English Premiership
Mancini: Tevez acted stupidly
2011-12-05 22:15
Carlos Tevez and Roberto Mancini (File)
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Paris - Manchester City coach Roberto Mancini has continued his open feud with Carlos Tevez, saying the striker behaved in a manner unworthy of a great player when he refused to warm up during a Champions League game against Bayern Munich.
Tevez has not played for the club since the incident more than two months ago, and his City career is all but over.
"Tevez behaved stupidly in the way a player shouldn't, especially a great player," Mancini said on Monday in an interview with sports daily L'Equipe. "I was really angry. Because I was not expecting that from him. I always had excellent relations with him."
City suspended Tevez for two weeks and fined him a fortnight's wages on September 27.
Mancini was stunned when Tevez sat glumly on the bench and ignored instructions to warm up in the second half of the match against Bayern Munich that City lost 2-0.
"That's the first time I've seen that in such an important match when there was 40 minutes left to play," Mancini said. "It's happened before that players have refused to come on, but only when there was only a few minutes left to play."
An internal disciplinary hearing found Tevez guilty of five breaches of contract, including bringing the club into disrepute and failing to follow the instructions of his manager.
"You can always get things wrong, but you only realise it afterward. (But) In Tevez's case, I did nothing for him to behave in this way," Mancini said. "Ten days after what happened in Munich, I invited him to come to my place to talk. I told him that, if he apologised to me, to the club, to the team, he could come back into the squad.
"I would have forgiven him. But he replied that he didn't have to apologise to anyone."
Tevez compounded the situation by flying to his native Argentina during November's international break without the club's permission.
Tevez's last appearance for City was in a League Cup match against Birmingham on September 21, and he has recently been linked with a loan move to Italian giants AC Milan.
Mancini added that Tevez may be badly advised by his entourage.
"He's a good lad, in spite of his recent behaviour. But maybe he does not have the people around him to give him the right advice."