Player power seems to be grasping the headlines in football clubs nowadays, for all the wrong reasons let it be known.
The most recent episode of it has happened at Manchester City who over the last two seasons or so have established themselves as title challengers, putting them amongst teams such as Chelsea and Arsenal who have been challenging Manchester United for the last 15 years or so, Tottenham seem to be sneaking upon the title challenging radar also.
Anyone who follows football, knows about the episode with Carlos Tevez on Manchester Citys european escapades in Germany in the group stages of the UCL this season, a quick recap may be in order.
The night it happened fell on the same night Manchester United managed to scrape a draw at home to Basle FC in which the game finished 3-3, however the Carlos Tevez issue overshadowed that.
Manchester City were 2-0 down to Bayern Munich and Carlos Tevez and Nigel De Jong were told to warm up as Mancini was looking to attack and claw back the deficit, after calling Nigel De Jong and Carlos Tevez back to get stripped to get ready, he chose Nigel De Jong instead of Tevez to replace Edin Dzeko who was chosen to come off and as you can imagine he wasn't happy with being substituted, reacted angrily to being subbed.
Carlos Tevez however was the most angry of the two, when called upon to warm up once more so he's ready to come on, refused to do so. During the match it was made to look like he refused to play, whereas that wasn't the truth.
After the game, Mancini claimed that "if i had my way, he'll be out of the club" , "he's finished with me, he's finished" .. most Manchester City fans given the impression that they have a player in their squad who doesn't want to play for them, which is understandable because of what went on.
Now when Carlos Tevez moved to the blue side of Manchester, it did manage to trigger an outburst of fans of City, as this was a cross town transfer which are usually frowned upon by football rivals of such.
This issue dragged out across the season and is still spoke about to this day despite, it happening over 6 months ago.
Especially as the gifted Argentinian went on holiday back to his homeland for more than a couple of month, didn't train and launched an astonishing attack the city of Manchester itself.
Roberto Mancini later on in the season let Carlos Tevez back into the squad after Tevez himself, apologised for the actions that took place but after Roberto Mancini took such a strong stand on the night and aftermath of the incident, you have to be asking .. why would you let this player in and disturb the harmony of the squad which has improved since?
Which brings me to an incident that happened over ten years ago.
Paul Scholes, a Manchester United midfielder who refused to play for the reds in a Carling Cup (Worthington Cup, as it was known) tie against Arsenal, which the team went on to lose 4-0, the previous game, Scholes was dropped due to poor form for the game at Anfield which finished 3-1 when Scholes was given ten minutes at the end.
Paul Scholes said himself, about the incident : It is something I regret doing. I wasn’t in a great mood after being left out of the starting line-up for the Liverpool game – our previous match,” he said. “It was basically the reserves who were playing at Arsenal and I got a bee in my bonnet that I wasn’t happy with it and my attitude was, ‘I’m not going’. It was a silly thing to do – I know that. I had reasons for it but it was stupid and I ended up apologising. But I was lucky – Sir Alex would have been well within his rights to get rid of me after I refused to play for one of his teams and I couldn’t have complained about it. I don’t think many players have done what I did. “I got fined for it – a week or two weeks’ wages. I can’t remember exactly but I didn’t do it again! And I definitely regret doing it.”
What is the difference between the two, i can only presume you're asking yourself?
The only difference's i can make out between the two incidents, is that one player had previously been playing for his current club 9 years before the incident, sort of had a short legacy set in stone so far in his career.
Myself as a Manchester United fan, cannot condone Paul Scholes for this incident, but at the time.. the "press" didn't have that much power, so it wasn't such a big deal.
& ever since that incident, Paul Scholes has become arguably the best midfielder to ever grace the game, of course that's my opinion, not fact.
Then we move onto the issue of Wayne Rooney in the 2010-2011 season.
The autumn of 2010, the talismanic striker for both club and country revealed that he had no intention to sign a new contract with Manchester United, upsetting the majority of the fanbase of the club, seeing as he has been such a pivotal figure in the side after overlooking the departures of Cristiano Ronaldo and Ruud Van Nistlerooy.
As more details came out, it was revealed that he had a minor fall out with Sir Alex Ferguson and didn't feel happy with no news regarding incoming transfers for the club.
Now two weeks after this incident, Manchester United fans were pleased to hear that Wayne Rooney had signed a new contract with the club which included a raise in wages, which came as no surprise as every player gets a rise in wage.
In the summer at the end of the season, Manchester United later went on to sign Phil Jones from Blackburn, Ashley Young from Aston Villa and young goalkeeper David De Gea from Athletico Madrid in La Liga.
Now again, i think the difference between the Wayne Rooney and Carlos Tevez sagas were that Wayne Rooney had already been at Manchester United for 5-6 previous years and had helped the club to numerous titles and cups.
Going back to the Carlos Tevez saga, i can't help but spare a thought for Mario Balotelli.
The youngster knows he's talented as do most football fans, he sees his current manager as a father figure so you'd think they get on, on and off the field.
Although he's young, if you've seen much of him before you'd be forgiven to believe that he could lead a club to glory, despite his age .. you've seen it before.. Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney for Manchester United, Lionel Messi for Barcelona etc etc.
You can't help but think, letting Carlos Tevez back into the squad has damaged Balotelli more than anyone.
As much as a live wire that he is, it's got to of ticked him off. Not to mention the majority of the Manchester City squad being given the impression that they can do what they want and still get a place guaranteed in the squad, although most players won't do anything Tevez did, you'd presume!
Nobody wants to see players over shadowing their respective clubs for the wrong reasons, don't get me wrong this is no dig at Manchester City however, you can't help but think Roberto Mancini has made the wrong decision in welcoming Tevez back into his squad, especially as it seems that Manchester City are looking more and more likely to miss out on their first Premier League title, making it look like they've brought back Tevez for no proven reason and with Balotelli looking like he's ruined his MCFC career with a stupid amount of incidents in the last two seasons.
As a United fan, i must add i hope Roberto Mancini doesn't get fired at the end of this season, it's not deserved.. he's brought a cup in three seasons to the Etihad, brought in Aguero, David Silva, Samir Nasri and Yaya Toure.. players years ago most City fans would never of imagined would be wearing the blue shirt of their club.
Improved Vincent Kompany who is recognised by most football fans as one of the best centre halves in world football.
Their uprising in football has seen them linked with players such as Robin Van Persie, Radamel Falcao, the Napoli trio of Marek Hamisk, Edinson Cavani and Ezequiel Lavezzi, Dutch maestro Wesley Sneijder, Croatian dynamo Luka Modric, even Real Madrid players such as Gonzalo Higuain and Karim Benzema at times.
Surely the players mentioned above wouldn't want to work for a manager who lets players come and go as they like?
Lets hope it works out in the long run and Manchester United have a new title challenger in years to come, not just for a couple of years.
