I’d have Tevez in my team – and so would you.



Fans of both City and United 'trashing their Tevez shirts'



For days, the airwaves were buzzing with pundits, fans, and managers, all in a frenzy at Carlos Tevez’s apparent refusal to come on as a substitute in a football match that Manchester City were losing 2-0.  Now, in the run-up to this weekend’s derby, fans of both Manchester clubs are apparently planning ‘trash their Tevez shirts’ to send out a statement to the Argentinian.

Frankly, it’s all a bite nauseating.

Assuming that Tevez actually did refuse to play (something that he denies), the fact is that this kind of thing happens all the time – at United as well as City.  Paul Scholes recently admitted that he once refused to play in a League Cup game; a year ago, Wayne Rooney suggested that he might like to stop playing for United altogether, and maybe go and play for City instead.  Eric Cantona was banned from playing football for six months after he attacked a fan in the stands with a ‘kung-fu’ kick, a crime that, unlike refusing to play, results in a two week prison sentence.

Of all the pundits and professionals offering their opinion on the Tevez saga, it was the ever-quotable Harry Redknapp who was perhaps loudest in his criticism of Tevez’s actions. ‘It wasn’t right for football’, he said.  ‘It shouldn’t happen. It can’t happen’. 

And if you believe Redknapp would pass up the opportunity to sign Tevez, you will believe anything.

In 1998, Paulo Di Canio, an enigmatic Italian striker playing for Sheffield Wednesday, reacted to a decision he didn’t agree with by pushing the referee to the floor.  What followed was a similar bout of riotous indignation, and Di Canio was suspended by his club and banned for eleven games.  So who snapped him up when it was thought that no manager would go near him?  One Harry Redknapp, then-manager of West Ham United. 

Like Scholes, Rooney and Cantona at Man United, Di Canio became a legend at West Ham.  Fans and managers were quickly able to forget each player’s past misdemeanours for one simply reason: their ability to play football.  Tevez is easily in the same league.  No matter that he speaks little English, is petulant and moans about the English weather.  When he is on the pitch, he runs himself into the ground, makes defenders look stupid and scores stupendous goals.  Lots of them.  Sunday’s derby is going to be worse off without him.

It is only a matter of time before a manager decides he is worth a punt.  Harry is probably on the phone as we speak.