Who is telling the truth? Tevez a victim of mistranslation?
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Tevez the outcast: Rebel striker will never play for Manchester City again
Centre of attention: A distracted Carlos Tevez sits alongside team-mates (from left) Gareth Barry, Samir Nasri and Pablo Zabaleta
Manchester City are determined that Carlos Tevez will pay football's ultimate price for downing tools in Munich last week - and end his days with the club as a first-team outcast.
City manager Roberto Mancini has not deviated from his post-match assertion that the Argentinian striker will never kick a ball for City again. And an internal investigation is expected to give the Italian total backing.
Tevez had planned to fly back to Argentina on Friday to spend time with his family and avoid the media spotlight but City have ordered him to be available for interview as part of their investigation into his alleged conduct.
He will probably be interviewed tomorrow, while team-mates will also give formal evidence this week.
Contrary to some reports, not all of the players will claim ignorance of what happened in Germany, although only a limited number of those who were on City's substitutes' bench in Munich could have heard the exchanges between Tevez, other players and the coaching staff.
A Mail on Sunday investigation by forensic lip-readers suggests Tevez may indeed have defied Mancini rather than been the victim of a misunderstanding, as he later claimed.
Not bothered: But Tevez may have to sit out the next three months
At one point after being asked to warm up - for the second time - during City's 2-0 Champions League defeat by Bayern Munich, Tevez appears to tell a member of City's backroom staff: 'No, leave me alone. I've said no.'
In another excerpt, Tevez seems to say: 'Well, who cares? I'm not going to.'
Later, he appears to say to Argentine compatriot Pablo Zabaleta, who is sat next to him: 'You see what I mean?'
It is unclear whether he is talking about City's poor performance or asking Zabaleta to understand his situation.
If the internal inquiry goes against Tevez, it is thought he will not be allowed to train with the first team again and will never wear a first team shirt for the remainder of the three months he is likely to spend at the Etihaad Stadium.
The City hierarchy are said to be in no mood to hand Tevez a 'get-out' by cancelling his contract.
Instead, he will be made to stew in the reserves and then leave in a cut-price deal in the January transfer window.
Such a policy would carry the risk of embarrassing Mancini and the club should an injury crisis leave the manager short of strikers.
Pointing the finger: Roberto Mancini has a go at Carlos Tevez in Munich
Quiet word: A member of the City coaching staff speaks to Carlos Tevez
It would also mean selling a player who had been out of the shop window for three months and sending a signal to potential buyers that City were prepared to write off a huge slice of the £47million they are claimed to have paid for him.
Last night it emerged that Suleyman Kerimov, billionaire owner of recently established Russian Premier club Anzhi Makhachkala, is ready to hand the South American a multimillion pound escape route.
Kerimov whose notable signings this season are former Real Madrid, Barcelona and Inter Milan striker Samuel Eto'o and former Brazilian star defender Roberto Carlos has made it known he is keen to add Tevez to his burgeoning squad of stars.
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Carlos Tévez 'unfairly judged and condemned' as Kia Joorabchian blames 'poor interpreter' for suspension
Kia Joorabchian, the adviser to Carlos Tévez, on Wednesday attempted to douse the flames of disharmony with Manchester City when he said the striker was a victim of a ‘misinterpretation’.
Lost in translation: Kia Joorabchian claims translation of the questions put to Carlos Tevez after match were not accurateAs Manchester City officials continued their investigation into the player’s failure to appear in the Champions League clash in Munich, Joorabchian said that City’s performance analyst, Pedro Marques, who translated the television interview with Tévez broadcast immediately after the game, had misunderstood the forward’s words.
Marques, a Portuguese member of the City staff, is not a club interpreter and only assisted in what the club considered an unauthorised interview at Tévez’s request. After seeing new footage on Sky on Wednesday night, Tévez’s advisors believe there is evidence the interpreter was distracted as the first question was asked. They believe this added to the confusion.
Speaking as a late addition to the Leaders in Football conference held at Stamford Bridge, Joorabchian said he did not believe Tévez refused to play in Manchester City’s Champions League clash against Bayern Munich. “After a game questions are asked and if you do not have a very professional interpreter you have a problem,” said Joorabchian.
“I speak Spanish and English. I listened to the questions in English and the answer in Spanish and the interpretation is incorrect. Both questions were interpreted incorrectly and then both answers misinterpreted.
“Geoff Shreeves asks if Carlos is finished and he says the truth is how can I be fit to play? In the second question he is asked about the situation being finished and Carlos says it is a well-known fact that since his family was not here he has asked the club if he could leave to be closer to his family, but now his family is in Manchester he is comfortable again.
“The interpreter says something different. Carlos does speak English but it is not good enough for a full-blown interview. There is an ongoing internal investigation so this is all my opinion, not what I have spoken about with Carlos. The main issue is what happened caused a lot of confusion as shown by the TV footage. While I do not think it is correct for any player to refuse to play, the events of Munich have been judged prior to the real outcome. We did not see what really happened, just the TV footage.
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“There is a lot of arguing going on when Edin Dzeko comes off. You could see Carlos warming up in the first half and in the second half I saw Carlos warming up and as he returned to the bench there was a row between Dzeko and Roberto Mancini. Then Carlos stood up and sat down. The next thing we hear is what Roberto says.”
Joorabchian said other managers have handled similar cases in a more harmonious fashion. “We have seen Fabregas, Nasri and Modric hand in transfer requests. The situations were handled very differently by their managers and clubs. Cesc had a big problem through the summer and Modric did not play in the first European game when it was reported he did not want to play. Carlos has been unfairly judged and condemned before the case has been looked into. You can criticise Carlos for anything but not his commitment on the pitch. You can never criticise him for not wanting to play. Sometimes he has played for City after having injections and with swollen ankles. He plays when doctors tell him not to play. It is my opinion he is a player who fights to play.”
There was no response to the question of whether Tévez had any future at City, but whatever the outcome of the internal inquiry, it is inconceivable he will play for Mancini again.
“Carlos went to City when he had offers from Madrid and Manchester United,” said Joorabchian. “He was one of the first to join their vision. I have the pleasure of knowing Sheikh Mansour and sometimes that vision is not portrayed properly but Carlos was brought in to help and he has an intense feeling for the club. Carlos has stated it was a misunderstanding and apologised to the City fans for that misunderstanding. We should wait until the investigation has run its course and then both parties can sit down and decide what they will do.”
Tevez is currently on full pay but if he is found guilty of gross misconduct, he will be fined two weeks' wages, estimated at £400,000.
The next step is to take the issue to the Professional Footballers' Association to have a further six-week ban and fine imposed. A total of two months' wages will cost the player around 2 million pounds.
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Who is telling the truth?
Tevez did NOT refuse to play, says agent.
New translation suggests he did...
Case for the defence: Joorabchian deny he refused to play
CARLOS TEVEZ'S agent insists the Manchester City star did NOT go on strike — and that he is a victim of mistranslation.
But an independent interpreter last night challenged that claim, leaving the soccer world asking: Who is telling the truth?
Tevez triggered a storm last Tuesday when he failed to come on as a sub as City trailed Bayern Munich 2-0 in their clash.
Spanish-speaking Tevez conducted a TV interview immediately after the game and seemed to confirm he had refused to play — explaining his actions via an interpreter.
But the player's representative, Kia Joorabchian, yesterday claimed Tevez was mistranslated during the live interview and that he never admitted to going on strike.
However, Joorabchian's claim does not tally with a fresh translation carried out yesterday of the TV interview.
ROW ... Carlos Tevez has been accused of refusing to come off the subs benchAccording to that, Tevez actually said: "It's just that I didn't want to go on because I thought I was unwell. I wasn't emotionally well and I thought it better not to.
"I felt that it wasn't suitable that I go on because my head wasn't in the right place."
Tevez's TV translator was City interpreter Pedro Marques, an 'Opposition Analyst' who does not normally do translating duties but was grabbed by the player to help out.
Joorabchian said: "If you don't have a very professional interpreter you have a problem. The interview was incorrect.
"Both questions and answers from Carlos were interpreted incorrectly."
Joorabchian went on to criticise the way City boss Roberto Mancini had handled his player compared to the managerial styles of Arsene Wenger and Harry Redknapp.
Joorabchian suggested Tevez has done no worse than former Arsenal players Cesc Fabregas and Sami Nasri or Tottenham ace Luka Modric.
Joorabchian said: "Roberto has his style of management. He is totally different to, say, Arsene Wenger.
"We have seen this happen all through the summer. We have seen Fabregas, Modric, Nasri handing in transfer requests, refusing to travel, refusing to play. I think that is a problem in football in general.
"But the clubs and managers handled it in a very different way.
"Carlos' situation has been handled in a different manner. He feels he has been judged and condemned before the case has really been looked into."
After the game in Munich, Mancini insisted Tevez had refused to play and said the Argentinian was finished at the club.
Since his interview, Tevez, who has been suspended by the club for two weeks, has claimed he was never actually asked to go on the pitch.