The Football Psychology Blog
This Football Psychology blog, comes as Carlos Tevez is suspended for two weeks by Manchester City.
Football Psychology: The Carlos Tevez Affair!
It's crisis time at Manchester City. Again! Carlos Tevez refuses to aid the cause in the 2-0 defeat to Bayern Munich. Debate rages as to the rights and wrongs of the situation. Tevez is seen by most pundits to be very much the villain.
But why did it come to this? What kind of man-management style does Roberto Mancini employ that means one of his star players doesn't want to help the cause?
Tevez is clearly dis-affected. For a man who loves football, to not want to play is a serious indictment on Mancini. It's the Italian's job to get the best out of his galacticos.
Tevez's refusal to come out of the dug-out, holds up a mirror to his feelings. It's Cantona-esque. He's saying plainly and simply, 'I don't rate or respect the manager'.
Perhaps like fellow Italian Fabio Capello, Mancini doesnt do man-management. He expects his players to deliver. But lacks the subtlety of mood and feeling, to know what each of his superstars needs emotionally.
City may have the spending power to buy whoever they want. But that doesn't guarantee success. That buying power, has to be glued together by exceptional management skills. For Mancini has to keep some of top performers happy, even when they are not playing regularly.
Carlos Tevez probably wont play for City again. But if he reflects in the correct manner, Roberto Mancini may recognise that he has a part to play in Tevez's dis-affection. But given his antagonism to Tevez's behaviour, it's unlikely that Mancini will do that.
And thus an opportunity for leadership development will be missed.
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