Classless Carlos Tevez Leaves Bad Taste In World Football

On Saturday, Dec.  11, at approximately 5 p.m. Manchester City were second in the Premier League and City fans were revelling in another convincing away victory and looking forward to the return of their talismanic captain for Monday's home clash with Everton.

Within six hours, Carlos Tevez had managed to shatter that optimism.

His extraordinary written transfer request has shocked not only City, but football in general. The Argentinean striker has netted an amazing 39 goals in his last 60 games for City, and has 10 league goals in this campaign already.

He is their club captain, and was their fan favourite up until Saturday evening. Adored by the Blues fans, feared and respected by the supporters of the 19 other clubs in the division, a player seen as a passionate, committed striker in the form of his life. 

He has led City to the highest reaches of the Premier League and taken them into the knockout stages of the Europa League, and as recently as a week ago had allowed a video interview to be published by the club which clearly stated that he would see his contract through with Manchester City and that his homesickness was a sacrifice he was prepared to make for the good of his career.

So what has gone wrong?

Well, everybody was left scratching their heads on Saturday as to why this situation has occurred, and were left even more bemused when Tevez suggested that it was down to an irreparable relationship with boardroom executives and not, as expected, manager Roberto Mancini, who Carlos said he had no problem with despite his recent public outbursts towards the manager when being substituted.

The revelation that Tevez has apparently fallen out with the board is unusual, considering Carlos is a player and would rarely deal with non-coaching staff members of the club, certainly not with enough frequency to warrant such a breakdown in relations, especially as Carlos has gone on record thanking City owner Sheikh Mansour for his support in the matter.

So this comes down to three men, Chairman Khaldoon Al-Mubarak, Chief Executive Garry Cook and City's Football Administrator Brian Marwood.

The fact remains is that everybody at the club has done their best to aid Tevez in his stay at the club. He is not only their highest paid player, club captain and poster boy (aiding his image rights income), but he has also been allowed several times to return to Argentina to spend time with his family, a luxury that most footballers would not be allowed in a situation that everybody else in life has to get on with.

Tevez was meant to be back in Argentina in the past week, instead he was in Tenerife.

For this problem not to be down to footballing reasons points to one man, and it isn't Tevez, but his closest friend and advisor, Kia Joorabchain.

Kia has been closely involved with Carlos throughout his career and has made a good profit out of his biggest star, and now, with Carlos a world star and on top of his game, one could be forgiven for thinking he wants one big final pay day out of him.

Now it's no secret that City have been trying to weed out leeches and leaks in the club, and it's unusual that stories keep being released to banned journalists by a "unnamed source," somebody who would have had contact with the boardroom on behalf of his friend and player that he advises, someone who is now not happy at the deal he agreed on behalf of his client 18 months ago?

Put 2 and 2 together yet?

Whatever happens, City have to continue to play hardball. They own Tevez's playing rights and he is contractually obliged to them for another 3 1/2 years.

Tevez has had more than a fair deal out of a club that has been fighting a negative press agenda for months, only for that agenda to be thrown back in the instigator's face.

Carlos Tevez is an employee, and it is about time he and other highly paid footballers earned a sense of responsibility and were brought down a peg. He has betrayed the club and its fans, and that, at any club, is totally unacceptable.

City will only hope this episode will not hinder their good progress this season.