This summer, a price-tag of £50million will be placed on Carlos Tevez by Manchester City.
City’s manager Roberto Mancini is concerned that captain Tevez may seek to leave the club at the season’s conclusion, likely heading to Italy after two years at Eastlands.
This sentiment is echoed by other City officials, but they are resolute that the Argentina international will not be sold for less than his market value.
Given Tevez’s prolific scoring record during his tenure with the team, City considers him to be at least as valuable as Spanish player Fernando Torres, who was transferred from Liverpool to Chelsea for £50m in January.
City asserts that this amount is a reasonable price for Tevez, a player currently at the height of his abilities, who has sparked interest from both Milan clubs and the newly-wealthy Roma.
For any club, meeting City’s valuation will prove difficult, especially considering that Tevez’s wages exceed £250,000 per week at Eastlands.
Nonetheless, City will remain firm in their stance if Tevez does indeed express a desire to leave after meeting with Mancini to discuss his future at season’s end.
With the club being cautious of the forthcoming Financial Fair Play regulations by FIFA, Tevez’s departure or retention will significantly influence City’s transfer strategy.
Mancini, alongside football administrator Brian Marwood, has created a list of targets that features Udinese forward Alexis Sanchez and Bolton central defender Gary Cahill.
However, City is reluctant to add substantial amounts of money to the first team’s growing wage bill without seeing some players depart first.
Qualification for next season’s Champions League—and the substantial financial benefits that accompany it—will also shape the club’s decisions; it is known that concerns over wages, more so than transfer fees, are prompting the City board to exercise caution.Clearly, shedding the £12m committed to Tevez’s salary each year would allow for easier negotiations, as would the sale of currently loaned players such as Emmanuel Adebayor, Craig Bellamy, and Roque Santa Cruz.
At the season’s end, City intends to propose part-exchange deals involving players from Udinese and Bolton while negotiating for their targets. However, offloading high-earning players has emerged as a challenge from the massive spending spree that followed Sheikh Mansour’s acquisition of the club three summers ago.
Regarding Tevez, no formal notification has been received by City indicating his intention to leave. However, there are suspicions that the reasons behind last winter’s transfer request, which was later retracted, still persist.
Sources close to the City captain, who is currently recovering from a hamstring injury, have suggested that he continues to have conflicts with Mancini and has an ongoing dislike for living in Manchester, which is somewhat understandable, considering certain areas of Manchester do not compare favorably to sunny Libya.
Tevez is likely to be fit for the FA Cup Final against Stoke on May 14 and has been informed that he will regain the captain’s armband, which has temporarily been held by Belgian defender Vincent Kompany.
by Terence Johns
