Soccer: Roberto Mancini believes it is "important" for Manchester City to sell Carlos Tevez after AC Milan claimed they had been given permission to open talks over a deal. The Argentinean appears to have no future at the Etihad Stadium after a refusal to warm up in City's Champions League clash with Bayern Munich earlier in the season landed him in trouble with the club.
He had already expressed a desire to leave England during the summer and is currently Awol in Argentina after refusing to return to training following an internal club suspension.
Mancini, who believes Tevez has been badly advised, is hoping an agreement can be reached to take the striker away from City on a permanent basis.
Milan vice-president Adriano Galliani says negotiations have begun with one of Tevez's agents, but Mancini is not quite sure what the situation is.
While Milan have previously stressed they would only be interested in a loan agreement, it is believed that a deal which includes the right to buy next summer could be put in place. City are prepared to sanction a sale at the right price and Mancini feels it would be better if the matter could be laid to rest once and for all.
"I don't know what the situation is with Carlos at this moment," Mancini said on Sky Sports Newsahead of Wednesday's Uefa Champions League clash with Bayern Munich. "I think that for us it is important to sell him. We can do this for him and for the club. If he has the chance to go to Italy, I am happy for him."
Tevez's advisor Kia Joorabchian had earlier told www.milannews.it: "A return to Brazil? It's a possibility, but for the time being he wants to play in Europe. He is training intensely. In January he wants to return to have a starring role and play in a great club."
Mancini, meanwhile, feels Joorabchian Is part of the problem.
"He's (Tevez) a good lad, in spite of his recent behaviour," he told French daily newspaper L'Equipe. "But maybe he does not have the people around him to give him the right advice. Tevez behaved stupidly in the way a player shouldn't, especially a great player."
The Italian says Tevez turned down the chance to make peace with him and the club.
“Ten days after what happened in Munich, I invited him to come to my place to talk. I told him that, if he apologised to me, to the club, to the team, he could come back into the squad. I would have forgiven him. But he replied that he didn’t have to apologise to anyone.”
