Carlos Tevez- Worth £32million?
His story in England began on the 31st of August 2006, when in an astonishing move on the final day of the European transfer window, he, along with fellow Argentine Javier Mascherano (now of Liverpool), moved from Corinthians to West Ham United in what was a very controversial transfer.
During the 2006/07 Carlos Tevez played rarely under the management of Alan Pardew, the then manager of West Ham, however when Pardew was sacked on the 11th of December Carlos Tevez criticized his management and he was surprised Pardew had lasted as long as he had done. Later on that month Alan Curbishley was appointed manager and after this, Tevez was to be used more regularly.
Making 29 apperances in all competitions for West Ham that season, and scoring 7 goals, Tevez was praised as being a hero, mainly because those 7 goals, which were all scored in the league virtually saved the Hammers from being relegated to the Championship. The most important of those goals was netted on the last day of the season, and away to the newly crowned Champions, and Tevez’s future club, Manchester United, to win the match 1-0, a result that West Ham needed in order to remain in the Premier League for the next season. By staying up, it meant that Tevez almost single handedally earned the Hammers around £25million which was the amount that teams earned for avoiding relegation.
During the summer after the 06/07 season, there were many teams reported to be interested in signing Tevez, as it emerged West Ham had not bought the players outright. During the summer Tevez rejected a move to Inter Milan, and instead later opted to move to Manchester United, with talks beginning on the 6th of July, even though West Ham claimed that they had not given permission for United to talk to the Argentine forward, even though Tevez’s agent Kia Joorabchian claimed quite the opposite.
After many court appearances between United, West Ham and Kia Joorabchian, West Ham agreed to release Tevez’s registration for £2million to MSI, the company who owned Tevez’s registration. Once his registration was released by the Upton Park outfit, United were given a clear path to discuss terms to join them on an initial 2 year loan, with the chance to purchase him at any point, whilst having first refusal.
During the 2007/08 season, Carlos proved to be an instrumental figure in helping United to win the double in the Barclays Premier League and the UEFA Champions League, a tournament that United hadn’t won since their famous 1999 Treble winning season. Scoring 19 times during that season, with several important goals in the Premier League, with the winner against Liverpool at Anfield, the equaliser away at Spurs, and the equaliser at Ewood Park against Blackburn.
So to decide as to whether Tevez is worth the reported £32million, one has to consider what he has achieved since moving to England and the Premier League in 2006. During his time with West Ham, he virtually single handedally saved them from relegation, and as I know through a friend of mine, who is in fact a West Ham fan, what Tevez did is priceless to them. Moving on to what he has achieved at one of the greatest teams, if not the greatest team in the world, Manchester United, 1 Charity/Community Shield, 1 UEFA Champions League and 1 Barclays Premier League, in which he so often saved us points that we could’ve so easily lost, with the likely end result of Chelsea lifting the glorious Premier League Trophy.
For all that he has achieved since moving to West Ham in 2006, it suggests just one thing to me and that is that he is worth £32million, in fact I would go as far to say that he is worth so much more, he has earned both the Hammers and ourselves so much money through avoiding relegation and winning tournaments, and for that I think we, as West Ham and Man Utd fans should be eternally grateful for what he has done.
Whether or not you agree on whether he is worth that amount, I don’t know as you may think that how much he is worth is determined by other factors, all I know is that in my eyes, he is a fantastic player, that I’m sure other big teams would be happy to pay that amount for, and I for one don’t want him to be wearing another club shirt for a long time, and when he does, I hope it is the shirt of Boca Juniors.
