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It is Tevez’s recent exploits that have led to possibly the most significant battle between player and club that has ever been seen in English football. After his apparent refusal to come off the bench against Bayern Munich, Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini told the media that Tevez was finished at City as far as he was concerned. It seemed like a breath of fresh air in a sport that is so player dominated to see a manager taking a firm stance against a player who refused to play for him.
Manchester City were quick to back their manager, and following an internal investigation, Tevez was fined four weeks’ wages for his actions. I read the story and again thought that finally common sense may be about to prevail in football. However, it seems that my wish was short lived, as the PFA have now backed Tevez and have forced Manchester City to halve the fine, citing legal reasons about the charge that was made by City to their employee.
Now I know that the PFA exists to represent players, but what kind of message does that send out to other footballers up and down the country? That you can conduct yourself in a manner that was as inappropriate as Tevez’s and get away with it? Backing players over this would have been to make a complete example out of Tevez by hanging him out to dry and forcing him to accept whatever punishment Manchester City deemed appropriate. That may sound like an illogical argument, but for me, Tevez undermined every single professional footballer in the country when he refused to play for his club, and he needs to be punished severely to ensure that other players don’t carry on like he did.
To compound matters even more, Tevez is also said to be looking into the possibility of suing Manchester City for deformation of character over the comments that Roberto Mancini made after the Bayern Munich game. I really do wonder whether the world is going mad or it’s just me, but that smacks of childish, immature behaviour and again should be stopped so that other players don’t think that they can sue their manager if he says they had a bad game on a Saturday!
I’m not claiming to have a legal argument against what Tevez has done or may be about to do, and I’m not sure about the inner workings of contracts within football, but if a player refuses to play then that for me means he gives up all right to have any say about what happens next. Tevez of course argued that he was ready to play, and the refusal simply surrounded warming up. I have a very simple rebuttal of that argument; if your boss tells you to do something then you do it regardless of what job you have. I would love to be able to walk into work and refuse to do my job but still get paid! Unfortunately the world doesn’t work like that, and it doesn’t matter whether you earn £10,000 a year or £250,000 a week (Tevez’s reported salary), the principle is still the same.
I think that Carlos Tevez just needs to stop with his immature, selfish behaviour and grow up a little bit. By accepting his punishment and moving on, he could still forge a career for himself with another club, but by compounding the issue with talks of law suits then all he is doing is reminding everyone that he is a player who seems to come complete with his own set of problems.
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