Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini deserves respect and backing from the club for his defiance over Carlos Tevez
The Italian did all he could to remain the man in charge as the Argentine striker's refusal to play against Bayern Munich made an already bad night potentially disastrousBy Jonathan Birchall
At the Allianz Arena in Munich, Manchester City’s embarrassment of riches and talent became simply an embarrassment full stop.
Dining away from home at the top table of European football was always likely to involve some hiccups, but if being outclassed in a 2-0 defeat on the field by Bayern Munich was an eye-opener for Roberto Mancini, it was events in the dugout that left mouths agape.
Two goals down in the club's first away fixture in Europe's elite competition since 1969 and being made to look like the Champions League new boys that they are, City turned to Carlos Tevez, both malcontent-in-chief and undoubted superstar at the club over the past 12 months, to come off the bench to dig his side and his manager out of a hole. He refused.
Sat motionless on the plush Allianz Arena bench, the Argentine announced what should prove to be his own curtain call at the club without barely saying a word. They were to come later.
"I have been professional during all the time here,” the striker told Sky Sports at the end of the game via an interpreter.
"Last season I was the best scorer and put my opinion through that I wanted to leave because of family reasons. But I keep trying to do my best."
Not in Munich he didn’t, and for a defiant and impressive Mancini, it was to prove an act of heresy too far. Never mind the sulking, the transfer requests and the trips back home to Buenos Aires, a showing of disrespect as public as this, in a situation so dire, was the death knell in an endlessly tempestuous relationship.
"He is finished for me. If I had my way he’d be out of the club," Mancini told the press.
"I decide the changes. That moment I decided to change Edin Dzeko with Nigel de Jong because I wanted to keep calm in the squad and not concede a third goal because we were 40 minutes to the end.
"And after five minutes Carlos was ready to go on. After that he refused to warm up again and refused to go on the pitch.
"If one player earns a lot of money, play for Manchester City in the Champions League and has this behaviour, for me he can't play. Never.”
Further to the vindictiveness of Tevez, Dzeko did nothing to quell fears over City’s dressing room discipline, reacting furiously to being replaced by De Jong by remonstrating with his Italian manager and throwing his tracksuit top to the ground. At least the Bosnian, although foolish, wanted to contribute.
Unlike the Argentine, whose timing was so brutal that it will raise suspicions of being calculated. Indeed, Jupp Heynckes’ men were making quite clear that City have major work still to do regardless of the squad’s behaviour, but having released the shackles from his side, Mancini has been looking like a manager able to take the Blues to the next level so far this season.
Sat joint top of the Premier League with Manchester United, Mancini’s City have oozed everything they lacked in Germany: class.
Except, that is, for the manager himself, whose fury was as obvious in his face as it was his words, but even that was delivered with dignity. Just as he has done with his team tactically, Mancini unleashed himself and made his message clear: such behaviour is simply unacceptable at Manchester City.
In front of the media glare, the former Sampdoria man, just like he used to in front of the goal, remained ice cool but still delivered the killer blow to his striker, but it’s fair to say he’s had practice.
Both Tevez and Mario Balotelli’s various misdemeanours over the last 21 months have raised questions over Mancini’s ability to instil the culture of respect and professionalism on which their city rivals at Old Trafford thrive on, with the situation on the blue half of the city often looking likely to spiral out of the former Inter manager’s control.
However, even Mancini’s fiercest critics would struggle to make an argument that Tevez’s actions were the result of anything other than reckless dishonour. Even Sir Alex Ferguson, one of the game’s greatest ever disciplinarians, discovered that the Argentine appears to be a helpless case, allowing him to leave the Theatre of Dreams in 2009.
Two years later and it’s history repeating. The removal of Tevez once again appears to be the only remaining option.
It was a night to forget on the pitch for Mancini but his comments following the final whistle were those of a true leader, defiant in the most trying of circumstances and commanding respect.
That’s an asset that money can’t buy.
