Blame Tevez if City blow title

LONDON: If Manchester City do in the end succumb to their nearest rivals in the race for the title I believe we can lay the blame firmly at one man’s door – Carlos Tevez. What a disgrace he has been. Tomorrow, he could well be on the bench for City against Chelsea having turned his back on the club and been on strike for most of the season.

Should City struggle to score against a Chelsea side rejuvenated by their midweek triumph over Napoli then the ground will start to rumble.

Those who never wanted him back might stand firm, others may start to chant his name, season-ticket holders who have sat side-by-side could argue what is right and what is wrong.

Some will boo, some will cheer. Exactly the sort of atmosphere the club do not want at a time when everyone needs to be pulling together.

And what will his team-mates be thinking? While they have been working away to keep City’s title dream alive he has been sat on his backside in Argentina or playing golf.

What will Edin Dzeko or Mario Balotelli or Sergio Aguero think if he comes on for one of them or even gets on the team-sheet instead of one of them?

Despite some player’s public pronouncements of support for Tevez I cannot believe his presence will not affect the atmosphere.

City wanted him there all season to help the cause – to build on that FA Cup he happily picked up last season and get the really big piece of silverware.

But no, for the whole campaign, and indeed before that, he has created a controversial sideshow that Roberto Mancini could really have done without.

Despite City making their most emphatic title tilt in over 40 years the Tevez question has been literally nagging away at the manager all season.

This is a player who was given everything when the doors of City’s stadium were swung open to him after it became clear that Manchester United did not value him quite as highly as he did himself.

The fans could easily have turned on a former Red who was struggling to even get into Alex Ferguson’s team at the end of his final season at Old Trafford.

But no, they welcomed him with open arms and even put up a cheeky poster in his honour with words reading “Welcome to Manchester”.

Even when he tried to leave the club before and had publicly shown dissent in front of the manager, the fans stuck with him.

Then he goes on strike after refusing to continue warming up, which to me is tantamount to refusing to come on no matter what any inquiry tells you.

I had every reason to refuse to come on once in my career. It was a North-east derby and the then Newcastle manager Ruud Gullit left me on the bench.

I despised what he did. It was personal, he was trying to do what Andre Villas Boas did at Chelsea and get a senior figure at the football club out. He then turned to me to come on with the match in the balance.

I was never going to refuse to help my team-mates and do everything I could for my club.

But I was not doing it for him, no way.

Mancini had not left Tevez out the team for any other reason than his attitude had stunk for so long and in his opinion there were better players ahead of him at that moment in time.

His response in Munich was disgraceful and his subsequent actions likewise.

Look, he might return and score the goals that win the title. I doubt it, but he might. Even if he does it will all still leave a bad taste.

If City don’t win it, the finger can point at one man and it will not be Roberto Mancini.