Contract killer: Homesick Carlos Tevez turns down new Manchester City deal

Mirror.co.uk 19/01/2013

Argentine striker intends to see out the last 18months of his deal before returning to play for boyhood idols Boca Juniors

Carlos Tevez has ¬rejected Manchester City’s offer of a new ¬contract.

The Argentine has told the Premier League ¬champions that he will see out the last 18 months of his current deal before leaving the Etihad on a free transfer to play for his boyhood heroes Boca Juniors.
Tevez revealed in an ¬interview in Argentina that he has turned down City’s offer of a two-year extension.
And after playing his way back into the hearts of the fans after his AWOL antics 12 months ago, the 28-year-old has risked their wrath again by ¬admitting he would ¬rather have played for Boca in the Buenos Aires derby against River Plate than line up for Roberto ¬Mancini’s men against Fulham.
Tevez said: “I’ve got a year left on my contract at ¬Manchester City and they want me to sign for two more ¬seasons.
“I would prefer to return home, but it is very ¬difficult because City won’t let me leave for nothing.
“I will stay in Europe for another two years and then go back.
“Boca’s president always says the door is open for me to rejoin them and I am dying to pull on their shirt once more.
“I want to end my career with them. It is my dream and the dream of my ¬family as well. I would love to be playing for them against River Plate. I’d prefer that to City’s game against Fulham.
“But I am under contract and have to be here in England.”

Argy bargy: Tevez has had several run-ins with mancini

Tevez became a hero at the Etihad when he ¬rejected the chance to s¬tay with Manchester United to join City in 2009.
But a dispute with ¬Mancini over his role as a substitute in a Champions League tie at Bayern ¬Munich last season prompted him to decamp back to Argentina and he was fined more than £10million in wages.
Tevez admitted: “I ¬almost retired last year.
“I had lost the desire to play and spent time ¬crying alone in my room.
“Bad things happened one after the other. I was knocked out of the Copa America with Argentina and I had my dispute with Roberto Mancini.
“I suffered psychologically. I did not want ¬anything more to do with football.”
Tevez added: “I am much better now.
“I am winning people over because I began the new season well.
“Although my form dipped, I am on my way back. I have lost weight and I can run faster.”
“I still don’t like being substituted. I am a hot-blooded individual, but at least I now understand the manager’s reasons.
“In the past I used to call him every name under the sun, but now I ¬understand he does it for the good of the team.”

Manchester City striker Carlos Tevez is back at his best warns David Platt

Independent.co.uk 13/08/2012

David Platt has delivered a worrying message to Manchester City's Premier League rivals - Carlos Tevez is back to his best.

City managed to end their 44-year wait for a league title last term even though Tevez went AWOL for four months following a spat with manager Roberto Mancini over his role as a substitute against Bayern Munich.
Tevez eventually returned but though he helped stabilise a season which was losing momentum and claimed another championship medal, adding to the two he got at Manchester United, the Argentina star was generally a shadow of the player he had been before.
It was widely predicted he would leave this summer and at one point he was said to be on the brink of joining AC Milan.

Tevez remains at City though. And in yesterday's 3-2 Community Shield win over Chelsea at Villa Park, he delivered the kind of performance he is noted for.

His solo second-half goal put the Blues in front after they had trailed to Fernando Torres' opener and with less than a week to the opening game against newly-promoted Southampton, assistant manager Platt believes the signs are very encouraging.
"Carlos has worked ever so hard in pre-season," he said.
"Since he has come back in he has really attacked his work and not had one day off.
"His goal was one of those you can remember him doing two years ago.
"He ducks inside, he goes away from people. That's what he's been missing and it was there again."
Platt revealed Tevez had shrugged off a knock in training prior to the game, so determined was he to play in the fixture.
It was an example of the focus 28-year-old Tevez intends to maintain throughout the season after the difficulties of last term.
They have never been an issue amongst his team-mates and Platt feels it is time to move on from the controversy.
"A lot was said and done last year. Everybody has got to hold their hands up and say mistakes were made," he said.
"But what do you do? Carlos has still got two years left on his contract.
"He is a very good player and he is playing for Manchester City.
"It is not a case of putting water under the bridge, it is a case of saying we are all batting on the same wicket here and we go forward together."

Not that the City camp is entirely a happy one.

With Joleon Lescott sitting out the game and Stefan Savic replaced at half-time as he struggled to cope with Torres, Mancini opted for just three defenders during the second period, instead reinforcing his midfield.
It is the tactic which Wigan used to such startling effect last season, but clearly did not go down well with Kolo Toure, who was left frustrated on the bench and threw his kit bag onto the team bus after apparently having a furious row with Mancini.
As one of the first things Jack Rodwell did following his £15million arrival from Everton yesterday was confirm he can play in central defence, even though he has never actually done it for the Toffeemen at senior level, Toure's future at City looks bleak.
"It is another system and another option the manager has," said Pablo Zabaleta, who started at full-back then slotted into that three-man defensive unit.
"We have been working with three at the back in pre-season and it worked well."
Toure presumably falls into the category of being surplus to requirements but hard to shift, the same as Emmanuel Adebayor and Roque Santa Cruz.
It does present a problem for the Blues as they try to meet UEFA's Financial Fair Play regulations, which Mancini would do well to remember before engaging in any escalation of his discontent with sporting director Brian Marwood.
"We are looking for other players, but I don't want to say which. Speak with Brian Marwood," he said.
"I said I was unhappy (on Friday) but this is normal. Every manager is unhappy when you have one week to go and you haven't bought any players.
"I hope we are working and maybe this week we can do something about it."

Driven to another Tevez distraction

Espnfc.com 09/03/2013

Manchester City don't do slow news weeks. 

Information that Carlos Tevez had been arrested on suspicion of driving while already disqualified reached most of us without more than a flicker of surprise. Having offloaded the skewed genius that is Mario Balotelli, it was important that somebody step forward to take up the reins. Tevez, of Fuerte Apache, Buenos Aires, gave his name, address and apparently denied knowing what the word "constabulary" meant. If he had, it was suggested, he might have opened some of the police letters sent to his address. He was also quoted as saying, allegedly of course, "I no like Manchester, I no like fishy chips."

Tevez facing jail time for driving offence 

There is, of course, a serious side to this, and if Tevez ends up in prison for this latest misdemeanour, expect faces to return to rigid seriousness pretty quickly. The City striker, short on goals this season and ill of discipline on several well-documented occasions in the past, was banned from driving in January but was picked up by the Cheshire police Thursday evening driving his white Porsche Cayenne down the scenic A538 in Macclesfield without a care in the world.

Balotelli's departure was supposed to open up possibilities for a reformed Tevez on the pitch, rather than as a direct replacement as the "unhinged one" in City's squad of many colours. There have been many scrapes for the Argentine since his headline-making move across Manchester -- the transfer itself was heralded by a giant poster in the city centre, proclaiming "Welcome to Manchester," which did not exactly go down well with the Old Trafford hierarchy.

In those early days, Tevez appeared wearing what looked like a fishing net on his head, perhaps an ancient Patagonian headpiece worn by the sailors of Puerto Madryn, close to where all those thousands of penguins live. Maybe it held mythical powers and gave the wearer an innate sense of both irony and persecution, because, since that moment, Tevez has flooded our senses with a fair bit of both.

Tevez has at various times told the club he had to leave, owing to the apparent dearth of places to eat, the proximity to his family (which was in Spain at the time, if memory serves), the dreadful mind-sapping climate or the sad lack of tango bars in Denton. Brought up in a slum in Buenos Aires, it was always tempting to ask how a millionaire lifestyle in an admittedly damp western European city could be so much of a grind.

Then came the defining moment, one September evening in the beer-drenched city of Munich. As we filed towards the Allianz Arena to witness City's first away game in the Champions League, the Oktoberfest activities weighed heavy on our minds. In truth, not all of the City fans present would have noticed if Tevez had played naked, never mind refused to come on as sub, but text messages from friends back home watching the game on television were soon confirming it to those of us in the ground: the player had steadfastly refused to play for Manchester City.

City fans will forgive a lot of things, but that night in southern Germany severed the link with Tevez for many. That he eventually returned to action and skewered three goals at Norwich as City reeled United in during that unforgettable title run-in last season, was a redeeming factor for some. Many, however, continued to see him as a man who had overstepped the mark and who could never be trusted again, never be respected in the sky blue shirt.

This season, Tevez's form has swung from lively to patchy. The goals have not been forthcoming. The energetic running and covering and harrying is still his trademark, and for this reason: He remains a more than useful foil for Sergio Aguero or Edin Dzeko. Carlos Tevez is a fantastic player with an Argentinian flair for wrapping delightful technique in a glove full of golf balls. He is power and subtlety, water and fire, but he is also extremely high maintenance, and this latest scrape may help to bring down the curtain on his eventful sojourn in the blue half of Manchester.