Put away the goals, football’s finished.

When the time comes that a player earning in excess of £200,000 a week, captaining a team that had the chance to be top of the league at Christmas, can no longer cope then surely it is time to burst the old ball and start again.



Happier times for 'homesick' Tevez

Carlos Tevez, hardly a stranger to controversy, dropped a bombshell over the Eastland’s recently by handing in a transfer request to his boss. He has cited missing his family and the less than tropical conditions of Manchester as reasons for his reluctance to honour that piece of paper he signed not too long ago. Whether this will wash with Mancini, who if I’m not mistaken is not a born and bred Mancunian, I’m not sure as he tightens his trademark scarf to keep out the cold.

Of course compassion can be shown as being away from your family for a considerable period of time is tough for everyone; however when the dotted line was presented, the alluring number of noughts seem to have taken greater significance. This enhanced by the news that when given a week of at the start of December, ‘homesick’ Tevez decided to stay in sunny Tenerife, rather than make the trip home to see his family. The fact it has taken until now for these grievances to appear surely shows his life isn’t that much of a struggle and he should throw on the snood, a pair of gloves and get out on the training pitch to prepare for the next game.

Questions have to be asked over his state of mind and whether he should be continuing as captain of a highly ambitious side. While Sheikh Mansour begins to check down the back of the couch for a January spending spree in order to strengthen their title bid, their captain seems not to want to get to the top and this cannot reflect well within the squad. Having your leader contemplating retirement surely doesn’t inspire his teammates to put the extra in on the park to win that elusive title if their skipper is going to jump ship at the first opportunity.

The situation is given a little clarity with the return to the footballing scene of Kia Joorabchian. The footballing Grinch had been quiet for far too long and came out swinging, at the board, the media and anyone who would listen frankly. While he remains the organ grinder, then Tevez will remain the monkey and this won’t end with happily for Manchester City fans. Agents are having far too big an influence on the lives of players, a certain Mr Rooney across the city being a prime example, and this story is going to crop up time and again if the relevant authorities don’t address it. However with Sepp Batter still the man in power, it may be a while before anything of benefit to football turns up.

This festive period was yet to have a pantomime villain and Carlos Tevez was the man to step up. With Joorabchian conveniently behind him, it proved a difficult issue for the board to negotiate but all seems settled now. That is until the January window opens where I would not be surprised to see Mr Tevez off to sunnier climes to join some Argentinean teammates across Europe in Spain.

If this does turn out to be the case, then Tevez, and his bulldog-like approach, will be missed in the Premier League.