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What a great season this is turning out to be for Manchester United. They remain unbeaten, one point off the top with games in hand and are happily looking on while their title rivals do their level best to self-implode.

First there is Chelsea, Super Chelsea. The mighty Blues, who swept all before them on the way to the double last season and steamrollered the first five matches of this campaign before shooting themselves in the foot by sacking Ray Wilkins, isolating Carlo Ancelotti and embarking on a six-match winless run that has left the Blues as long as 3.1 to defend their title.

Then there is Arsenal, sexy Arsenal. The Gunners may be sitting pretty at the top of the pile but, having lost four times already this season - including home reverses to West Brom and Newcastle - they are mere pretenders to the throne; paper tigers whose roar is more of a miaow thanks to holding midfielders deployed in the opponents' penalty area and a tinderbox defence liable to catch fire at any time. Hence their title odds of 5.1.

And then of course there is Manchester City, who climbed to the Premier League summit yesterday, only for their achievement to be soured by news that Carlos Tevez, their captain and talisman, had handed in a transfer request.

City (8.4) have denied Tevez's request but now have a battle on their hands to keep their best (but clearly disaffected and homesick) player happy and prevent him from destabilising an already fragile dressing room at Eastlands. Tevez is an extraordinary talent - as his 39 goals in 60 appearances reflect - but Roberto Mancini has over-indulged the Argentinian, who is said to be missing his family in his homeland.

Mancini has tried everything, from making Tevez captain, despite his only cursory handle of English, to giving him special dispensation recently to spend time at home. But Tevez has repaid his boss with petty acts of insubordination - like his harrumphing off the pitch after being substituted against Bolton last weekend and his subsequent no show at the club Christmas party.

If Tevez is suffering from depression then Mancini has gone out of his way to show understanding. But if the rumours are true that his agent recently tried to renegotiate a new, longer, even higherpaid contract for his client then it's difficult not to conclude that Tevez - or his agent at least - is trying to hold the club to ransom.

It is a nightmare scenario for City, who have spent some £500m on luring some extremely talented and even more extremely overpaid players to Eastlands only to find themselves having to fire-fight as jealousy, rancour and in-fighting (quite literally in the case of Jerome Boateng and Mario Balotelli) among mercenary players escalates over who has the best contract, who is getting the most playing time and who is getting the most preferential treatment.

These developments should come as no surprise to Brian Marwood, who was a footballer himself in a former life. Indeed before restyling himself as City's director of football - whose job entails working up detailed 45-50 page dossiers on transfer targets including player attributes, personal and family background, command of English, experience of transition, cultural fit, international calendar issues, agent's details and press cuttings - he inhabited one the most volatile dressing rooms in the game at Arsenal in the late 1980s.

He fought many battles both on and off the field at Highbury, eventually coming a cropper when he dared try to renegotiate the players' antiquated win bonus system with George Graham, who responded by selling him to Sheffield United.

In the day and age of player power it is incredibly difficult to rule with an iron fist Graham-style; even Sir Alex Ferguson was held to ransom recently by Wayne Rooney and his agent Paul Stretford. On the other hand, Ferguson gave up on Tevez, refusing to pay the £25m his agent was asking for his registration. And something tells me that for all Tevez's goals and tireless running, Fergie won't be shedding any tears over his decision.

City are suffering the sort of consequences parents have to contend with after spoiling their children and dispensing with basic discipline. And Tevez's bad example has started the rot. Yesterday against West Ham, Balotelli threw the first of many hissy fits when he stormed off the field after being substituted.

So what are City going to do about Tevez? They may have won without him
on Saturday, but you don't play West Ham every week. For all the money they have spent, City are still over-reliant on their captain, who has scored ten league goals this season and remains the favourite to top score in the Premier League at 7.0. (The 7.8 lay might be a wiser move).

Mancini has three options. 1) Swallow his pride, try and persuade Tevez to change his mind and up the contract offer to £300,000 a week, 2) sell him in January for any price and cut his losses or 3) strip him of his captaincy and drop him to the reserves. After all, it's not as if City need the money and unless they make an example of the insubordinates they will have a mutiny on their hands. In the meantime, I'd insist Marwood has a closer read of those player dossiers in future.


By Richard Aikman

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