I don’t normally focus on players at other clubs on this site but I felt that an exception had to be made for Carlos Tevez who does, of course, have some connection with Manchester United because he’s been at it again. Moaning, that is. Only this time he is moaning about Manchester in general and that, to a person born, bred and still living in Manchester is not going to go un-noticed.
Appearing on some chat show in his native Argentina, Tevez says that Manchester has “nothing”, there’s nothing to do and there are only two restaurants. Apparently he has no friends (no comment!) and he doesn’t even go to the cinema because he doesn’t understand it.
And herein lies the problem with Carlos Tevez, I feel.
Ever since he rolled up in England with Mascherano and his pimp agent, Kia Joorabchian way back in 2006, Tevez has been a controversial and enigmatic figure. On the one hand, the fans have loved his all-action, 100% commitment performances but have, at the same time, had to swallow the nonsense that comes with Tevez off the field.
That he left West Ham and came to Manchester United in 2007 was not much of a surprise. Joorabchian’s plan all along was to bring him to England in order to put him in the shop window. Tevez duly delivered at West Ham and United were the club to offer what Tevez and his owners wanted.
For his first season here, it looked like a fairly healthy relationship. Most United fans loved Tevez and Tevez appeared to be happy with life in Manchester and at United. During his second season here, however, things started to take a turn for the worst as rumours started to surface that Tevez wasn’t a particularly happy bunny.
Trying his best to make Fergie out to be the bad guy, Tevez suggested that it was “ver difficul” for him to stay at United as he apparently felt undervalued by Fergie because United had left it until his contract had virtually ran out before offering a new one and that his only course of action would be to leave – for Manchester City.
Now, Tevez had lived in Manchester for two years at this point. Surely more than enough time for him to realise just how “bad” it is here in Manchester. How little there is to do. How difficult it is to find somewhere to eat (blah blah blah). After three years in the country, you would have also thought that he may have realised that here in England we do speak in an obscure tongue known as “English” and he might have taken some of those millions he had earned and used some of those dull, lonely hours to perhaps hire a private English tutor which would not only have helped him professionally but would have opened up a whole new world of possibilities out and about in the streets of Manchester.
No longer would he have to visit only Italian restaurants (because those are the only places where he knows how to order food), he could have visited the myriad other restaurants and take-aways of all kinds of national cuisines that can be found in their thousands in and around Manchester.
With a bit of English under his belt, he could have visited the cinema on a more regular basis without the need for a translator sat by his side and he could have even made a few friends while he was here.
If all this sounds a bit too obvious and perhaps even patronising then that’s because it is. Carlos Tevez is just one of those people in life who is never happy. Presumably when he was playing in Argentina for Boca Juniors, he wasn’t happy about something and so transferred to Brazilian club, Corinthians. Then he wasn’t happy there and so came to West Ham then United and then City.
The ultimate happiness that he seeks where all is perfect both professionally and personally has remained elusive, however, and only Carlos Tevez seems unable to understand why.
My advice to Tevez would be that he ditch Joorabchian, learn some English, realise just how lucky and priveleged he is to be playing for a club like Manchester City who are very much on an upward curve at the moment with Champions League football beckoning next season and undoubtedly a proper Premier League challenge to boot – possibly even another FA Cup. That he earns more in a week that most Mancunians earn in years and that he is, when doing his job, idolised and respected as one of the best players in the world.
At 27 years of age, he probably only has a handful of years remaining at the top end of football – he has always expressed a desire to retire at a young age in any case. After that, he will be able to live anywhere he wants and fill his days with whatever makes him happy.
Perhaps during those days when the roar of the crowd has faded to silence and the glory of winning is a distant memory, Tevez will actually start to appreciate just what he had… and then he might get sad all over again.
The difference then, of course, is that no one will care.
