Four months at City make Tevez consider retirement

It took Carlos Tevez little more than four months at Manchester City to become completely fed up with football.

“It’s complicated, there’s my family, the desire to return to Boca Juniors, but I think about it. It crosses my mind to hang up my boots if we win the World Cup, although I have a contract [with Manchester City] until 2014,” he said.

“I’m a bit tired of so much football, so much football. I want to enjoy my family a bit. I’m very keen to stop and get a bit of calm. I’ve already won a lot. Living for football has saturated me.”

Compare this to the Tevez we remember from Old Trafford (or indeed West Ham) where he became a crowd favourite thanks to his energy, passion, work-rate and commitment. To be fair, the quotes don’t make it 100% clear whether he’s just talking about international football. But the main reason why he left United (apart from the money) was that he wanted to play more football!

Even apart from Tevez there seem to be plenty of opportunities for Mark Hughes to practice his man-management skills at the moment. Robinho appears to be angling for a move to Barcelona. It was a long time ago since Micah Richards played anywhere near his huge potential. And most people thought that regular first team football would improve Wayne Bridge but he seems to be moving in the opposite direction.

Myth of the Week

Dimitar Berbatov is supposed to be lazy. Carlos Tevez is supposed to work his socks off in every game. The Times today demolishes this myth by revealing that in the knockout stages of the CL Berbatov has covered 112 metres per minute, while Tevez has covered 110 metres per minute. Case closed.

The Tevez-Glazer Connection

It seems likely that Carlos Tevez will leave United at the end of the season. I believe that this to a large extent is a sign that the Glazer family is tightening the purse strings.

There are a number of good reasons why Tevez should stay. He’s a class player who has greatly contributed to our success in his two seasons at United. He’s also worshipped by the fans for his attitude on the pitch. And the fee under consideration is believed to be “just” £22m.

But the combination of a huge and rising debt and a global recession probably makes it very tempting for the board to increase profits by limiting spending on transfers. This explains why David Gill is apparently haggling with Kia Joorabchian over the fee, even though it was agreed on in the deal made in 2007.

On the other hand one wonders whether any real negotiations are taking place. It doesn’t make much sense for Joorabchian to consider lowering the price to United if he believes he could sell Tevez for £22m or more to another club. Which he probably does and could. Indeed, if Real, Liverpool and City are lining up to sign Tevez it would be in Joorabchians interest NOT to close a deal with United. This is also exactly the reason why Joorabchian might want to spread rumours about lots of other clubs being interested, or encourage Tevez to tell the media that he’s “unhappy” at the way he’s treated. Sometimes it’s difficult to try to read between the lines.

We have that within which passes show

On the face of it the game against West Ham yesterday was decided by a piece of individual brilliance by Ryan Giggs, while at the other end Carlton Cole failed to take a couple of chances. But as I was curious to find some underlying factor that made the difference between the teams I crunched the numbers in The Guardian’s excellent chalkboards. For what it’s worth, this is what I came up with:

In general there was very little, if anything, too chose between the sides except for one area; the completion rate of passes. United’s six midfielders and attackers hit 270 passes and missed 13,3% of them, while the West Ham front six hit 261 passes and missed 15,7%. Maybe not a big difference, but even more interesting was that three players stood out. Carrick missed only 3 passes out of 49, Scholes missed only 2 out of 58 and Tevez didn’t mishit a single of his 28 passes. The other United players, as well as all WH players were significantly more wasteful. I was surprised because I thought Scholes had a good game but that both Carrick and Tevez were below par.

So does this numbercrunching has any relevance as an explanation for the outcome of the game? Remember the build-up to the goal. WH loose the ball in midfield to Scholes who finds Giggs in space with a long cross-field pass. A coincidence?

Preview: United – Sunderland

The big question here is of course whether Carlos Tevez will start, after his hat-trick and impressive performance against Blackburn in mid-week. I certainly think he should. A home game against Sunderland might be a good time to give Rooney a rest. As frequent visitors to this blog might have realised I regard Berbatov as virtually untouchable.

"Welcome home, Keano!"

Ricky Sbragia will be in temporary charge of Sunderland as Roy Keane has gone to the dogs. Sometimes the departure of a manager can have strange psychological effects, and Sunderland might raise their game tonight.

My line-up: Foster (yes, it’s time to give him a run of games); Rafael, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra; Carrick, Anderson; Park, Tevez, Ronaldo; Berbatov.

Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore

Last night against Blackburn Rovers it finally became obvious that Gary Neville’s career hastens to its end. He was at fault for two of Blackburn’s goals. The signs have been there to see all season, but I’ve thought that maybe he needed time to get back to full fitness and therefore I’ve given him the benefit of the doubt. Until now. He is now just third, after Rafael da Silva and Wes Brown, in my right-back pecking order, and unlikely to be asked to play in central defence again unless there is an emergency. Jonny Evans has been sensational this season and John O’Shea often plays in this position for Ireland. I expect this to be Gary’s last season.

On a more positive note, it was of course an absolute delight to see Carlos Tevez score three (or was it four?). Hopefully this confidence boost will make him return to his high performance levels of last season.

Should he stay or should he go?

Carlos Tevez has looked nothing like a £30m player on his few outings this season. United therefore face what might be a tricky decision whether to sign him permanently, a deal that would bring the total cost to around £32m. Yet the answer is obvious. Of course he should stay. For three reasons:

1. Tevez is a class player, he proved that beyond doubt last season with United and the season before that with West Ham. He can also be relied upon to perform in high-pressure games. His performances this season are not a proper reflection of his worth.

2. We need several top class alternatives, both for tactical flexibility and cover for injuries. This makes Tevez very important even if he can’t get into the first XI at the moment. With him in the squad we could cope with a long-term injury to Rooney or Berbatov. Welbeck, Campbell and Manucho are not (yet) in that league.

3. The fee to be considered isn’t £32m, but £22m, since around £10m has already been paid for his services during the first two seasons. Any economists among our readers might recognize this as “sunk cost”. There is no doubt in my mind that his market value is higher than £22m. We could probably sell him for twice that amount to City in January.

There has been some concern that the deal has been delayed, and that this is a sign that United are having second thoughts. In fact, the reason for the “delay” is probably that since United have an option to sign him before a certain date (probably between Jan 1 and June 30 2009) for an already agreed price it makes sense not to close the deal to long before that date. A lot of things could happen in those months such as a serious injury to Tevez or the credit crunch hitting the Glazer family in a bad way.

Still unconvinced? Watch this: