I think to fully appreciate the impact that Carlos Tevez had on this club you have to cast your eye back to when we signed him, or rather just before. We were a club with money struggling to be taken seriously.
We'd made some big signings prior to that, but this was a genuine star who knew all about the 'project'. Various sums have been mooted, including £47 million, but even at that it has still represented good value imo.
Firstly we took him from united. Not in the conventional sense, of course. His idiosyncratic ownership situation meant that we didn't have to deal with united directly, but there's no doubt that united fans were desperate to "sign him up" and alongside Ronaldo plus a younger and hungrier Rooney made up united's most imperiously attacking team ever under Ferguson imo. So taking him from there under those circumstances was a big, big statement.
This was followed by that poster. At the time we all loved it and upon reflection it was a stroke of genius. It made a statement about us as a club and was, in effect, a "fuck you" to united. Taggart made his "small club with a small mentality" bile-ridden comment and anything which serves to irritate him has to be a good thing, but what is most telling is that neither he, nor Moyes would ever repeat that quote again. That is how much things have moved on since the summer of 2009 and Tevez has played a pivotal role in that process.
On the pitch, after a slightly sluggish start, he quickly became our key player and was up to and including our FA Cup win. His apparent refusal to wear a scarf on the way up to lift the Trophy and his subsequent dropping of the lid were both sources of minor irritation, but without him we wouldn't have been able to tear that banner down. We would have faltered at some stage before the semi imo.
His contribution in our title winning season was fitful, but still key. His pass for Nasri against Chelsea was a pivotal moment as was the performance at Norwich which gave our run in even more impetus at such a key time. Let's not forget he also played a core role in getting Barton dismissed.
Last season he was one of our better players and as ever his commitment on the pitch was unquestionable.
And then there's the controversies that have hallmarked his time at the club. Going off on a dirty weekend with his latest squeeze in the Canaries when he was supposed to be on compassionate leave, putting numerous transfer requests in, slagging of the culinary facilities of Manchester and the mayhem of Munich. We'll always have Munich.
It was anything but a smooth ride, but did anyone honestly expect it to be? A hired gun, with an unusual ownership situation was always going to be high-risk, but it was a gamble that has conspicuously paid off.
Some people may have found some of his antics to be "embarrassing" but the fact remains that they helped raise the profile of this club from a national joke to one of the most talked about sporting entities on the planet. The antics gave the club the oxygen of publicity it needed to place it firmly in the spotlight. He has been a key player in the soap opera that has been Manchester City since 2008. We've always liked drama as a club, but now we've got the money to really put on a spectacular show.
Whoever devised that poster can look back with great satisfaction as its subject moves on to pastures new. City are now a big club with a big mentality. Massive box-office you might say.
Goodbye and good luck Carlos. Thanks for everything. It's certainly been emotional.
