Why tevez refused to play

Asked if he will ever pick Tevez again, Mancini replied: "No. If we want to improve like a team, like a squad, Carlos cannot play with us. With me, no — it is finished. For me, if a player earns a lot of money playing for Manchester City in the Champions League and he behaves like this — he cannot play again. He has wanted to leave for the last two years. Some would say Tevez has only been served his own medicine, since he is the one that filed the divorce papers against City in the summer.

But let such recall that last season, in fact the middle of the season, Tevez had already aired his grievance against Mancini. Let him or her recall that he submitted to the club a letter seeking to 'resign' his services from the club.

Recall that he had more than a few run-ins with Mancini even then. Granted he filed the papers, but since the separation fell through, how does it make sense to frustrate such a player by consigning him to the bench most of the time?

Like him or hate him, there is not a more hard working player than Tevez, who consistently performs at the highest level and is often a match winner, the very reason it seems Mancini sought to bring him on at Bayern.

Tevez's strange behavior seems to me to be a by-product of Saturday's match against Everton. Tevez appeared to have been asked to warm-up in an apparent preparation to be brought on on Saturday. Yet the subs to be called upon were Balotelli, Milner and Savic.

The word was that Tevez had fallen down the pecking order of strikers. It is true that the manager can do whatever he likes. This may well be, but I do not think it is healthy to frustrate players or give little thought to their feelings as persons, which is why I cited the above examples. During the match, Mancini was seen having stern words with full-back Pablo Zabaleta, however the City boss admitted to making a mistake and has cleared the air with the former Espanyol man.

After an all-round bad night, Mancini has given his entire squad a final warning regarding their attitude after Edin Dzeko reacted angrily to being substituted. He continued: "Edin Dzeko was disappointed to come off, but I believe the manager can do what he thinks is right. It hasn't occurred before, but I think what happened [with Tevez] was despicable. Mancini spent a long part of the day discussing the matter with al-Mubarak and asked for a suspension to be invoked that would mean Tevez was not allowed at the stadium or the training ground.

The players were on a day off but report for duty on Thursday. Mancini has told al-Mubarak he will not accept Tevez being involved in first-team sessions.

The most likely outcome is that Tevez will be sold for a cut-price fee in the January transfer window. Until then, however, Mancini will push for him to continue to be left in isolation.