September 27th 2011. Man City are playing away to Bayern Munich in a Champions League group tie. It's the second half and they are trailing 2-0.
The TV footage is showing Carlos Tevez and manager Roberto Mancini arguing on the bench, and it appears that the Argentinian striker is refusing to play.
Given Tevez' 'wild' persona both on and off the pitch, the general feeling was that he was clearly in the wrong with this disgraceful act of poor sportsmanship and pettiness.
Mancini, after the game, stated that Tevez would not be in the club's plans going forward, saying that "No. If we want to improve like a team, like a squad, Carlos cannot play with us. With me, no – it is finished."
Tevez did provide a vague reasoning for his actions at the time, but he was given the opportunity to fully explain his side of the story in an interview with CITY + 92:30.
“It's been almost 10 years that since that moment. What I remember is that in the first half, Bayern Munich were far more superior than us. So, I began warming up in the 35th minute of the first half. And I warmed up for 10 minutes until the first half ended.
“I kept warming up at half time, and when the second half started, I remember we were five minutes in, and I was still warming up and we were still 2-0 down. In that first substitution, I think he (Mancini) subs on De Jong for Aguero.
“I knew I'd warmed up enough to go on by that point so when I see that substitution, I didn't like it all. We are 2-0 down and De Jong comes on for Sergio and I don't go on, so I was angry. I went straight to the bench and when Mancini told me to keep warming up, I said no.
“I said if he wanted me to, I was ready to go on but I wasn't going to keep warming up as I had spent about 35 minutes warming up already. And from there, it was back and forth between us. A bit in English, another bit in Spanish, another in Italian... and I believe words were misunderstood.
“Because I was telling him in the heat of the moment, he only understood the things that he wanted to. I just wanted to know if he was going to use me on or not and it's not about who was right or wrong. It was all about trying to get him to put himself in my shoes.”
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A Man City Legend
“I came back, and I apologised for the mistake I made in that moment. That, for me, was a problem with an easy solution. But as I said before, with English, Spanish and Italian that were shouted on the bench and in the dressing room, it was a complete mess.
“It ended there, I came back, and we both apologised and later, we won the Premier League title. Our relationship had always a really good one, we just had that moment, since he always respected me, and I respected him.
“The truth is, a coach, Mancini is really talented and to be honest, I really appreciate him as a person as well. And luckily, we brought some joy to the fans together.”
In fairness to Tevez, his side of the story, while he was still in the wrong, is understandable, and he gave a similar explanation at the time of the incident.
He has always been a fervently passionate player and his actions that day were probably down to his belief that he could have made a difference earlier in the game to help Man City salvage a result.
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