To anyone thinking it surely can’t get worse yet, there is always a new twist in this tale.
Tevez failed to return to training this week and the relationship between him and Manchester City is so bad that both seem to be accepting that a departure is imminent. This is a story which says much about all sides involved.
For a start, Tevez has shown himself to be the ultimate whinger. Nothing is ever a positive in the world of the Argentine, who sees himself as the perpetual victim of some crime or another. Few will have sympathy with a player paid as much as he is, and rightly so.
In this battle though, the player has decisively won. Manchester City wanted to sell Tevez for a large fee and got incredibly greedy. The club have behaved as badly as the player in this fiasco, and they have acted as though completely oblivious to the Tevez’s wishes. If he wants to go, don’t keep him – it’s a lesson learned by many teams around the world. Other managers, such as Sir Alex Ferguson or Arsene Wenger, would simply not keep a player who wants to go.
But they are the sensible ones. Ones who realise the pointlessness, both from the team’s point of view, and the player’s, of keeping someone who does not want to be there. And there is little wrong in a player deciding he wants out. Each person has the right to choose whom he works for. Yes, they enter into a contract freely, but a player’s career is short, and contracts these days are more about protecting the transfer fee a club makes. It is not about the player’s welfare.
Even Tevez’s refusal to play against Bayern Munich can be understood when you realise that if he fails to appear in 10% of City’s games in a season then he is free to leave the club for nothing. If you’re desperate to leave, as he clearly is, this is a perfectly understandable act. It would be entirely counter productive for him to have played. As it is, but refusing to play, all Tevez has done is drive down his price and encourage City to sell. He is the winner in this case, not the club.
The reason for their defeat in the Tevez-gate is that City have ignored the normal behaviour in this case, and denied Tevez a move to Corinthians for what would have been approximately £40 million. And they did so as they doubted the Brazilian club’s ability to pay for him. Such behaviour was not just counter productive long term, but extremely naïve too. Corinthians have a shirt sponsorship which is the fifth most valuable in the world, and they can pay Premier League wages. Brazilian teams in general are able to compete on a par with their European rivals when it comes to salaries. Corinthians will not struggle to pay the fee or the wages that Tevez demands.
Thanks to City’s greed and miscalculation, Corinthians will now make a huge saving on Tevez when he finally moves to the club, as is inevitable now. Theirs will be a harsh lesson.
