Why Manchester City will struggle to keep Tevez, whatever he decides

Manchester City striker Carlos Tevez has been making plenty of headlines this summer. Whether it be his protracted agitating of his club or rows over his selection for Argentina, controversy is sure to follow.

The Football Blog ponders the forces at work behind the scenes and how Manchester City will struggle to keep hold of their talisman for any great length of time.

Carlos Tevez has proved instrumental for Manchester City over the last 2 years, captaining them to qualification for the Champions League and lifting the FA Cup. He has also helped give the club some much needed credibility in world football, Matt Hines writes. However, over the past few months Tevez has made no secret of his desire to return home to Argentina. In a recent interview with Argentine television he vowed never to return to Manchester, even going as far as insulting the city’s climate.

The Daily Star reported on Monday that Manchester City will offer Carlos Tevez a compromise deal in order to keep him at Eastlands. Tevez, who has three years left on his current deal, will be allowed to leave on a free transfer if he remains at the club for two more years and then transfers to a club outside Europe. Tevez appears to already be going back on his words that he will never return to Manchester.

After it emerged he has patched things up with the mother of his daughters, Vanessa, it may look like the perfect compromise: potentially two more years in the Champions League for City, earning in excess of £200,000 a week before a return home to Boca, where ‘El Apache’ will be worshipped for the remainder of his career. Sounds perfect, right? There is one element that City may have overlooked.

Kia Joorabchian, Tevez’s agent and former owner has successfully engineered a big money transfer for his client at least every two years since his company, Media Sports Investment (MSI) purchased a percentage of his registration when he signed for Brazilian club Corinthians in 2004.

With the success he has enjoyed in England, Tevez’s journeyman career will have inevitably proved very lucrative for MSI. Many journalists have pointed out that Tevez’s initial move to England was an unusual one, especially to a relatively small club like West Ham.

While this is pure speculation, it could be argued that England was simply a more lucrative proposition for MSI, and not necessarily the best choice for the player’s career. The deal over the Argentines’ registration of course led to the long running legal proceedings involving West Ham and Sheffield United, ultimately resulting in the Hammers being forced to pay £20 million in compensation for relegating the Blades after Tevez’s heroics in helping keep West Ham in the Premier League in 2007.

The question on many people’s lips for the past few weeks has been why can’t Tevez just take a wage cut if he is so desperate to return to Argentina? Well, the obvious assumption for me is that Tevez might not be in full control of his own destiny.