Carlos Tevez is set to end his strike at Manchester City after reluctantly accepting the Premier League leaders may have priced him out of the transfer market. Milan said on Friday night they had abandoned their pursuit of the Argentinian until the summer and Tevez intends to report back for duty at City despite still nursing a huge grievance against Roberto Mancini.
That much became clear in an extraordinary interview with Kia Joorabchian in which Tevez's adviser admitted for the first time that the player had not wanted to go back to Argentina to be closer to his family, as they have always stated, but left Manchester because of his "feuds with the manager".
Joorabchian, speaking to TalkSport, went on to accuse Mancini of mismanaging the club, of being to blame for Tevez's problems and of creating an "unsustainable" situation that had forced the player to quit. It was a sustained attack that reinforces the view that, even if Tevez does return, it would be premature to believe he will ever wear the club's colours again.
Mancini has already described it as "impossible" and made it clear that the only way Tevez will be allowed to return to first-team training is if he apologises. Joorabchian says that will not happen. "What is he apologising for? It's almost like a false 'I'm sorry'. He doesn't believe, deep down, that he did anything wrong."
Joorabchian believes City are contractually bound to reintegrate a player who has lost £9.3m in wages, bonuses and fines because of the offending that led to him being marginalised and then flying to Argentina on 7 November and that culminated in him being found guilty of gross misconduct at an internal disciplinary hearing.
"Mancini has said it is impossible but he has to understand Carlos has a contract at City for the next two and a half years," Joorabchian said. "Carlos has been on walkabout but he has come to terms with the fact he has to come back and live with Mancini."
Tevez had been pinning his hopes on Milan meeting City's asking price of £25m but the Serie A club have been unwilling to go higher than £21m. Last night they signed Maxi López from Catania instead.
"We were ever so close with City," Milan's managing director, Adriano Galliani, told Milan Channel. "If someone had asked me at 1830 who would be coming, I would have said Tevez. But we've left things well with City and the misunderstandings have been overcome.
"The market opens again in four months, so perhaps it will be just a few months of separation with Carlitos. I did everything I could to bring him in. It was heart in the mouth stuff right up until the deadline."
Joorabchian said Internazionale "had never been in the race" but added that a deal with Paris St‑Germain may be resurrected at the end of the season. "We've been in negotiations with three big clubs but I don't think anybody has reached the numbers that City are looking for, so it looks like Carlos will remain at City until at least the summer."
Joorabchian maintains that Tevez has been badly treated and blames the manager for not doing more to improve the relationship. "The relationship with Mancini, ever since Mancini came into the club, has not been good. You think about last Christmas, when Carlos wanted to leave and it was all about feuds with the manager and that just carried on and on.
"There was a point when Carlos said: 'You know what, I can't get on here.' And he's not the only one. [Craig] Bellamy had to leave Manchester City in an awkward way, [Emmanuel] Adebayor had to leave in an awkward way, Shay Given had to leave in a semi-awkward way. Wayne Bridge has been isolated and is not even training with the first team.
"He [Mancini] has done a good job as a coach but I don't think there are many coaches in the world who would be given the opportunity to say: 'I'll throw away Adebayor and someone will buy me Edin Dzeko, I'll throw away Carlos Tevez and someone will buy me Sergio Agüero, I'll throw away Craig Bellamy and someone will buy me Mario Balotelli.' He has been very fortunate because at both Inter and City he has managed the biggest spenders in the world."
Joorabchian was asked about the night Tevez refused to leave the bench when Mancini wanted him to come on as a substitute in the Champions League tie against at Bayern Munich. "There are always two sides to the story and, if cooler heads and maturity prevail, these things don't get out of hand. I think it's the responsibility of the older man, the manager, to control the players. The hierarchy at City have been excellent. If it was the hierarchy, the people running the club, they would have handled it in a different way and things wouldn't have exploded.
"The explosion of that day – the manager's comments [Mancini had described Tevez as "finished"] – was so bad it created an unsustainable [position]. Carlos served a two-week suspension, then he was training on his own and then training with the reserves and at some point you have to say: 'He's served his suspension, now integrate him back.'.' But there was never any door to that, which is probably why he left. He could not see any daylight and Mancini has made it very clear he doesn't want him in the first team. So what does he [Tevez] do? Does he stay in the reserves, collect his money and say 'Stuff you'? It has never been about money for him."