After such a great week it was inevitable that something would come along to try to ruin the high that City fans are on right now. With the Carlos Tevez affair seemingly coming to a conclusion the PFA rekindled the debate by saying that based on the evidence supplied to them by the City board didn't show that Carlos Tevez had refused to play against Bayern Munich but more that he refused to warm up again.You can read a lot into the PFA statement and whether you agree with the PFA or not doesn't matter in the end as they are the sole organisation that would be granting fines of more than two weeks on players in certain circumstances.
With that in mind Manchester City retracted the four weeks fine back to the original two. It may seem, and indeed is, a backtrack by City but I think in the bigger picture it affects nothing. Tevez will still not play for City again and Tevez will leave in January.
Gordon Taylor, Chief Executive of the PFA, and Tevez's representative throughout this process released a statement on Thursday that the PFA felt there was no justification for a fine other than up to the two weeks agreed by the FA, Premier League and PFA.
Clearly there is more to this story than we may ever get to know and certainly it looks as though Tevez may have got away with one. However here are my personal thoughts on the matter. I have no doubt in my mind that Tevez refused to play that night in Munich and after the backlash he received by managers and supporters alike he tried to, through his advisors, do some damage control. City for their part had also seen the outcry from the fans and majority of the footballing world. That along with Manager after Manager stating they would not sign a player that refused to play decided that if they wanted to offload the Argentinian then it may be better to lessen the charge. After all the world was waiting and expecting some kind of disciplinary procedure.
With following the lesser charge of 'failing to warm up' they managed to impose a fine and ban on him while not totally decreasing his value. This obviously went against them with the backtracking of the PFA although in the grand scheme of things City will no doubt still come out on top financially and in regards their success both now and long after Tevez retires.
As for the suing Mancini for defamation of character? Really? Mancini said directly after the match that Tevez refused to go on the pitch. In Tevez's own words it was just a miscommunication so why the big deal? My guess, is leverage for when a possible move comes along in January for City to accept maybe a lower price from Corinthians possibly?
Written By: PA Cityboy (www.facebook.com/pacityboy)
1 comment:
I think Tevez orchestrated the situation...by refusing to warm up (again or not) he was effectively saying he was refusing to play as you can't play if you haven't warmed up.
His reasoning, I think, is two-fold...(1) If he had played and then moved on to a European club he would not have been able to play in the the competition against City, and (2) He was refused his £6 million loyalty bonus (a week before) for requesting tranfers away from the club.
City treated him like a king and he has behaved badly in return.
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