The Argentine apparently boarded a plane on Monday bound for the UK and will be arriving back at Eastlands to help his team through the rest of the season.
This is a move born primarily of pragmatism. Man City’s PR machine has been in overdrive as they attempt to hide the fact that they are performing a major u-turn. The team that didn’t need Tevez, apparently does need Tevez.
That is because goals are hard to come by for a side who spent almost £100 million on Mario Balotelli, Sergio Aguero and Edin Dzeko. For City, it is never enough to have spent hundreds of millions. You’re still short up front and need a multi-million pound striker.
It is a damning indictment on a club who seem addicted to money. Whether it is infusing their squad with big money players to ensure that they can compete on a par with rivals Manchester United; or spending huge figures on training complexes funded by the owner’s half brother (or Etihad, as was claimed), City seem unable to think of a solution to any problem that doesn’t involve money.
It is for that reason that their victory in this tight title race would be a disaster for football. That United or even Tottenham win the league is vital for anyone seriously interested in the good of the game. The idea that there is some meaning left in the game will die with a City title win. It will mean that no, you can’t win things unless you spend on a par with the Sheikhs.
That they have already cemented a place in the Champions League is travesty enough. But they show that the UEFA financial fair play rules do not go far enough. Few will say so, but there is something fundamentally wrong with what has happened at City. It is said that all teams spend to win things; but not on this scale. It is true that to some extent money has always been key in the game, but it is also true that once Brian Clough took a team from the second division to become European Cup winners within years. That could not happen now because of money. Money is evil where sport is concerned. This is not business; where money is the end game, and rightly so. In sport, trophies are the end game. Money restricts the competitive nature of the sport; and competition is what sport thrives on, not finances.
If City win the league it will be a wake up call for the sport. That success owes more to the riches of a few men in Abu Dhabi, who may be perfectly reasonable people, but that they are the most important people in City’s ‘football’ success is damning. Sport, by its very definition, should be defined by people playing the game on the pitch. This is why Formula One is derided – it has more to do with technicians than sports people. Now it appears that oligarchs are more important than the players on the pitch. A City title win will mark the death of the game.
