Carlos Tevez's apology for an apology is football's latest sorry tale | David Lacey

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<div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.22.4/99047?ns=guardian&pageName=Carlos+Tevez%27s+apology+for+an+apology+is+football%27s+latest+sorry+tale+%7C+%3AArticle%3A1705312&ch=Football&c3=Guardian&c4=Carlos+Tevez%2CRoberto+Mancini+%28football%29%2CManchester+City+%28Football%29%2CKenny+Dalglish%2CLiverpool+FC+%28Football%29%2CMick+McCarthy+%28football%29%2CWolverhampton+Wanderers+%28Football%29%2CFootball%2CSport&c5=Unclassified%2CEuropa+League%2CPremier+League&c6=David+Lacey&c7=12-Feb-17&c8=1705312&c9=Article&c10=Comment&c11=Football&c13=&c25=Sport+blog&c30=content&c51=MVT+group+&h2=GU%2FFootball%2FCarlos+Tevez" width="1" height="1" /></div><p class="standfirst">After Kenny Dalglish lost face and Mick McCarthy his job, sorry would seem to be the weakest word however you look at it</p><p>"Don't apologise," John Wayne keeps saying in one of his westerns. "It's a sign of weakness." When it comes to contrition, football managers tend to belong to Wayne's world. Dressing rooms are apt to lose respect for sorrowful bosses.</p><p>A week of apologising, therefore, can only leave a feeling that the role of the manager in the modern game has been further diminished. Managers will always be disposable, witness Huddersfield's peremptory dismissal of Lee Clark after their first defeat in 10 League One games and despite the team lying fourth in the table, but their absolute authority in playing matters has generally been regarded as&nbsp;sacrosanct.</p><p>Until now, that is. After Wolverhampton Wanderers had lost 3-0 at home to Liverpool at the end of last month the club's owner, Steve Morgan, went into the dressing room and tore several large strips off the players, in the presence of the manager, Mick&nbsp;McCarthy.</p><p>McCarthy is nobody's stooge but after Wolves had collapsed in even more dramatic fashion in losing 5-1 to West Bromwich Albion at Molineux on Sunday, he said he was sorry for the performance. "An apology is as much as I can do at the moment," he added. "All I can do is keep my dignity and carry on with my job." In fact he kept the first and lost the second when he was sacked the following day.</p><p>By then Liverpool, back-pedalling furiously amid the furore that followed Luis Suárez's refusal to shake hands with Manchester United's Patrice Evra, had among other things issued an apology on behalf of Kenny Dalglish which, while sincere, suffered slightly from the fact that it was hard to imagine their manager saying the words out&nbsp;loud.</p><p>Kenny is a decent bloke who has always been wary of talking to the media. In this instance he has admitted making the mistake of stonewalling a Sky interviewer over the handshake that never was, in effect biting the hand that feeds the Premier League. Liverpool's American owners were clearly keen to repair any damage to the club's corporate image but anyone who has dealt with Dalglish over the years could never have envisaged him saying: "I did not conduct myself in a way befitting of a Liverpool manager during that interview and I'd like to apologise for that." Bill Shankly could be impossible when Liverpool lost, but he never had to say sorry for it.</p><p>Of course there are apologies and apologies. After Carlos Tevez had refused to get warmed up for Manchester City as they lost a Champions League game at Bayern Munich last September his manager, Roberto Mancini, declared that the Argentinian striker would not play for the club again unless he said sorry. Now Tevez, back at the Etihad following a self-imposed exile in Argentina which has cost him an estimated £9.3m in wages and bonuses, has sort of apologised in that he was sorry if he did anything wrong but he still feels he has done nothing wrong.</p><p>Since he has also accused Mancini of treating him "like a dog" it is difficult to see where manager and player can find any common ground. Not that being treated like a dog is necessarily a bad thing. Think about it: regular meals and frequent exercise with your own personal toilet attendant. Yet given that Tevez has treated Manchester City with about as much respect as the average mutt shows a lamppost his return risks weakening Mancini's position at a critical stage of the season.</p><p>Tevez is only back in England now because potential buyers were interested in borrowing him rather than keeping him. This and the fact that City's attack, which was sufficiently prolific to keep the Argentinian brooding on the bench in Munich, is now finding goals much harder to come by. And Tevez, for all his funny little ways, is a proven finisher and winner of matches. But if Manchester City can only win the Premier League with the assistance of a player who went on strike for three and a half months, it will forever be a tainted&nbsp;triumph.</p><p>Had Sir Alex Ferguson been Tevez's manager in Munich he would have been told to walk home, if necessary via the south Atlantic. But when chairmen are giving teams rollockings and players on 200 grand a week are seeking sympathy from the Canine Defence League, it does suggest that Ferguson is a septuagenarian member of a vanishing breed, namely a manager who is allowed to manage.</p><div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/carlos-tevez">Carlos Tevez</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/roberto-mancini">Roberto Mancini</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/manchestercity">Manchester City</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/kenny-dalglish">Kenny Dalglish</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/liverpool">Liverpool</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/mick-mccarthy">Mick McCarthy</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/wolves">Wolverhampton Wanderers</a></li></ul></div><div class="author"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/davidlacey">David Lacey</a></div><br/><div class="terms"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk">guardian.co.uk</a> &copy; 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. 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