There was a preposterous statement on TalkRubbish yesterday where some would-be controversial pundit suggested that Carlos Tevez is paid to be an entertainer and even if he is not included in the line-up for City, or refusing to take the field when so instructed by his Manager, he is in fact honouring the deal because he is keeping the world entertained.
In the words of Dell-Boy…’What a plonker’.
The story continues to drive virtually all the news media. It is incessantly being regurgitated on Sky Sports News and floods many of the back pages.
There is specualtion upon speculation and in an Irish version of one of today’s papers Chopper Scholes is feeling sorry for him..and this from a man who refused to play in a shadow team in the League Cup because he thought Veron was about to take his place in the first team generally.
City have effectively put this to bed intially by suspending the player pending the outcome of enquiries, which will ultimately lead to the final decision. City are playing fair but firm. Tevez is unable to play or train, which keeps him away from the rest of the squad. The Club will then gather evidence which will then support whatever decision it needs to take. There have been some suggestions that Tevez was simply refusing to warm up again because in his consideration he was ready to play. I suggest that this might have been cooked up by the Worm as a means of mitigating Tevez’ actions. I doubt Tevez himself would have been able to put that story together.
He has made the murmurings in favour of the fans, but the whole issue has really pulled together the fact that his heart is not in Manchester City.
He may be disappointed that he is not getting a game, but it was him that told us before the end of last season he would be with us in August. It was therefore him that made it necessary for City to sign Aguero, who has added energy and effectively replaced Tevez as goalscorer-in-chief. It was therefore Tevez who forced Mancini to draw up a new game plan which in the light of his requested move away from the Club, didn’t involve Tevez. Therefore it was natural that he would only play a peripheral or ‘squad’ role in the time he has left at the Etihad.
The double edge to the sword is that with Tevez not playing his stock value reduces and buying clubs can see that there is a need for City to ‘get rid’. So in January there will be a cut-priced Tevez on the market as nobody will dangle £50million. City should recover whatever they can and take comfort from the fact that his salary is ‘off the books’.
It is particularly disappointing for City becuase of the unavailablity of Mario Balotelli for the first 3 matches of the Champions League campaign. Readers of the Ped Report will recall that I was furious with his unnecessary red card in the Europa League elimination at the hands of Dinamo Kyiv. Not only did that assist with the final nail in that particular coffin but it has handicapped City in this year’s Champions League.
We did need to change the game plan in both matches so far and Balotelli’s muscular approach might well have been just what was needed to disturb resolute opposition defenders. That has not been available to City so they have been forced to stick with Dzeko and Aguero with Tevez as Plan B. Opposition teams have of course been able to plan for that and to make life difficult for Dzeko who hasn’t looked quite the same since Mancini gave him a bench moment after his early goalscoring feats.
City needs to get Dzeko back on track. At least he has apologised to his Mananger for his dissent at getting replaced in the Allianz Arena, but I think in his case it was passion that tantrum. The lad wanted to show the Budesliga giants that he had moved on to better things by joining the Blues, but found Boateng and Van Buyten in uncompromising form.
The scribes will not let this get off the hook though as they continue to revel in every problem that besets City and to catapult it into the stratosphere. Sadly, readers, that is where it will be at for City until the Premier League title trophy adorns the Etihad.
At that point City will have proved that the investment will have been worthwhile and at that point the world will start to take real notice that the Blue Moon is not rising, but has risen in full.
We move on to Blackburn at the weekend and Champions League hangover apart, should have enough to claim the points. We will however look at this fixture last season which needed Dzeko to unlock the bolts in front of Rovers’ net in the win which finally steered City on course for finishing third. I just hope that it is not a repeat of the match at home, where we gave away a comic cuts goal and it took us a while to recover. We just couldn’t get a winner and it was perhaps exacerbated when Blackburn got a free kick deep into stoppage time and Allardyce told them to keep the ball in the corner at a time when a far post cross to the giants might have served up a winner for them.
We have the tools to unlock most domestic deadbolts these days, but I would hate to be eating my works, or a Venkeys Chicken for dinner tomorrow night.
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