With the future of Carlos Tevez at Manchester City still uncertain, Roberto Mancini has spoken for the first time on the matter after being praised by Sir Alex Ferguson for his courageous handling of a difficult situation. Ahead of Sunday afternoon's derby, the Manchester United manager said he was surprised the Italian had not been given more credit.
Mancini said: "I don't know about that but if you want to be a good team for a long time you should have players that have respect for the club, for the manager and for the supporters.
"Also if you have a good player, in general, you need to have a player who can accept to be on the bench. You could see last season when Wayne Rooney was talking about leaving Manchester United that he still had respect for the club and the manager.
"I don't think Rooney ever wanted to leave. He lives very well here, his life is here, his family is here and United have a top squad. But he also accepts everything the manager says because he knows the manager wants to do the best for the team. And if sometimes a player has to stay on the bench to recover, that's good because the season is very long."
Ferguson's programme notes for derby are heavily critical of Tevez and commend Mancini for striking a blow on the part of managers. He writes: "If a player refuses to go on the field and there is a clear attempt to defy the authority of the manager, then he has to react – and vigorously so. Management these days has become much more complicated, not least because of the enormous amounts of money players earn, and you cannot afford to pander to that kind of power.
"The City boss's reaction was spot-on and sent a clear message to the rest of the players, not just at Eastlands but throughout the game. His handling of the situation distinguished him in managerial terms. I always admire the courage to do right, and that is what we are seeing here."
The importance of the game is another area where the two Manchester managers are in complete agreement. "This derby has the feel of a six-pointer, because of the situation at the top of the table," Ferguson said. "But it won't be a title decider. It's much too early in the season for that."
Mancini was equally cautious. "Being top is good because it tells you we have done our work well, but it doesn't change anything for me," he said. "We know we still have another 30 games."
Whether Tevez will feature in any of those matches must still be considered doubtful, even if City have had to back down from their original claim that the substitute refused to play in the Allianz Arena last month. Mancini may have felt the ground shifting beneath him a little when not even his coaching assistants were able to corroborate his version of events, but he, and not the player, still appears to have the backing of the club and its owners. And Ferguson, who has some experience of managing Tevez and plenty of previous when it comes to confrontation. "Actually, I have never in my life sought confrontation with anyone," the United manager said, amid noises of disbelief from his audience. "You just don't need to when you do this job, confrontation comes and finds you. Two or three times a day sometimes. Then you have to deal with it, and it's how you do it that marks you out as good or bad. This job's all about decision-making."
Returning to football matters Ferguson confessed City's abundance of attacking talent left him struggling to guess what their starting line up might be, with only David Silva a virtual certainty to play and someone of the quality of Sergio Agüero, Mario Balotelli or Samir Nasri likely to be left out. He did not feel, however, that City's spending power alone would mean a permanent shift in the balance of power.
"Money isn't that important an issue for us," he said. "We've got good facilities at the training ground, we do pretty well in terms of scouting abroad, and if we do need to spend we can because the Glazers have been great. Most important of all the foothold we have in this city has been built up over many years. That will allow us to get our share of the best players. City won't get them all."
