Soccer Portal

To say Tevez’s time at City has been up and down is an understatement. The talented midfielder has been as much a disturbance off the pitch as he has been glorious to watch on, but this fresh outburst has seemingly crossed a bridge too far for the Man City backroom staff.

Mancini almost managed wipe his hands of Tevez this August when Brazillian side Corinthians approached City with an offer of £40 million for the childish Argentine. However late complications forced the deal to fall through and Tevez and City were stuck with each other until January.

Tevez has always stated that he wants to return to Argentina to be closer to his family, and his frequent outbursts in recent months have kept the tension between City and their star at high levels.

But never have his petulant remarks over flowed onto the pitch in the style that they did on Tuesday night.

Nothing Like This

I like many City fans have grown tired of professional footballers antics surrounding transfer requests.

We’ve all had to watch as Spurs fans suffered with Luka Modric’s transfer saga with Chelsea. The Croatian midfielder missed a number of games in late August as he tried to “get his head right” after being denied a move to rivals Chelsea.

But Tevez has taken this childish behavior to new levels.

Only Dimitar Berbatov has shown similar disregard for a club when he refused to participate in games for Tottenham as the Bulgarian striker looked for a fresh start at Manchester United, but Berbatov at least gave prior warning to his manager that he would not be playing that week.

For Tevez to do such a thing in the middle of City’s most important game of the season shows no respect to either his manager or the club, and for that, he has to go.

Do What Needs To Be Done

Should he stay, Mancini will be forced to deal with a bad egg in the dressing room that will undoubtedly spread trouble, like a virus, through the rest of the squad.

It will also undermine the manager’s authority over the team in a very public manner. Should that happen, Mancini’s position at the club could become untenable as he losses control over his group of players.

Having just found some control over bad boy Mario Balotelli, a Tevez migraine is the last thing that the club needs.

This saga will continue in the back pages for the next few days at least and signals an end to the honeymoon period that City have been enjoying in the early part of the season.

Mancini wants him gone, Tevez wants out.

City now needs to find a suitable suitor, with enough money to pay Tevez’s extraordinary wage demands, to off load their troublesome playmaker.

If he stays, we could see City go into meltdown internally and a season that was meant to be showered in glory, could well become a season covered in something much more unpleasant.