Lovejoy: Tev not totally to blame

Posted Thursday, February 23, 2012 by The Sun

IN his latest column for SunSport, Tim Lovejoy says Carlos Tevez's five-month exile could have been avoided with better man-management at the start of the whole affair.

CARLOS TEVEZ has apologised to Manchester City and the rest of the world, so is the witch-hunt finally over?

It seemed every football fan and pundit would have liked nothing more than to never see Tevez play football again.

I felt the outpouring of hate towards Tevez after that Bayern Munich match was a joke.

Understand that I think Tevez was wrong as he should do what he is told. Also understand that I have little sympathy for him spending months in exile as he gets paid a lot of money and should have backed down ages ago.

But City boss Roberto Mancini was not an innocent party in the whole incident.

I was shocked in the post-match furore following City's defeat at Bayern that everyone had overlooked the fact Mancini had publicly lost the plot with Edin Dzeko.

With City losing 2-0 he had hauled the Bosnian striker off just 10 minutes into the second half with the pair clashing on the side of the pitch.

Mancini has struggled to deal with all the egos at his club which, as we all predicted, is the hardest part of the job.

Fortunately for Mancini, the hatred for a multi-million-pound player not warming up far outshone everything else and deflected nicely away from his man-management problems.

Mancini stating Tevez would never play for him at City again was a little churlish.

Maybe it sent a message to the rest of the squad but such a huge statement completely devalued one of City's assets and felt a bit schoolyard.

I like Mancini and looking at the points on the table he's doing a good job. Though he's clearly a fiery character who can lose his temper and go too far which is why he has had to apologise for his unsavory imaginary card waving.

Looking back, the Tevez incident should have been dealt with behind closed doors as it all looks a little petty now.

The big issue here is the man-management part of being a club boss and learning how to get the best out of your players.

Recent newspaper reports suggest Andre Villas-Boas has not got all the Chelsea dressing room on his side, which spells disaster.

It is awful for senior pros to wield any sort of control but it's a fact of life and the manager's job is to get all the playing staff onside.

Player power is not necessarily a new thing or a money thing — remember what happened when Brian Clough took over at Leeds.

Roman Abramovich was never going to buy a completely new squad of players to fulfil a plan.

Many players at clubs have long lucrative contracts and it's up to the manager to respect that in his thinking or suffer the consequences.

So AVB needs to work with the existing playing staff to get results and maintain Champions League status to move on.

If you want to see the king of man-management look no further than Alex Ferguson. He has had 25 years at United and evolved with the changing football climate.

Once upon a time he would hide in hedges to try and catch Lee Sharpe partying but could you imagine him doing that with a player like Cristiano Ronaldo?

If Ferguson doesn't think a player is right for his squad, irrelevant how popular they are amongst the fans, he moves them out with minimal fuss. Just ask Jaap Stam and David Beckham.

He's also not got too big of an ego to negotiate keeping the "wantaway" player if he feels he needs them, as he did with Wayne Rooney.

I don't know about you but I hope Tevez will get a chance to play for City again as he is great to watch.

There will always be clashes between managers and playing staff but how they deal with them is key to success.