http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/footba ... Tevez.html?
Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini is expected to take the captaincy away from Carlos Tévez ahead of their game with Everton on Monday night and is leaning towards reinstating Kolo Touré until the Argentina striker’s future is resolved.
Vincent Kompany is also being considered by the Italian but Touré’s experience might just sway it.
Manchester City are seeking to restore a sense of normality to proceedings after it was revealed the club had rejected a written transfer request from Tévez last week.
Having first expressed a desire to leave back in the summer, Tévez was given the captaincy as a means of trying to secure his commitment.
Touré was made captain by Mark Hughes shortly after he first arrived at the club and continued in the role after Mancini took over.
He was stripped of the armband before the start of this season, though, and said he thought it was a move designed to get Tévez “more involved” in the club.
He said he accepted Mancini’s decision for the sake of “peace and progress” at the club. If he was made captain again it would be a fitting reward for his loyalty.
The City manager is considering Kompany as a long-term option for the captaincy after his hugely impressive form this season but is understood to be keeping the door open for Tévez, should he decide his future is at the club.
Brian Marwood, the club’s football administrator, has reiterated the club’s position: Tévez will be expected to fulfil his contract, which expires in 2014. “He has a 3½-year contract with Manchester City and we are not thinking anything other than that,” Marwood said.
Mancini had indicated he would have no problem with selecting Tévez against Everton despite his transfer request and City coach David Platt confirmed he will be selected unless the player makes himself unavailable.
“I imagine he will be playing,” Platt said. “Carlos through his adviser has said that he would be available to play and will continue to give 100 per cent like he always does. There is no point in us being stupid about it.
"If Carlos Tévez is available to play he is going to be in the starting XI.”
Platt, meanwhile, has insisted the squad, who are joint top of the table, have not been unduly affected by the Tévez situation, or by the repeated reports of discord in the camp.
“I think footballers are very resilient,” Platt said. “They are aware of their own environment and what can happen. At City in many ways it’s a by-product of where the club has gone in terms of its ownership.
"That has been backed up by improving performances on the pitch as well as in terms of results and bigger objectives. I just think there is little we can do about the negativity that surrounds the club. We are now a big national story rather than a local one.
“We just have to accept what surrounds us because the alternative is to be playing mid-table football, not be qualifying for Europe and for no one else to be particularly bothered about us. No one wants that alternative.”
With refreshing honesty Platt conceded that there had been confrontations in the squad but that it was merely a sign of the ambition of the players.
“There is a dressing room full of people who want to win things and that spills on to the training pitch. There is no doubt about it, things have happened inside the club – there is a percentage of truth in what has been reported.
"But it’s nothing I haven’t seen before and at times believe me I have seen a lot worse. But we did go through a period when things were blown up out of all proportion and that was a little bit annoying.
“Look at the row that happened between Carlos and Roberto at half-time against Newcastle. It happened but it wasn’t as intense as everybody made out. But it happened and you have to live with it.
"We have an industry which is devoured by the media and you half expect things like that to come out. Yaya Touré and James Milner had a spat on the pitch in one game and that’s all it was.
"It was a tactical disagreement which finished there and then. What was frustrating was the misinformation which was leaked out.
“I think we’re getting a balance of decent media now because of the performances we are putting in on the pitch and where we are in the league.
"People have seen recently a couple of exceptional performances. The first half against Fulham was the best I have seen a team play in the Premier League this season.”
City, who made a statement about the Tévez situation a week ago, are sticking to their position and, while there is private disappointment at what they perceive as the machinations of Tévez’s adviser Kia Joorabchian, they feel the ball is firmly back in Tévez’s court. He is expected to behave professionally.
The mancityfans.net football forum
The BEST FORUM in all the land and all the world
