Carlos Tevez's agent Kia Joorabchian won't be winning a personality contest anytime soon, I simply don't trust him. Maybe that's unfair and not grounded in any factual evidence, but whenever people always say the right things at the right times, my trust radar begins to alert my inner cynic that something is amiss.
Manchester City’s Carlos Tevez Saga Sinks English Premier League In The Muck
The Iranian-born, British educated Joorabchian, while considering himself a businessman as opposed to an agent, has stated that the written transfer request handed in by Carlos Tevez to Manchester City had nothing to do with financial demands.
And while I don’t necessarily think that Tevez is the kind of player to demand more money in this way, I sometimes find it hard to believe that his want-away tendencies are solely based on his homesickness. After all, isn’t Tevez the kind of player to jump from club to club every two years or so anyway? The answer: Yes. And frustratingly, how many times have football fans had to endure Tevez’s pronouncements of early retirement and the like?
For a player so effective at what he does, so lauded by supporters and fans, and so respected by his peers, Carlos Tevez comes with a lot of baggage.
Tevez is currently with his fifth professional club since 2001 and while a few of his moves have been orchestrated by Joorabchian’s business savvy, Tevez’s proclivity to roam world football’s landscape after short stints are only matched by his abilities on the pitch. For this reason, I believe Manchester City is fighting a loosing battle.
So if a businessman telling City that a higher wage packet isn’t necessary, then just what has got little Carlito so ready to pack his bags and head back to Argentina? While the leveraging of the club for more money was supposedly never Tevez’s goal, Joorabchian, in an exclusive interview with Telegraph Sport has cited certain “broken promises” among the reasons why the relationship looks to be unrepairable.
While Tevez plays the blame game and points his suspecting finger at Manchester City, I can’t help but to think that Tevez himself is using this “broken promises” angle as yet another excuse to leave. Whether or not Tevez himself is to be believed isn’t the question, but a more appropriate question to contemplate is, just what makes Tevez in particular the kind of footballing journey man who refuses to stay put?
One could pick from a myriad of excuses Tevez has filled the media with over the course of the last few years as possible reason for his exit, which are all pretty much pointless. The point however is that he wants to go, regardless of which excuse he gives the media.
First there was the language barrier (1), then there was his family and friends back in South America, or the homesickness (2), both understandable reasons for a slow settling into life as a Premier League footballer. But Tevez has now been in England since 2006, is a multi-millionaire who could easily set up family and friends in or around Manchester and should have been able to pick up on a word or two of the King’s English by now.
Joorabchian also stated in the interview with Telegraph Sport that Tevez wanted to leave the club after last season because City failed to qualify for this year’s Champions League (3).
”When he joined City he made a commitment that this was what he wanted to do. At the end of last season, after all the turmoil that went on, Carlos was bitterly disappointed because they didn’t qualify for the Champions League. And he felt the situation at the club was not going in the same direction as he imagined it would be going. He played out of his skin, did everything he possibly could.
In the summer he wanted to leave. I then spent most of my summer travelling all around the world talking to the chairman of Manchester City (Khaldoon Al Mubarak) and to Carlos in order to try and convince him that we should try to find an agreement that would allow us and help us to go to the next phase.”
With quick addition skills in tow, I've come up with three different excuses as to why Tevez has wanted to leave City while the fourth, the newest (the "broken promises"), remains shrouded in mystery because of the fact that City are serious title contenders for this years Premier League title and have stocked Tevez's City with a number of brilliant, new signings including David Silva, Yaya Toure, Jerome Boateng and Aleksandar Kolarov.
At what point do Manchester City fans, and to a lesser extent, football fans in general, throw up their hands in disbelief over the Tevez affair and just tap out?
Damage Done, Unfortunately
All variables point to Tevez getting his way. Big spending City have the funds to replace him either in January or over the Summer. But while Tevez floats back home or potentially to Spain’s La Liga, City fans will have lost their captain and talisman, and the Premier League will have parted with one of their best and will have to file away yet another sad story of a modern footballer transfer saga gone wrong.
While Joorabchian waxes poetic on his involvement in the matter as only a mediator and not as the role of Tevez’s agent, his final words to Telegraph Sport perfectly sum up the situation:
“Everybody is being hurt by this right now”.
Maybe Joorabchian isn’t such a bad guy after all.
See More:
