Publications
Partners
London - Former Manchester United midfielder Paul Scholes expressed sympathy for Carlos Tevez on Friday following the striker's suspension for refusing to come off the bench against Bayern Munich.
The unsettled Manchester City star has faced a wave of condemnation across English football following his apparent snub to manager Roberto Mancini during the second half of the club's Champions League match in Munich on Tuesday.
However Scholes, a former team-mate of Tevez's at United, expressed support for the Argentinian and compared the case to an incident in 2001 when he refused to play for United in a League Cup game.
"I know Carlos quite well. He's a player who wants to be playing," Scholes told BBC Radio 5 live. "When he's a sub, it will be killing him.
"It's totally up to the manager but Carlos wouldn't have been thinking that. He'll be thinking, 'The manager is against me, why is he not bringing me on? I'm City's best player and he's not playing me'.
"I'm not saying he (Tevez) is right - it's totally up to the manager."
Scholes recalled how he refused to play in a League Cup game in 2001 after being dropped for a previous game against Liverpool.
The former England international was subsequently fined a week's wages by Sir Alex Ferguson.
"You think you should be playing and my head was all over the place. I thought he (Ferguson) was messing me about, wrongly really. It's up to him what he does with his team," he said.
"I realise it was stupid. I let the manager down and it was something I regretted. It's probably similar to Carlos Tevez's state of mind if it is true he refused to come on."
