Barry Horne: I’m so happy to see Carlos Tevez looking so blue

Aug 27 2011 by Barry Horne, Liverpool Echo

I HAVE to admit to taking some degree of mean spirited pleasure from the look on Carlos Tevez’s face when he was sat on the bench watching his team-mates play some fantastic football in an entertaining win at Bolton on Sunday.

Manchester City have both the financial clout and player resources to leave the petulant and selfish Argentinian on the bench for the remainder of his contract.

Such a stance would be a very, very small step in stemming the rapid advancement of player power.

Far too often in recent years players and their agents have been guilty of failing to respect the nature of a contract.

In doing so they risk spoiling the strength of footballers’ contracts, which is one of the best in any form of employment. All of the recent ‘contract rebels’ are incredibly highly paid players at the top of their game with large transfer values.

The majority of professional footballers who depend on their wages to pay their bills have signed the same contracts and, if more and more players start forcing the issue so that they are effectively breaking their contracts, clubs will start fighting back.

It won’t be the Tevez’s or Fabregas’s who suffer, but the lads at Tranmere and Rochdale.

The PFA have been noticeably quiet and while many blame agents, players are grown men and have to be held accountable.

I look forward to seeing Tevez sitting on the bench for many months to come.

But I doubt that will happen.