Player Power is powerful, but not as powerful as Oil

The weekend Manchester City go joint top of the table and maybe just become serious title contenders what they did not need was their captain writing a transfer request asking to leave in January.

This weekend saw Manchester City comfortably beat bottom team West Ham moving level on points with top of the table Arsenal who tonight go to title challengers Manchester United. Manchester City are now well in the title race and by the end of next weekend considering they beat Everton at Eastland’s could be sitting top of the pile at Christmas if Manchester United or Arsenal do not get the results they need, which will prove difficult considering they play each other and both play Chelsea in the next few weeks.

So just when everything was looking rose for the blues of Manchester Carlos Tevez and Kia Joorabchian (no doubt the biggest agent in football) decide they want out of Eastland’s due to a breakdown in his relationship with “certain executives and individuals”.

This tells me Carlos Tevez and his agent wants more money. It also tells me Manchester City is not willing to renegotiate his contract in the middle of the season. It has been rumoured for a while now that Carlos Tevez wants to return home after being in England for a long period of time but this week Tevez reported denied that he is homesick and is committed to the long term prospect of the club and more importantly his contract which still has 3 and a half years until it expires.

In my head this sparks a memory of a very similar story to the club Manchester City want to replace. Just last month Wayne Rooney wrote a written transfer request (maybe giving Rooney too much credit on his writing skills) saying he wants out of Manchester due to a lack of ambition at the club. And a week later Wayne Rooney had a cheesy grin on his face next to Sir Alex Ferguson after he was rewarded with more than £200,000 a week and the board saying Sir Alex will have money to spend should he want to.

Wayne Rooney played his card saying he was willing to walk away and Manchester United responded giving Rooney want he wanted, showing player power is becoming more and more powerful in the modern game of football. What Carlos Tevez and his money grabbing agent are doing is exactly the same, Kia Joorabchian obviously believes his client is on the same level as Wayne Rooney, and he might be right, but this is nothing more than a play to make Carlos Tevez is the highest paid player at Manchester City and maybe the Premier League.

Manchester City have declined the transfer request and responded with a strong statement that they will not entertain any offers for their talismanic forward during the next transfer window. This is a statement that will tell Carlos Tevez to get back to what he does best, score goals and maybe just maybe if we win the league and take the first step to becoming the dominant brand in English football then you will get a new contract and be made the King of Manchester City, which no doubting he already is.

One thing I am pretty sure of, just like I was sure about with Wayne Rooney is Carlos Tevez will not be leaving Manchester, we will not see him in a Barcelona or Real Madrid shirt this season nor next season. It is simply just a play of power from a player and agent who think they are ‘indispensible’.