This thread highlights yet again the ignorance of many Tevez fans about his status in world football. He is currently 44th in the Castrol World Rankings. Having scored the same number of goals for Argentina as Aguero in twice the number of matches, he is at best the 3rd ranking of the Argentine strikers. He scored just 7 goals in 26 appearances for West Ham. Scoring 19 goals in 63 appearances for United, he was Ferguson's 3rd choice striker. From August 2009 to the end of November 2009, he scored just 2 premier league goals for City (both at home against West Ham).
From December 2009 to his transfer request in December 2010, he was, indeed, highly prolific. But it has to be noted that City's offensive strategy over that period was focused almost entirely on creating opportunities for him to score. He also did little to disguise his hostility towards the manager responsible for his most productive period ever.
Following the withdrawal of his transfer request, his goal contribution was nothing remarkable, though the desire to win the Golden Boot did bring out a special performance in the last match of the season. At the end of the day, he shared the Golden Boot with Berbatov, who did not take penalties and who would be ranked by most observers as United's 3rd best striker.
Way back in November 2009, Tevez talked to the Argentine media about retiring after the World Cup - yes, last summer. No doubt much to the consternation of Joorabchian, he has continued to talk about early retirement even with a transfer request on the table (this incidentally disproves the convenient fiction created by Tevez fans that Joorabchian is responsible for any and all of his aberrations).
The repeated assertion that, even if he is forced to stay at City, he will always give 100% is at best a half truth: he will give a 100% for himself. Conclusive proof that he sees other strikers as rivals was provided by the disgraceful way he froze out Edin Dzeko last season: he passed just half a dozen times in total to Edin in the Premier League games against Wolves, Birmingham, Manchester United, West Brom, Fulham and Liverpool (source: Guardian Chalkboard). (I know I have pointed this out a few times! But no Tevez fan has ever addressed it.)
Tevez is worth what other teams would pay for him. The idea that top clubs would be competing fiercely for Tevez this summer was always a delusion. But what is astonishing is that the penny has still not dropped with some Tevez fans. They are so blinkered that they want only that he stay, even though he himself is desperate to leave and even though his staying could seriously impact on the team spirit that has been evident since Vincent Kompany took over as captain.
In contrast, Samuel Eto'o has always been and still is a class act! Edin, Kun and Mario would all benefit from the experience of playing with him for two or three seasons. The whole squad would benefit from his experience at the highest levels.
