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Sir Alex Ferguson was right. Carlos Tevez is not worth £30m and Manchester City's gloom is purely down to lack of firepower
Last updated at 12:04 AM on 30th November 2009
Martin Samuel
Well, fancy that. It turns out Sir Alex Ferguson does know a bit about football after all.
It was Ferguson who initially reckoned Carlos Tevez was not a goal-scorer worth upwards of £30million; Ferguson whose selections indicated he thought a club with ambition to win the title needed a striker of greater potency; Ferguson who frequently preferred Tevez as a substitute; Ferguson who suffered plenty of lip from Manchester United supporters mistaking Tevez’s perspiration for inspiration.
Not a bad judge, though, was he? Not now potentially the most expensive signing in British transfer history — with a fee ranging from £32m to £47m, depending whose figures you believe — has reached the month of December having scored for Manchester City against a single Premier League team.
That was West Ham United, on September 28, 2009. Tevez scored twice in a 3-1 victory: the last league game City won. Beyond it, Tevez has scored against Crystal Palace and Scunthorpe United in the Carling Cup. It is doubtful this is the competition Sheik Mansour had in mind when he sanctioned such a fee on one player, not to
mention wages in the region of £145,000 per week.
Ferguson was spot on about Tevez. He is an impact player, at his best when the game is stretched and players tired, when his limitless vigour can cause havoc, as it did at Liverpool last weekend.
Tevez came on for Gareth Barry after 61 minutes and initially turned the game in City’s favour. He has great worth used in this way, no doubt about it.
The great match-winners, however, are more discerning in their conservation of energy. ‘You know what I am? I’m like a dog chasing cars,’ says The Joker, as played by Heath Ledger in the film The Dark Knight. ‘I wouldn’t know what to do with one if I caught it.’
That is how Tevez goes at a game: with an abandon that earns instant admirers for its selflessness, but is not always the most effective way to win. Perhaps this is why, to complete the car-chasing analogy, when Tevez does get a chance, everything is often happening so quickly, he does not take it.
The game against Hull City was typical, in that Tevez linked the play well and helped create chances, but did not take his own.
This profligacy — and Tevez is not alone — is now having a serious impact on Manchester City’s season. Failing to win a league game in two months cannot be airily dismissed, even if all matches in that time have been drawn.
City have taken seven points from the last 21. The purchase of a £32m striker — indeed of a strike force costing substantially more than £100m by the time Robinho, Emmanuel Adebayor, Craig Bellamy and Roque Santa Cruz are included — is supposed to insure against such streaks.
Five alive: Adebayor and Bellamy have eached scored five - both more than Tevez
City believed they were buying efficiency, forwards capable of deciding matches against inferior opposition, the way Fernando Torres does for Liverpool or Didier Drogba for Chelsea.
This recent run has largely pitted City against mediocrity, but Tevez is the greatest disappointment. He has failed to score in 90 minutes against Fulham, Birmingham City and Hull, 83 minutes against Wigan Athletic and 73 minutes against Burnley.
To complicate matters, the need to keep him happy will weigh heavily on his manager, Mark Hughes. He left him out at Anfield, but this was the sort of treatment Tevez received at United, and those two years ended in rancour. So Tevez started next time, with Bellamy relegated to the bench. The irony is that Hughes appeared to have located the perfect use for Tevez against Liverpool, but risks confrontation if he perseveres with it.
Maybe he risks more this way. Manchester City’s present malaise is more complex than a barren run for one forward — Adebayor and Bellamy have only scored five league goals each, and the defence seem unable to maintain a lead — but the fact remains that no team of serious intent can thrive with a main striker who scores twice before December.
Bench mark: Sir Alex Ferguson was right to use Tevez mainly as an impact sub
Tevez made his greatest impact at West Ham in 2007 because the goals required to make a difference to a team fighting relegation do not compare in number to those needed at the other end of the table.
During the infamous campaign after which Lord Griffiths surmised Tevez single-handedly saved West Ham, he scored just seven goals. As they arrived in a glut, and late, these proved vital, but in number it was a very ordinary return considering his status as a world-class forward with Argentina.
Tevez wasn’t even West Ham’s top goalscorer — Bobby Zamora got 11 — although there were two Premier League clubs where he would have been: Watford and Manchester City.
Joey Barton’s six qualified him as something of a hot-shot that season. Spend 125 million quid on strikers, however, and you are entitled to think the famine is over.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/article-1231918/Martin-Samuel-Sir-Alex-Ferguson-right-Carlos-Tevez-worth-30m-Manchester-Citys-gloom-lack-firepower.html?ITO=1490#ixzz0YLkT9aPC
Last updated at 12:04 AM on 30th November 2009
Martin Samuel
Well, fancy that. It turns out Sir Alex Ferguson does know a bit about football after all.
It was Ferguson who initially reckoned Carlos Tevez was not a goal-scorer worth upwards of £30million; Ferguson whose selections indicated he thought a club with ambition to win the title needed a striker of greater potency; Ferguson who frequently preferred Tevez as a substitute; Ferguson who suffered plenty of lip from Manchester United supporters mistaking Tevez’s perspiration for inspiration.
Not a bad judge, though, was he? Not now potentially the most expensive signing in British transfer history — with a fee ranging from £32m to £47m, depending whose figures you believe — has reached the month of December having scored for Manchester City against a single Premier League team.
That was West Ham United, on September 28, 2009. Tevez scored twice in a 3-1 victory: the last league game City won. Beyond it, Tevez has scored against Crystal Palace and Scunthorpe United in the Carling Cup. It is doubtful this is the competition Sheik Mansour had in mind when he sanctioned such a fee on one player, not to
mention wages in the region of £145,000 per week.
Ferguson was spot on about Tevez. He is an impact player, at his best when the game is stretched and players tired, when his limitless vigour can cause havoc, as it did at Liverpool last weekend.
Tevez came on for Gareth Barry after 61 minutes and initially turned the game in City’s favour. He has great worth used in this way, no doubt about it.
The great match-winners, however, are more discerning in their conservation of energy. ‘You know what I am? I’m like a dog chasing cars,’ says The Joker, as played by Heath Ledger in the film The Dark Knight. ‘I wouldn’t know what to do with one if I caught it.’
That is how Tevez goes at a game: with an abandon that earns instant admirers for its selflessness, but is not always the most effective way to win. Perhaps this is why, to complete the car-chasing analogy, when Tevez does get a chance, everything is often happening so quickly, he does not take it.
The game against Hull City was typical, in that Tevez linked the play well and helped create chances, but did not take his own.
This profligacy — and Tevez is not alone — is now having a serious impact on Manchester City’s season. Failing to win a league game in two months cannot be airily dismissed, even if all matches in that time have been drawn.
City have taken seven points from the last 21. The purchase of a £32m striker — indeed of a strike force costing substantially more than £100m by the time Robinho, Emmanuel Adebayor, Craig Bellamy and Roque Santa Cruz are included — is supposed to insure against such streaks.
Five alive: Adebayor and Bellamy have eached scored five - both more than Tevez
City believed they were buying efficiency, forwards capable of deciding matches against inferior opposition, the way Fernando Torres does for Liverpool or Didier Drogba for Chelsea.
This recent run has largely pitted City against mediocrity, but Tevez is the greatest disappointment. He has failed to score in 90 minutes against Fulham, Birmingham City and Hull, 83 minutes against Wigan Athletic and 73 minutes against Burnley.
To complicate matters, the need to keep him happy will weigh heavily on his manager, Mark Hughes. He left him out at Anfield, but this was the sort of treatment Tevez received at United, and those two years ended in rancour. So Tevez started next time, with Bellamy relegated to the bench. The irony is that Hughes appeared to have located the perfect use for Tevez against Liverpool, but risks confrontation if he perseveres with it.
Maybe he risks more this way. Manchester City’s present malaise is more complex than a barren run for one forward — Adebayor and Bellamy have only scored five league goals each, and the defence seem unable to maintain a lead — but the fact remains that no team of serious intent can thrive with a main striker who scores twice before December.
Bench mark: Sir Alex Ferguson was right to use Tevez mainly as an impact subTevez made his greatest impact at West Ham in 2007 because the goals required to make a difference to a team fighting relegation do not compare in number to those needed at the other end of the table.
During the infamous campaign after which Lord Griffiths surmised Tevez single-handedly saved West Ham, he scored just seven goals. As they arrived in a glut, and late, these proved vital, but in number it was a very ordinary return considering his status as a world-class forward with Argentina.
Tevez wasn’t even West Ham’s top goalscorer — Bobby Zamora got 11 — although there were two Premier League clubs where he would have been: Watford and Manchester City.
Joey Barton’s six qualified him as something of a hot-shot that season. Spend 125 million quid on strikers, however, and you are entitled to think the famine is over.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/article-1231918/Martin-Samuel-Sir-Alex-Ferguson-right-Carlos-Tevez-worth-30m-Manchester-Citys-gloom-lack-firepower.html?ITO=1490#ixzz0YLkT9aPC
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