Manchester City striker Carlos Tevez is “happy at the club” and may even stay at Eastlands long term, according to his
representative Kia Joorabchian.
Tevez, 27, spent most of the summer angling for a move away from City, but a proposed £40 million-move to Corinthians fell through and Inter Milan’s advances were rejected.
And with the transfer window slamming shut on Wednesday, Tevez’s temporary future will be with Roberto Mancini’s side, until January at least.
However, Joorabchian believes Tevez could be convinced to stay beyond January, thanks in part to a close relationship between his wife – who he had wanted to move to South America to be near – and Sergio Aguero’s spouse.
“There were a couple of offers in for him but obviously he is an important player for City and they won’t let him go for any (old) price,” Joorabchian said. “We couldn’t quite match what City wanted.
“But at the end of the day – as Carlos said at the end of the season – professionally, he is happy at the club. He is happy in the situation, it was more to do with his family really. He has managed to convince his wife to come over for a while at least.
“If she manages to settle in, hopefully in the next four or five months, maybe he will settle down and things will be fine … Carlos is the kind of player who adapts everywhere he goes.
“He adapts to every league and has won every major domestic competition he has ever played in. He himself has no problem with it but, culturally, Milan or Spain would be easier for the wife to adapt to.
“She could get around and communicate better. That was the major problem but the next four or five months will be very important … The wives are friends and Aguero is friends with Carlos, so it might help.”
Joorabchian admitted Tevez’s wage demands – he is currently thought to be on £286,000 per week – limited the number of clubs that could have feasibly bought Tevez.
“You can get down to teams like Inter, who made a couple of offers, and maybe Real Madrid,” Joorabchian said. “You can really narrow it down to four or five teams in the world that could afford him.”
Tevez’s long-time representative also revealed that a swap deal involving Inter’s Wesley Sneijder was mooted, but City’s successful pursuit of Arsenal’s Samir Nasri put an end to that.
“After they had signed Nasri they had too many players in that position,” he said. “It could have been done – if Nasri hadn’t gone I think that deal would have [transpired].”
Though Tevez is staying at City he may struggle to force his way back into Mancini’s starting XI, with Aguero (three goals) and Edin Dzeko (six goals) both enjoying a blistering start to the new Premier League season.