Mancini met Tevez at 1am in an attempt to end stand-off

 

Sam Wallace,Ian Herbert
Friday 14 October 2011 10:00 BST
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Roberto Mancini made the extraordinary decision to call Carlos Tevez to his Cheshire home for talks in the early hours of yesterday morning, in an attempt to defuse the monumental stand-off between them.

Tevez visited the Manchester City manager's home in Alderley Edge at 1am after a day of intense legal negotiations, which had left the 27-year-old Argentine determined to pursue any appeal open to him, in the event of City fining him £1.5m for alleged breaches of contract. The player accepted Mancini's invitation to meet and did so after he arrived back in Manchester from London by train. The offer from Mancini is a remarkable one, given that City have been so intent on keeping their two-week inquiry into Tevez's alleged refusal to enter the field of play at Bayern Munich on a quasi-judicial footing.

The impasse between the two sides had certainly seemed unbreachable before Tevez took a train north from Euston on Wednesday evening. He had met two members of the City inquiry panel earlier in the day for the conclusion of the club's investigation, soon after touching down at London Heathrow from Argentina at 6.40am on Wednesday. There was no breakthrough in that meeting – which, by one account, saw Tevez demand that Mancini (above) issue a public apology to him for claiming he refused to play. The two sides then spent much of Wednesday in intense legal negotiations which ultimately failed to find a resolution.

It is alleged that when Tevez arrived at Mancini's house, he was offered a deal by the City manager that would allow him to train with the first-team squad again for the first time since his dispute with the manager during the second half of the Champions League defeat on 27 September. Sources close to Tevez also allege that in return Mancini wanted a public and private apology from the player to him and to the club's chairman, Khaldoon al-Mubarak. Tevez, who was indignant to be told earlier in the evening that City had decided to put him through a formal disciplinary process, categorically refused to apologise.

City confirm that the meeting took place and insist that it in no way affects the neutrality or impartiality of disciplinary proceedings that will see the player appear before a panel – probably on Monday or Tuesday of next week. The club's portrayal of the meeting is as one in which Mancini sought to establish the player's state of mind and secure some kind of détente.

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