Tevez poised for dramatic return

Carlos Tevez is set for a sensational return to Manchester City, despite saying boss Roberto Mancini treated him ‘like a dog’.

Tevez gave Fox Sports Latin America his version of the controversial incident in September where he refused to come on as a substitute in City’s 2-0 loss to Bayern Munich in the Champions League.

That incident seemed to signal the exit for the striker, but he revealed on Monday that he will attempt to win over the City fans when he returns to training on Tuesday.

“I was kind of in a bad mood, and when (manager Roberto Mancini) brings on (Nigel) de Jong and takes off (Edin) Dzeko and we’re losing 2-0, I thought it was a defensive substitution so I decided to sit back on the bench,” Tevez said.

“I’d already warmed up for 10 minutes and he has this attitude that he wants to lose 2-0 instead of 4-0. So I sat down and at the same time Dzeko comes off and is really angry and has a go at Mancini.”

“(Dzeko) sees the tunnel is closed, so he has to sit down next to (Mancini) and they have an argument. Dzeko was speaking Bosnian and Mancini would swear at him in Italian, it was a real mess.”

“So I go and sit down and he doesn’t see me because he’s having this discussion. But then he turns around and sees me and you can imagine what happens. He’s in the middle of an argument, so then he tells me to keep on warming up and he treats me like a dog.”

“He spoke to me in that tone of voice and I said: ‘No, I’m not going out’. I was willing to play, but the coach was in such a foul mood because he had that argument with Dzeko, and he started on me as well.”

“He started swearing at me. That was him, because I was very calm – I was sitting on the bench. You can see from the footage that I was calm, just talking with (Pablo) Zabaleta. Mancini said some horrible things to me.”

Tevez said it was only natural the fans turned against him after the incident, but said he will be heading back this week to try and win back their support.

“It’s a decision I’ve taken to win back the supporters who’ve turned against me since what happened against Bayern,” he said.

“I believe they were misinformed, they weren’t told the facts. So that when they were told that I didn’t want to play they naturally turned against me.”

“If a player doesn’t want to play for a team that’s paying their wages, it’s only natural for them to turn against that player.”

Mancini said he was not against the possibility of a Tevez return, provided he is in good condition.

“It’s up to him. Carlos knows everything,” he said.

“We didn’t change (at) City in these three months. We are there. Carlos knows. Carlos is a City player.”

“Carlos can train, can play – if his condition is good.”