Carlos Tevez Makes A Huge Statement

By: Wayne Farry | December 3rd, 2008

So it’s been going for ages, Man Utd’s Tevez saga has gone on almost as long as West Ham’s saga with the same little man. Everyone has been speaking this last month and a bit about whether Utd will decide to buy him, if he is worth €30M and in fact does he even want to stay at Utd given the amount of benchwarming he’s done as of late? Or will he simply head off to Real Madrid?

Tevez started the Utd match against Villa and barely made an impression, indeed he did all his usual running and jostling and gave 100% as usual. But there was no imagination there, he didn’t link up well with the rest of the team and dare I say it, he almost looked out of place. He made just as much (or little) of an impression when coming on as a sub in the match against the Yellow Submarine not long ago.

So how can we explain the fact that Carlos Tevez, tonight against Blackburn Rovers in the Carling Cup quarter final, scored 4 goals? Yes, 4 goals against an established Premier League side. Some may say that Blackburn aren’t the team they used to be, but, bar Bentley and Friedel they have most of their players from last season such as Roque and Benni. They may be bottom of the EPL, but given their squad they really shouldn’t be.

Utd were expected to win tonight, no doubt. They played a typical Carling Cup team; youth mixed with experience. The fact that Tevez played while Roo, Berba and Ronnie sat it out is as much a statement of Tevez’ place in Sir Alex’s thinking as anything. But good strikers take their chances, and from this evidence Tevez is, despite certain displays this season, still a very good striker.

His four goals showed the desire that he still has despite his sitting on the bench almost the whole season. It also shows his professionalism to pull on the shirt and give 100% given such a difficult season so far for him personally.

I saw the match and every one of Tevez’ goals was a treat. Sure, his first may have come off Mokoena but he showed real determination just to get his head on it. His penalty was classily taken while his third was all down to the utter unselfishness of Anderson, who despite having a chance to score his first goal for United, provided his team-mate with a much-needed hat-trick. His fourth however, showed everything that Tevez has; pure class and a never-say-die attitude. He was played through by Anderson and even though he was pulled by a defender he reached the ball and placed a wonderful volley into Paul Robinson’s far bottom corner from an acute angle. If this performance doesn’t persuade Fergie to permanently sign him, it will at least persuade him to give Tevez a more frequent role in the team. The fact that he’s gone from having absolutely no form to scoring 4 goals in a single match shows that he still can do a big job for United.

Whether or not Fergie decides to buy Tevez in the end is somewhat irrelevenat. The fact is that not only tonight did Tevez show that despite playing very little this season and being hugely frustrated due to this, he’s still the type of player who can do a great job for any team, he’s also shown that he has incredible professionalism, determination and class. They’re the qualities that everyone wants in a player.