Premier League

Mancini to blame for Tevez isolation - Joorabchian

Harry Harris

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Roberto Mancini and Carlos Tevez's relationship has soured © PA Photos

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Manchester City have rejected the claims of Carlos Tevez's agent, Kia Joorabchian, that the striker's relationship with manager Roberto Mancini is the reason that he wants to leave the club.

The latest row in a series of bust-ups linked to Tevez has now surfaced with Mancini becoming the unexpected target. The Italian manager inherited Tevez from Mark Hughes but the big fall out came during a Champions League match against Bayern Munich when the striker refused to warm up, and Mancini felt he had declined to come off the bench to play.

Joorabchian, in an interview with talkSPORT, insisted the manager's handling of that situation has been generally poor. "The relationship with Mancini has never been good ever since Mancini came into the football club," he said. "After the explosion of that day, Mancini created an impossible situation. Carlos Tevez served his two-week suspension, he trained with the reserves. Once he had done that Mancini should have re-integrated him with the first team.

"For two years he was dedicated to the football club, he even went to Italy to get massive treatment on his knee to come back and play in the FA Cup final."

However, City have pointed out that Tevez first asked for a transfer and nearly signed for Corinthians citing that he needed to be closer to his family. He has also given a reason for the fall out because of problems with the executives, rather than the manager. Now the goalposts have moved on to Mancini's managerial methods and fall outs with other star players as well as himself.

Indeed, Joorabchian claimed the Italian is a divisive influence at the Etihad stadium.

"There was a point where Carlos was saying 'I can't get on here' and he's not the only one," he said. "Craig Bellamy, Emmanuel Adebayor and Shay Given have all left in an awkward way and Wayne Bridge is now not training with the first team.

"Mancini's done a good job at the club but there are not many managers in the world who can throw away the quality of Adebayor, Tevez and Bellamy. He's in a very fortunate position. When he was at Inter Milan, and now at Man City, the club was the highest spending team in the world.

"You look at the people who are running Manchester City and they are trying very hard to sort out some of the problems from the Bayern Munich match. These are situations where the manager needs to be managing the football club.

"Mancini has been very clear that he doesn't want him in the first team. Carlos is going to have to come back, pick up his money and play with the reserves. He's not that type of player who wants to walk around the club with that hanging over his head though."

However, City insist that on occasions Tevez has even publicly declared that there had not been a fall out with his manager.

And in the extensive list of quotes you can find Tevez saying: "Mancini and I have arguments and moments but it's not such a great matter to me. He's a great manager. Things happen in the heat of the moment, silly things that can happen when we are trying to do what's best for the team."