It may be Manchester City again for Carlos Tevez after the club rejected the £35million bid by the Brazilian club of Corinthians for their captain. And while Ousmane Dabo has termed it a battle of wills between Tevez and the Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini, it will also make financial sense for the team to not bow down to the demands of their star player.
The reason is rather simple. Manchester City will probably need to spend as much as £45million in order to buy Sergio Aguero from Atletico Madrid as Tevez’s replacement – which means that accepting a bid lower than that, could only give rise to a financial crunch. The City are looking at £50million for their star.
This leaves the situation at a stalemate. The Corinthians have announced that they will not pay too much extra on Tevez from what they have already offered. Corinthians’ president Andres Sanches has already said that the expected figure is “unviable for the Brazilian football market.” Citing the reason for not increasing Tevez’s price tag, he also added, “This sum means we will be spending 20 to 25 per cent of our TV rights earnings if City accept it.”
Sanches was also blunt in announcing that Tevez will end up earning lesser while playing for the club than what he earned in England. But given Tevez’s strong inclination towards getting back to his own country, there isn’t too much doubt that he wouldn’t mind the pay-cut too much.
On the other hand, Manchester City has shown no inclination to reducing their expectation either. They are quite adamant on getting a sum of £50million and this only points to Tevez returning to the Etihad Stadium after his stint at the Copa America soccer tournament.
Interestingly, the transfer window period in Brazilian soccer ends on July 20, which means that the deal needs to be made before that.
Not all is lost for Tevez though, who could end up with a deal with La Liga runner-up last season, Real Madrid. Manager Jose Mourinho has already sounded for his need to include a striker for his club and Tevez’s agent Kia Joorabchian has said that his client will have Real Madrid as his second option. The agent explained, “For Carlos, the main motivation for leaving City is not to go to another club in the Premier League, but to move to a city where his family can adapt.”