Manchester City expecting Carlos Tevez to achieve a Napoli-type miracleRoberto Mancini has made the Argentinian his captain and asked him to do what Maradona did twice
When Carlos Tevez walks into the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital people struggle to take their eyes off him. Sometimes involuntary, the stares, from patients, their parents and staff alike, are a natural reaction to coming face to face with a man whose image adorned possibly the city centre's most contentious advertising hoarding.
"Welcome to Manchester" declared a giant-size, City-sponsored billboard emblazoned with Tevez's visage after the Argentina forward swapped United for City 14 months ago. The cheeky, Sir Alex Ferguson-riling, implication was that Tevez had just joined Manchester's "authentic" club but, when the poster boy gently chided his new employer for a lack of respect, it became apparent this was not your average footballer. Placed in a similar position, many peers would have kept their mouths shut and counted the money, but that is not his way.
A man who cost City at least £25.5m refuses to turn a blind eye to perceived injustices and made it abundantly apparent that he regarded Mark Hughes's sacking in December as a mistake. Small wonder the Eastlands hierarchy waited anxiously to see how Roberto Mancini would opt to micro manage a free-scoring, occasionally tantrum-prone, forward whose indifferent English disguises his considerable dressing-room clout.
When Hughes's successor accepted the challenge by making him captain last summer sceptics waited for the blue touch paper to ignite but, far from being consumed by the resultant flames, Mancini and Tevez are rubbing along rather too amicably for the liking of potential rivals. As the pair plot Chelsea's downfall at Eastlands today a striker who has scored 33 goals in 48 City appearances harbours no regrets that a potential move to Stamford Bridge from Old Trafford never materialised.
"I did have a chat with Chelsea and I spoke to Carlo Ancelotti; we had a conversation," Tevez says. "But there was never a concrete offer, not one in writing. I always believe concrete offers are made in writing, that wasn't the case with Chelsea."
Talking in a giant store cupboard on the recently built hospital's top floor, the 26-year-old is surrounded by a sea of toys. He has spent the past couple of hours happily entertaining sick children in a newly opened City-funded outdoor rooftop play area offering patients both welcome respite from treatment and assorted fresh-air-suffused therapies. Although it is supposedly a day off, Tevez takes captaincy seriously and never questioned giving up his time to inspect the impressive results of a Royal Manchester fundraising project to which City donated £500,000 in October.
Yet if the armband confers added responsibilities it has singularly failed to buy his diplomatic silence or turn him into a yes man. So he stands by public criticism of Mancini's penchant for holding what Tevez regarded as unnecessarily tiring and potentially injury-provoking double training sessions last spring. "I think I was right to say that," he says. "This season, because games are coming so thick and fast, there isn't time for double training so I'm relieved it's not an issue. But I still stand by what I said."
There were issues between him and Mancini earlier in the year, but a clear-the-air discussion served as the catalyst for an infinitely more productive working relationship. "Roberto and I had a good chat at the end of last season and everything was left really nice," Tevez says. "It was simply two guys sitting down in a room and chatting honestly and openly and sorting things out."
The captaincy swiftly followed. "It did surprise me," admits the forward, speaking through an interpreter. "For one thing, my English isn't fantastic and communicating in the dressing room is not always easy. But it's certainly having a positive effect on my game. Before I could maybe disappear from games for 10 or 15 minutes, but now I can't afford to do that. I've got to concentrate 100% all the time."
Especially as Craig Bellamy is no longer around to pick up the pieces. Bellamy's disappearance from the City sceneseems another sphere where Tevez and Mancini agree to disagree. "I'm still disappointed," says Tevez, who always claimed the Welsh forward's presence gave him confidence but proved powerless to prevent the breakdown of Bellamy's relationship with Mancini, prompting the former's loan to Cardiff.
"I was disappointed when Craig went and I still feel sad about it. Craig really feels football. Along with myself and Shay Given, he was always up for fans' awards and you could see why on the pitch. We combined well and he was good to have in the dressing room, so it's a shame."
Nonetheless, City's captain is gradually warming to his manager. As recently as April, Tevez claimed Mancini had "not improved" him as a player but 24 goals in his last 28 Premier League games tell a rather different story. Running his fingers through a fashionable new coiffure necessitated by the need to "keep my hair out of my eyes", Tevez concedes he may have been a little blind to the Italian's strengths.
"There's lots of factors that can make you a better goalscorer but, yes, Roberto's got to be in there somewhere," he concedes, smiling. "But the biggest thing is I'm playing regularly. I've played a lot of games and I've not felt as good as this fitness wise for a long time – that's a key factor." The desire to retain such peak condition explains why Tevez is, once gain, contemplating retirement from international football, citing the draining nature of trans-continental commitments with Argentina.
Familiarity is almost as important as fitness in football but, for all their extravagant talent, Mancini's expensively imported squad remain comparative strangers. Meanwhile, the resultant jockeying for starting positions has left the Italian chiding unhappy fringe players, including Given and Emmanuel Adebayor, for selfishness.
Maybe it is not the best time to play Ancelotti's table-toppers? "We can face Chelsea on an equal footing – we beat them twice last season – but they're in a richer vein of form and it's going to be tough," Tevez says. "There's still a long way to go and I wouldn't say that if Chelsea won we'd be out of the title race. But, even at this early stage, they have a points advantage so we really need to win."
As a former champion with Manchester United he is well-qualified to assess City's credentials with the biggest concern being the speed at which newcomers can realistically be assimilated. "There's no doubts about our quality, it's just a question of building a team," he says. "We've got a lot of new faces and we've still got a bit of growing to do." So how long will forging a seamless unit take? "Hard to say. Let's hope it's quick but other teams have been together for years, we've had six or seven games. We need time. But Roberto's won things elsewhere and he's shaping up nicely to win things here."
Not that Tevez is overly keen to contrast Mancini with Hughes. "I don't like making comparisons," he protests. "You might say one slight thing, find yourself misinterpreted and suddenly you're in trouble. What I would say is they're two top managers. It's enjoyable to train and work with both Mark and Roberto."
Back in February the fun element temporarily disappeared from his life when Tevez's second daughter, Katie, was born prematurely and he and his then estranged partner spent 12 days by her side in the intensive care unit of a Buenos Aires hospital. It possibly has something to do with a reluctance to discuss his private life and, anyway, Katie is healthy now, but an opportunity to milk sympathy is immediately ducked. "It's hard to say you're struggling if you're a professional footballer," says Tevez, fresh from chatting to parents confronting sometimes unimaginable heartache. "Other people have far greater problems."
He has always possessed a keen sense of perspective, always remembered that only his football talent transported him from Fuerte Apache, a poverty-stricken, drug-riddled area of Buenos Aires to a luxury mansion in Cheshire. "What's helped me is my childhood, my tough upbringing," he says. "I learnt a lot from that, it helps with any problems I might encounter."
Right now his good friend Wayne Rooney – whom Tevez once claimed he would pick ahead of another former United colleague Cristiano Ronaldo and his Argentina team-mate Lionel Messi – is taking his turn to experience some on- and off-pitch turbulence. Tevez's concern transcends a new-found rivalry. "For the good of the game and the Premier League, let's hope Wayne gets his form back and we both finish equal on goals scored," says a striker every bit as important at Eastlands as Rooney is at Old Trafford.
Although not generally given to hyperbole, Mancini drives the analogy further. He sees Tevez as his Diego Maradona and has told City's players that, by giving the Argentinian the captaincy, he is endeavouring to recreate a piece of 80s history, when Maradona was made captain at Napoli and inspired the perceived upstart club to two Serie A titles. "No," says Tevez, shaking his head. "You can't compare. There's only one Maradona."
But then he struggles to suppress a little smile. Maybe comparisons are not necessarily always bad. Perhaps Mancini is cleverer than people appreciate.
TRANSFER BOLLOX
Manchester United can land Atletico Madrid's teenage goalkeeper David de Gea - if they come up with £17m to release him from his current contract, which runs until 2013. Daily Mirror
Tottenham will face stiff competition from Hamburg if they want to sign Lorient's French international striker Kevin Gameiro. Talksport
Sheffield United have won the race to sign Manchester United defender Ritchie de Laet on a one-month loan. Daily Mirror
OTHER BOLLOX
Birmingham manager Alex McLeish has revealed the secret of the club's superb home record is stormy half-time confrontations where senior players such as captain Stephen Carr, Barry Ferguson and Roger Johnson let fly. Daily Mirror
Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp claims Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has been transformed from "like a professor" into "one of the key nutters" by the intense pressure of 14 years in the English game. Daily Mail
Everton manager David Moyes called an emergency team meeting earlier this week to tell his underachieving Toffees that he is worried about their lack of fight ahead of Saturday's game away to Fulham. Daily Mirror
Former Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez has been branded "disgusting" by Sunderland manager Steve Bruce for his attempt to lure striker Kenwyne Jones from the Black Cats to Anfield last season. Daily Mirror
West Ham manager Avram Grant has accused Tottenham of attempting to take advantage of the Hammers' precarious financial situation in their summer move for midfielder Scott Parker. Daily Star
Blackpool manager Ian Holloway has backed Blackburn boss Sam Allardyce's claims that he could manage one of continental Europe's top sides. "How do people know that if he was given the AC Milan job he couldn't do a better job than anybody else?" he asked. Daily Mirror
The Football Association is close to giving up in its attempts to lure Germany's under-21 captain Lewis Holtby to switch allegiances and play for England. The 20-year-old Mainz midfielder, who is an Everton fan, qualifies through his father Christopher. Daily Mirror
Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson says that defender Gary Neville tires himself out by talking too much. "Gary is an emotional guy which can cost him energy," said Ferguson. The Sun
West Ham goalkeeper Robert Green has turned to club chaplain, the Reverend Alan Bolding, for help and guidance as he struggles to rediscover his form and confidence after his World Cup nightmare with England.Daily Mirror
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