Premier League - Tevez no great loss for United

Eurosport - Sat, 20 Jun 19:22:00 2009

Apparently, Manchester United have been plunged into crisis by the news that Carlos Tevez is following Cristiano Ronaldo out of Old Trafford.

2009 Manchester United Carlos Tevez - 0

After months of indecision, United finally agreed to cough up the £25.5m required to make his loan deal permanent, and presented a five-year contract.

But the Argentine snubbed their offer and is now odds-on to saunter across town to join Manchester City.

It doesn't get much more humiliating than that for the Premier League champions, who have seen two of their biggest stars walk out in a traumatic two-week spell.

But will Tevez really be such a big loss?

For all the tremendous work rate for which he is lauded, the 25-year-old was decidedly short on end product last season.

Simply put, a record of five goals in 29 Premier League games is not good enough for a £25m player.

Tevez's supporters will point out that many of those appearances came from the bench, but he still made 18 league starts.

Any player at Manchester United must learn to live with the reality of squad rotation. Nobody heard Ryan Giggs complain at Ferguson's sparing use of his enduring talents, and the Welshman duly won the PFA Player of the Year award.

And rather than complaining at length, Tevez should have asked himself why he spent much of the early part of the season on the bench. His performances simply did not warrant a place in the starting XI.

Contrast Tevez with Wayne Rooney, who has made himself indispensable through the sheer quality of his performances, his versatility and his willingness to play out of position without complaint.

Even Ronaldo, amid all his pouting and unsavoury antics, found enough time to bang in a Premier League goal every 153 minutes. Tevez scored once per 365 minutes.

Sir Alex Ferguson should have no problem filling in the gap left by his departure and, in Rooney, has a ready-made replacement desperate to play as a central striker.

Goals are not everything, though, and the remarkable affection for Tevez from the Old Trafford fans could cause problems for chief executive David Gill.

The crowd spent the whole of last season chanting "sign him up", and when United finally acted it was too late.

Should United have acted earlier to keep Tevez happy? Should they have shown more love and more loyalty, rather than grudgingly coming up with an 11th-hour offer?

The club know the depth of love for Tevez, and the statement of his departure, while not quite a hatchet job, was at pains to point out the player had abandoned them, not vice-versa.

That conundrum could be solved the first time Tevez dons a light blue shirt at Eastlands.

Considering the adulation from the United fans, there has been precious little love in return. Not in his many statements of disillusionment with life at the club, and certainly not in his rejection of the Reds to join the Blues - whether City or Chelsea.

It is hard to blame a player for changing clubs in order to secure more money and more matches, but a move across town to Eastlands will shatter the previously unbreakable bond between Tevez and the fans.

Alex Chick / Eurosport

Comment 227 - 246 of 246

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  1. Tevez "World Class"? Hmmm even in a­ melancholic charitable mood I would have to say NO! He­ wasn't the best striker at ManU. A good worker, a­ terrier snapping at heels but didn't @#$% the ball­ away from the opposition as often as you think. Goals­ when they came were 'gooduns' but then so are­ Darren Fletcher's and John O'Shea's.
    This­ HooHaa reminds me of John Lennon when asked by a fan if­ Ringo Starr was the best drummer in the world.­ Lennon's reply : "He's not even the best­ drummer in the Beatles".

    From Menace, on Wed 24 Jun 11:25PM
  2. Comment hidden due to its low rating. Show

    Manchester fans are the worst ... tevez is a mediocre­ player and a turn coat? And the saddest part is that­ you want to believe that.... How long does it take a­ manager to sign a player two years?.Fergie is a­ nitwit... and hes not much of anything... seams like­ your memory fails you.. tevez single handily saved west­ ham at the expense of Wankchester united. And not to be­ pedantic he was the best player in Brazilian league­ before coming to the epl...such sore lossers

    From paul, on Mon 22 Jun 2:51PM

  3. well he will join a mediocre midtable team like Man­ City. good riddance

    From Andrew, on Mon 22 Jun 2:00PM

  4. Its shocking to learn that Eurosport reserves the right­ or columns for anti-Tevez or any other player...are you­ enouraging sportsmanship or hatred among clubs, fans­ and players.Shame on you.

    From Martin S, on Mon 22 Jun 12:02PM

  5. Good Riddence to bad rubbish! United can get a better­ striker!! They pretty much got 80 million to spend! Why­ not buy Torres and help Liverpool with their financial­ woes!

    From Sohail, on Mon 22 Jun 11:56AM

  6. Who the hell cares anyway
    William
    Gdansk

    From anglikman, on Mon 22 Jun 6:47AM

  7. Good riddance. The master of backward runs and useless­ passes to his team mates has sulked off and left.­

    I'm sorry to disagree with some commentators here­ but to be honest I have never seen the attraction with­ Tevez. He scored so few goals last season and had the­ cheek to demand first team football. A good footballer­ is not one that runs around like a headless chicken and­ create discord within the team.

    Now let's buy­ someone who can actually score goals!

    From tri_mur, on Mon 22 Jun 4:53AM

  8. I THINK HE'S GONNA MOVE TO MAN CITY!!
    YEAH!! LONG­ LIVE MAN CITY!!

    From evil, on Mon 22 Jun 1:09AM

  9. I THINK HE'S GONNA MOVE TO MAN CITY!!
    YEAH!! LONG­ LIVE MAN CITY!!

    From evil, on Mon 22 Jun 1:09AM

  10. I THINK HE'S GONNA MOVE TO MAN CITY!!
    YEAH!! LONG­ LIVE MAN CITY!!

    From evil, on Mon 22 Jun 1:09AM

  11. LETS REMEMBER IT WAS MAN U WHO HAD TWO YEARS TO BUY­ TEVEZ AND KEPT PUTTING HIM OFF WITH LOTS OF FALSE­ PROMISES, HOW MANY TIMES WHERE THEY OFFICIALLY QUOTED­ AS SAYING THEY WILL COMPLETE THEIR OPTION. I THINK ITS­ NO SURPRISE THAT HE IS SO ANGRY, BUT I WOULD BE­ SURPRISED IF THIS WORLD CLASS PLAYER JOINS CITY, I­ WOULD EXPECT ONE OF THE ITALIAN OR SPANISH GIANTS TO­ SIGN HIM WITH THE POUND NOW BEING 30% DOWN AGAINST THE­ EURO FROM WHEN HE CAME TO UK.

    From Peter L, on Sun 21 Jun 10:16PM

  12. I TOT THIS PLACE WAS ABOUT SPORT?WHY IS A BNP SUPPORTER­ 208 CHATTING SH_IT HERE.WELL WE CAN KEEP ALL POLITICAL­ ALIAS TO OURSELVES AND JUST TALK ON ONLY THE GAME

    From efozia, on Sun 21 Jun 9:47PM

  13. Comment 208/9.. you've shown us just what you stand­ for you BNP slime. if it was'nt for the blacks of­ all shades as well as us true Britons, you would'nt­ have been able to spout your rubbish, the only disease­ on these Islsnds are people like you, of course you­ would'nt have been old enough to know what and when­ I'm talking about,,.

    From arsnic, on Sun 21 Jun 9:27PM

  14. I dont blame Tevez but whats the point of joining city.­ he obviously loves money more than he loves football­ and players like that should not be allowed to play in­ the premier league. ship em all back to where they came­ from and put some heart back in english football. the­ competition would be more even if not as attractive but­ at least we'd start each season with hope of­ achieving something other than survival.

    From mortgageandmoneycentre, on Sun 21 Jun 6:28PM

  15. The wheels are slowly falling off man ure`s bus.

    From Bike 69, mabaho ka !, on Sun 21 Jun 5:47PM

  16. Charles O u r sad

    From phil, on Sun 21 Jun 4:47PM

  17. A muppet joining a team of them,well done­ Fergie,I'm a Toffee fan,but I believe Fergie has­ got it spot on,if all they see is pound notes,nob him­ off to @#$%

    From phil, on Sun 21 Jun 4:40PM

  18. oh please give it a rest wingeing you reds!, you lot­ are so fickle!, i thought us City fans were bad. Tevez­ needs regular football, if he joins City i can see him­ flourishing, he'll never get that chance at Utd. Go­ and spend your money, Tevez was never a utd player­ anyway.

    From Chris W, on Sun 21 Jun 4:32PM

  19. Man Utd can survive loosing a turncoat!! and still win­ the league.

    From robin.pettigrew1, on Sun 21 Jun 3:47PM

  20. im a city fan and we will show teves respect lets hope­ he comes to city utd have had there day stand aside and­ let the true manc/s come to the forth are day as come­ weep and cry utd

    From mancity1120, on Sun 21 Jun 3:38PM
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