There's no avoiding the big news about City today:
a strikingly candid interview Carlos Tévez has done with Lee Clayton of the
Daily Mail. Its mere existence is strange enough, given
the club's attempts to gag him in the week before our season-defining derby against United on Saturday. But it's content is even more suprising. Rather than complain again about a lack of respect from Manchester United - presumably what the MCFC hierarchy were worried about - his raw candour has led to his criticising various aspects of the running of Manchester City itself.
First there is frustration at the continued double training sessions that Mancini has brought to the club:
'The players are not happy with this. We are at the end of a long season, we have big matches, we are tired but there are still double training sessions, morning and afternoon. Then, the next day, we train for two hours. I do not understand. But, please, he is the coach and I am the player. He is in charge. I am OK with him.'
Then there is his disappointment at the decision to bring in Mancini for Mark Hughes in the first place:
'It is their club, their money,' he says of the decision makers behind City's rapid growth. 'But you ask me if I thought it was the right decision and the answer is "no". I will play for any manager; I play for the shirt and must respect the right of the people who make decisions to change things, but a team does not form overnight. Mark should have been given more time. The decision was taken with too much haste. Did the directors think it through? You cannot invest so much and then sack the manager after five months! Look, Mark brought us all here. He is a great manager and he will get another big club, 100 per cent.'
And then there is criticism of the rather ill-conceived 'Welcome to Manchester' poster campaign:
'I never understood the intention of that poster,' he admits today. 'What was the point? Tell me. Was it to welcome me to Manchester City, or was it to anger Manchester United? Nobody ever told me.
'I'm indifferent towards it, but it is important you know I had nothing to do with the poster. I'd have preferred for it not to have been there. I have respect for all the clubs I used to play for. That was not showing respect, was it?'
None of these opinions are themselves particularly remarkable. It is not a surprise that the players do not enjoy double training sessions after a long season. Nor is it a surprise that a player would have loyalty to the manager that brought them to their club. And on the poster I am sure that Carlos Tévez gets tired of the controversy of his cross-Manchester move sometimes. For what it's worth I agree with his second and third point: I think that both the sacking of Hughes and the 'Welcome to Manchester' were worryingly ill-judged. But for Tévez himself to publicly say this, the week before our biggest game of the season is just bizarre. It's a reminder that for all the things he does quite brilliantly, toeing the party line is not exactly one of his strengths. And the club's
reported frustration with this interview is very understandable.
7 comments:
What I fund quite funny is that The Times this morning reported on interview with Rio Ferdinand who claims that Tevez was a poor trainer; saving himself for the matches.
On Tevez in general, I sympathise with him as I feel he's been used as a pawn in what's becoming a really bitter rivalry (don't you just love it!). The poster, coupled with Gary Neville's (for once) innocuous comments were blown way out of proportion.
So I don't blame Tevez for trying to diffuse the situation, because I imagine his real beef is with Ferguson and the board only.
i on the other hand find tevez wrong on all grounds. The poster was clever marketing campaign, singalled our intent for the sseason. The rivalry is nothing new in football.
It was reported at one time, tevez had ordered the poster for his home !
as for the training shedules. They dont appear to be that severe. It's even much of a secret, training reports are given by fans through out the week on bluemoon, and the training is never that arduous. I find irritating that prof footballer whinge about training, I too would be deepely unhappy with Tevez if i was at City.
Ill judged, poorely timed and quite frankly pretty stupid, considering we need to be a fully ' united' (ha) unit in our last 5 games.
I like a player that isn't a mouthpiece for the money making side of the club, he makes rational points and is only saying what he thinks. This type of authentic response in an interview may not be ideal from the clubs perspective, but it gives me plenty of respect for him as a player. Way better than the drab cliches that are spouted by VK and de Jong. Honest opinion is something that is too often missing in the game today and we are lucky to have Bellers and Tevez tell it like it is.
Yes, it's all well and good for a footballer to speak his mind, and say something he genuinely feels, beyond the usual cliches. I'm all for that sort of thing, makes life much more interesting. But surely he could have saved it for the off season, or for the last game or two (I hesitate to say this) after we have secured fourth, rather than at this vital point of the season. Unity! SIngle-mindedness! Stick to the script! Get the job done, then let yer psyche down and say whatever comes in to your head.
timing's a little odd...
naive? I wouldn't put it like that... no one with Kia alongside him is likely to go into these things with their eyes wide shut. I rather think of Carlos as... independent minded and fearless.
translated and heavily edited. misrepresented by the headlines.
fully aware of his worth to the club. slightly peeved at mancini's comments when he was in Argentina. still friends with united players. not wanting to be complicit with the more unpleasant manifestations of the rivalry between the club, so maybe a little duplicitous over the poster, as he always smiles when he hears the chants, and (reportedly!) has a print on his wall in argentina.
no serious problems with the manager. enjoys his football here, enjoys his relationship with the fans.
odds on to score on sunday. the one man who, along with mancini, perhaps, has dragged us kicking and screaming towards the top four. indomitable. totally immune to cityitis. knows no other mode of performing apart from at the limits of his ability.
if he wasn't independent minded and fearless he wouldn't be here, he'd be another of fergie's puppets. to me he is the embodiment of everything that is right about modern sport. of course the players should have more power over their own careers, their own lives, than was the case 20 years ago. And I believe it's right that they should be the main recipients of the wealth they generate. he shows that these things are completely separate from performing as part of a team.
MSI looked after him better than any club could have done, and he has paid every single debt many times over. Ok, so this appears to mean he has no interest in being on message for the sake of showing loyalty. But what good does that do your club anyway? He's not snide, dishonest or insubordinate. He's respectful and truthful. Real values that transcend our media obsessesion.
He's a legend in the making and a trailblazer. He and the club are made for each other, as both understand the rules of the present situation. Fergie on the other hand is clinging to the past, where the club's authority, embodied by the manager, was rooted in the ability to unilaterally destroy a player's career if he desired.
cheers carlos, a great read, if perhaps at the wrong time. you definitely owe us the winner on sunday.
Carlos can say what he likes as long as he keeps banging them in!
I must disagree that the 'welcome to Manchester' poster was 'ill-conceived'. I think it was brilliant- it raised our profile enormously, it was cheeky, witty, agressive, and it got under SAF's skin.
Cook might be a bit of a buffoon at times, but he's a world-class marketer, and like it or not, that's the way things are going.
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