Author Topic: Carlos Tevez is a workhorse rather than a thoroughbred (Read 104 times)

Elano · « **on:** September 12, 2009, 10:33:40 AM »

If Carlos Tévez cost £47 million, then Cristiano Ronaldo is worth £200 million. In fact, the £80 million that Real Madrid paid Manchester United for Ronaldo looks like a bargain in comparison with the Tévez deal. £47 million? I’m picking my jaw up off the floor at the prices being paid.

Let’s be clear, the Argentina forward is very talented, has a fantastic workrate, is passionately committed on the pitch and proved himself to be just about the most effective substitute in world football at United last season.

Joining Manchester City instantly made them a much better team and added credibility and star quality that will help them when they look to add more big names. Never mind Tévez’s ability, they will feel at Eastlands that it was worth paying a hefty premium just for the pleasure of capturing a player most United fans badly wanted to keep.

But a fee of £40-odd million (let alone the massive wages) takes Tévez into a bracket reserved for the truly elite, the geniuses with incredible technique and magic in their boots: Kaká, Luís Figo, Zinédine Zidane, Ronaldo. And Tévez simply doesn’t belong in that company. He’s very good — but he’s not a great.

Sir Alex Ferguson, the United manager, said in the summer that he didn’t think Tévez was worth even £25 million, and there are few wiser judges.

Tévez is a busybody, a nuisance to opponents as he flits all over the pitch, working his backside off trying to be a winger, an attacking midfield player and a striker all in one. His sheer effort is inspirational. He does the dirty work, the hard graft, that you don’t see from creative stars such as Ronaldo.

But you don’t spend Kaká money on a player who is fundamentally a workhorse, albeit a highly gifted one. Craig Bellamy can charge around like a madman and he cost less than a third of the Tévez fee. Vinnie Jones worked really hard, but that didn’t make him worth a lot of money. Sweat is cheap. Skill is expensive.

Scoring at a ratio of one goal every two games on average is the usual mark of a top-class striker but Tévez will never be a 20-goal-a-season man in England because he’s not an exceptional finisher and he expends too much energy in areas where he can’t hurt the opposition. He’ll get 15 league goals, maximum, for City this season.

You dread to think how little of their outlay City will recoup when Tévez moves on. The depreciation rate will make buying a new car look like a great investment. Not that City will care. They got the man they wanted.