Carlos Tevez

I forget exactly when but over the summer I commented that I felt ultimately Manchester City were wrong in the handling of the Carlos Tevez affair. After last nights dramatic story after their loss to Bayern Munich I still stand by that.
Yes I am aware that refusing to come off the bench to try to help your team mates was wrong and Tevez will have to answer them himself over the coming days. But this Carlos Tevez hasn't felt the need to behave like this before and the blame lies with City.
When City signed him from under Alex Ferguson's nose it was a real coup. A statement of intent that no player was beyond City and the money they were able to throw around. Indeed Tevez was installed as captain and his performances over the next two seasons almost single handedly gained city a place in the coveted Champions League. Having secured that Tevez openly stated a desire to move not to a bigger club or to a rival but for family reasons. This is were City have to take all of the blame. The kid Boateng who didn't feature or impress as much as Tevez was allowed to leave when he stated a desire to play for Bayern Munich. City were respectful and didn't hold up to much fuss. However we all know how they handled the Tevez affair and no matter how you disguise it City are guilty of trying to exploit Tevez's professionalism. There is no reason other than it didn't quite suit Manchester City that he didn't complete a switch to Corinthians. City could have forced cash plus installments to recover the loss as that is obviously the only thing they care about. Instead they thought they could keep a man at their club whose family were homesick, then strip him of his captaincy and expect him to be happy with everything.
If I'm honest I have not seen as much of them play this season but from what I have seen there seems more emphasis on the team and they have good depth in the squad now so Tevez was never going to be playing every week. When he missed that penalty early in the season Mancini came out and said he was sorry because his performance deserved a goal but hopefully that would change in the next match. He has only featured in 3 games so far this season. While the new signings have been scoring goals for fun a clearly unhappy and low on confidence Tevez has had to be content for a place on the bench. It must be difficult going from the most effective and important player to one who doesn't know if he will make the substitutes bench.
Last night saw those frustrations reach a point where City will blame the player and football pundits will slam Tevez for what happened last night but in my opinion it's one of those scenarios similar to Fabregas and Arsenal. Arsene Wenger done it right by getting a fair but maybe reduced price for him, sending him happy with good memories and the best of wishes and they moved on. City had the chance to treat Tevez with respect rather than try to throw money at the problem or professionally blackmailing him. Further more surely his value would go down now from what it was in the summer so any hope they had of breaking even on that deal is long gone.
Even allowing Tevez to join someone on loan would relieve the wage bill. Now they can't just let him run his contract down as it just won't be good for the club of football. The equation is simple. The cost of having him there not onboard against the cost of no more Tevez. If City have to take £10m-£15m in January then so be it. They won't get their asking price from the summer now and I just hope this is a lesson to all youngsters out there. Fair enough City can pay you any figure you can dream of but when real life problems arise the money men turn into cyborgs and their true colours shine through. Rightly so for refusing to play will see Tevez as the scapegoat but it is Manchester City who are to blame for this and what Roberto Mancini or anyone else at the club fails to realise is we all know that. Anyone else would have waved Tevez off to Brazil with gratitude and dignity and respect. Values not found around the Etihad Stadium it seems.