Manchester City bench backs Carlos Tevez - 7M sport

Manchester City bench backs Carlos Tevez



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Posted Friday, October 21, 2011 by The Sun

Manchester City bench backs Carlos Tevez
SILENT NIGHT ... Tevez and team-mates on the bench in Munich

NOT one single person on the Manchester City bench in Munich heard Carlos Tevez tell Roberto Mancini he would not play.

Not even Mancini's loyal assistants David Platt and Brian Kidd have been able to back up the manager's claim.

And City's substitutes for the Champions League clash with Bayern that night were unable to support Mancini's position, either.

SunSport has discovered that witness statements, which will be submitted today to the club's internal disciplinary inquiry into the astonishing events in Germany, paint a picture of total confusion.

But, crucially, Mancini has found himself on his own when it comes to his original interpretation of events on September 27.

And he has had to accept that in the middle of the commotion he may not have heard exactly what was happening.

Mancini claims he told Tevez he should warm up as he was going on, to which the player responded 'No'.

However, we understand that neither Platt nor Kidd can confirm this.

Mancini also says he spoke to Tevez in Italian, even though the Argentinian does not speak the language.

City fitness coach Ivan Carminati revealed that Tevez told him he did not want to warm up because he was ready to go on.

When Carminati asked him a second time, Tevez stood — apparently to warm up — only to be told to sit down again by Mancini, who said: "I don't want to play you." This could be seen as backing Tevez's claim that he was never told he was going on in the first place.

The manager concedes he had an argument with Edin Dzeko when he substituted the striker before the Tevez fracas.

And he could not recall whether he told Tevez to "go back to Argentina" and Dzeko to "go back to Bosnia".

Then he admits it was so noisy in the stadium, it was difficult to hear exactly what was being said — and that if Tevez did offer an explanation as to why he was not warming up any more, he might not have been able to hear the player.

But Mancini is adamant even if Tevez was simply refusing to prepare, then that in itself was unacceptable behaviour. He says he needed a player ready to perform and did not feel Tevez was.

Yet neither Kidd nor Platt can say whether Mancini was even intending to put Tevez on.

It was Kidd's job to fill out the substitutes form to hand to the fourth official if any changes were being made.

But no form was filled out or given to the official.

Among Tevez's fellow players there is zero backing for any argument that he refused to play in the 2-0 defeat.

We have also learned that in Tevez's own evidence, he stands completely by his argument that he did not feel it necessary to warm up again because he had already done so and had only just returned to the bench.

After the game, Tevez was happy to be interviewed by Sky Sports and appeared to confirm he was not in the right frame of mind to play.

However, he says he was reacting to the fact Mancini had told him to go back to Argentina and the interpreter did not translate his words correctly.

Tevez points out his interview was cut short by the Manchester City press officer and he did not get a chance to fully explain his side of the story.

There have been claims Tevez, 27, was feeling especially sore because he had been forced to warm up for 30 minutes in the previous game against Everton without getting on the pitch.

However, there is no support in the evidence for that argument, not even from Mancini.

We revealed last week how Mancini summoned Tevez to his house after midnight and demanded the star apologised publicly to him and chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak for his behaviour in Munich.

Tevez, in turn, asked Mancini to apologise for telling the world he refused to play — but the Etihad boss would not do so.

There seems no way the two can repair the damage and Mancini still wants the club to take the strongest action possible against his former captain.

For his part, Tevez has vowed to fight all the way.

Should the disciplinary hearing go against him, he will appeal to the club's board.

And if that fails, he will take his fight to a Premier League tribunal.



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