mansour isn’t a Saudi, the is a difference between a Saudi and emirates!

  4. @ bluez. maybe you should sit down. you have picked out one aspect of the post.its immaterial.Did you enjoy your team two evenings ago, that so far spent nearly 1/2 a Billion pounds in to create, Hope.
    Your star player, well 4, playing with fashion accessories.Did you sing your team on.The wastelands was dead mate.Try getting behind your team,to drive them to win.Its more expanctacy than , cos we we spent a buckets full of cash.
    At United the crowd is the 12th man regardless.
    Citeh do love a wee shake.While he is here.

  5. I think we as football fans are very quick to shoulder the blame on a players agent rather than the player. Simple matter is, the agent is an employee of the player. The player is also an adult and should be able to make decisions on his own accord. Paul Stretford came away from the whole Rooney thing looking like the Devil, and of course he is at part to blame. But if Rooney didn’t want to try and force more cash he wouldn’t have. Agents are clearly the little devil whispering into players ears, but players need to be held accountable for their own actions and that includes United players.

    I agree with what you said about Mancini and maybe I could have wrote that better. The point I was trying to make is that Fergie is a master at sheilding the squad from negative press. Mancini didn’t do anything wrong but the affair has clearly shook the team.

    I honestly think you are being too easy on him Doron. You say he needs a manager who will put an arm round him, but he has had that at at least two of his clubs. The fact is he hasnt been at a club where he hasnt had a bust up with the coach. He has always been in the middle of some row which has ‘forced’ his departure from the club and despite the fact he has agreed to stay (for now), it looks like its happening again at City.

  6. Fair enough but…to quote Oliver Kay “The situation between Kia Joorabchian and Garry Cook is at the heart of everything. It’s interesting that, despite having appeared to back down on Monday, the Tevez camp are portraying it as Cook being undermined by Mancini and Khaldoon al-Mubarak” – seems like a lot of the blame is with the agent…

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