Tevez may be relieved of captaincy

SOCCER:ROBERTO MANCINI is considering removing the captaincy from Carlos Tevez, albeit only on a temporary basis, when Manchester City play Everton on Monday in the striker's first match since announcing he wanted to leave the club.

Mancini is deliberating whether to pass the armband to Vincent Kompany after holding his first talks with Tevez to clarify his position yesterday. The City manager does not want to inflame the situation but, equally, he recognises the importance of having a captain who is staunchly committed to the club and, for now, there are misgivings about whether Tevez fits the bill.

Both sides were reluctant to divulge the precise details of their afternoon meeting but City’s football administrator, Brian Marwood, said he was convinced Tevez would be persuaded to change his mind.

“We feel he’s got a huge part to play in the future of the football club. That didn’t change before he made his transfer request and that doesn’t change after he made his transfer request,” Marwood said.

“He’s very popular among the group, he’s very popular among the fans. We are looking forward to Carlos staying at this football club.”

Marwood was implicated alongside the chief executive, Garry Cook, when Tevez released a statement on Sunday stating that his relationship with “certain individuals” had “broken down and is beyond repair”.

City have maintained the issue is, in fact, between Tevez’s representative, Kia Joorabchian, and Cook – the two men have not spoken once this week – and Marwood praised Tevez’s approach to training.

“He’s been extremely professional and conducted himself very well. We’re very pleased in terms of his attitude.”

Tevez’s lack of English means there are few players at City who know him well but several team-mates have also urged him to change his mind.

Micah Richards captained the side in Tevez’s absence in the 1-1 Europa League draw against Juventus on Thursday.

“We’re doing well in the league, we’ve finished top of our group in Europe. It’s going well for us and he’s a big part of what we’re trying to do, so hopefully they will get it sorted out.” he said.

“He’s our main man and our captain. We’ve still got [Emmanuel] Adebayor, [Mario] Balotelli and Jo but Carlo is our special one and we need him in our team. We all know that.”