Manchester City's Roberto Mancini, right, is not the first manager to have trouble with Carlos Tevez. Photograph: Jon Super/AP
Roberto Mancini celebrates a year in charge of Manchester City this weekend, a year when it must have frequently occurred to him that had he known what he was letting himself in for at Eastlands he might have decided that waiting for another chance to manage a normal club in his native land was not such a bad position to be in after all.Not that the Italian has done badly. At this point last year, when Mark Hughes was being untidily removed for making insufficiently swift progress, City and their supporters would have gladly accepted a promise of going into the following Christmas in the top three, a point above Chelsea and within a single good result of the leaders.
While one could be picky and say City's elevation has more to do with Chelsea's loss of form and Manchester United's unusually high number of draws, Mancini has undeniably brought about an improvement. After the same 17 league games that Hughes was allowed last season, Mancini has won nine to his predecessor's seven, and drawn five instead of eight. He has lost one more game, true, but City have still not lost as often as Arsenal or Chelsea. Most importantly, Mancini never supervised a deflating sequence of seven straight draws, seeing his side held by such luminaries as Burnley, Hull City and Wigan Athletic, which was what led to confidence in Hughes draining away.So the manager, at least, has cause for celebration. He is not the problem; he just has to deal with the problem. The problem being that events of the last few weeks have made it appear Sir Alex Ferguson may have been right all along. Carlos Tevez is a more than useful player whom no one would mind having at their club. But he is not worth buying at any price. In fact he can be trouble at any price, and any price is what the Argentinian and his adviser/erstwhile owner will charge.
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