Why we should remember for every Carlos Tevez, there's a Steven Gerrard or Paul Scholes

By Brian Reade

Published 21:01 13/01/12

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Why Roberto Mancini needs to regain his composure or risk losing it all

Why Mark Hughes has plenty of convincing to do at QPR  

News that Carlos Tevez's "people" are trying to play-off the two Milan clubs against each other as they seek the biggest pot of gold is a blast of deja vu.

Wasn't that what they did two summers ago in Manchester? And what has happened to the story that he's leaving Manchester City to get closer to his kids in Buenos Aries by moving to an Italian city which is further away?

Many critics of the game define Tevez as the archetypal modern footballer. A mercenary who shows they're all a shower of badge-kissing phoneys, simply in it for the money, with no love or loyalty to those who pay their wages, and no concept of what a football club means to its community.

But is that true? How does it explain a one-club man like Paul Scholes coming out of retirement to help the club he loves? Or one-club man Steven Gerrard signing a contract that will tie him to Liverpool for the rest of his career.

That means he will have spent 20 seasons as a pro at the club (during their least successful spell since the 1950s) when he had chance after chance to join any other club in the world and fill his trophy cabinet to bursting.

That's another reason to hate what Tevez is doing to his profession. He is unrepresentative of the average modern footballer but will go down as the embodiment.

Meanwhile the many decent men who devote themselves to their clubs are left in the shadows.

Maybe it's time we moved them out of Tevez's shadow and applauded them loudly.

***

What a baffling sight those 11,000 empty seats were at Manchester City on Wednesday.

It was a Carling Cup semi-final against big north-west rivals, with the team top of the league, yet only 36,017 turned up, which included a sold-out away end.

In January 1981, when City last hosted Liverpool in a League Cup semi, 48,048 packed into Maine Road. So what's changed? Do we put that 12,000 drop down to to the cost of the tickets, too much live football on the TV, a devalued League Cup, unatmospheric modern stadia, or today's fair-weather supporters?

Probably all of those reasons. The good news, though, is those rows of upturned seats might wipe the smug smiles off the ruling football Suits who believe their "product" has never been more popular.

Hence the justification of scandalous admission prices which all but exclude the unemployed, low waged and kids of non-affluent parents.

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