I heard a Manchester City fan on the radio the other day. He was saying he couldn’t understand why Tevez wanted to leave City because, ‘he’s absolutely worshipped by the fans.’ This guy says this as though this would mean anything to the Argentinean.

I see this hero worshipping of players like Tevez as totally inappropriate. Did you really think that he’d stay at the club for long? Surely everyone knows that Tevez is a very modern football mercenary whether on his own behalf or his agent or ‘owners’ behalf. Kia Joorabchian it’s nakedly obvious. You pay the money, he plays. That’s the deal. Surely there was no pretence that this was his dream move to City. It was just the move that stumped up the cash.

You and I might not like it but surely we’re not fooled by it are we? Although Tevez’s utterly pathetic excuse that he’s fallen out with the clubs executives is laughable, the correct response to it isn’t outrage or to feel that he’s insulting the club, the correct response is to laugh and wave bye bye. This is the game now. This is the Premier League. it is not rootsy football, it is soap opera and the only way to treat it is as such.

People like Tevez are hilarious. They take themsevles so seriously, making ridiculous self-obsessed statements about their lives. You’d think he was a teenager away from home for the first time the way he goes on about being homesick. You’d never know he was a multi-millionaire. Hilarious. Missing your kids? Fly them over on a private jet, you idiot, you’re richer than God, it would cost you less than a weeks wage.

Fans need to learn to pick their heroes more carefully. Just because Tevez has scored a lot of goals for City, he was never a worthy target of any affection beyond that feeling of pleasure of the ball hitting the net. He’s not a blue. He’s not ‘one of ours’ no matter how big the posters printed with his face on are. If you believed that you were a sucker and were conned. He’s a football hired gun. That’s all.

He cares not for City, not for their fans, teammates, manager, not for England, the Premier League. Why would he? If you start investing such emotion as ‘worship’ in him you are witless and really not paying attention, indeed worse than that, you’re being exploited by the Tevez cash generating machine. He and his ‘owner’ want you to buy into him as a product to make him generate even more cash.

Save your hero worship for someone worth it, not a bloke who runs around like a dog chasing pigeons and is paid several million quid for the pleasure. Poor Carlos, he’s growing rich and is still unhappy, at least until he moves to a new club and earns even more money.

Editor’s Note: Johnny’s new book: “We Ate All The Pies: How Football Swallowed Britain Whole” is available via Amazon US or Amazon UK.