Carlos Tevez may have increased the bad press of Premier League stars at the weekend, not all professional footballers are the same, writes
Gavin Brown.

Carlos Tevez
Taking a back seat: Carlos Tevez watches City lose to Bayern Munich, when it was claimed he refused to go on as substitute (Picture: Enterprise/Sky Sports_

Like Carlos Tevez, Graeme Souness spent Tuesday night with his backside glued to a comfy chair watching Bayern Munich beat Manchester City.

Unlike Tevez, Souness was doing his job â as a pundit for Sky Sports â and refreshingly pulled no punches in his assessment of the Argentine agitatorâs apparent refusal to take to the field.

While Dwight Yorke and Mark Hughes nervously straightened their ties, Souness castigated his conduct.

Tevez, Souness claimed, âepitomises what the man in the street thinks is wrong with modern-day playersâ.

If Souness is right, then I like to think the average man is wrong.More likely is Sounessâ assertion Tevez is a âbad appleâ in a good barrel.Just because a footballer earns absurd amounts of money, it does not automatically make him a bad person.


For proof of that we had to wait just 24 hours when Frank Lampard, a man almost as au fait with the substituteâs bench as Tevez, reacted to his Chelsea recall by knocking in a vital goal and saying all the right things afterwards.

The best way to react to being left out, said Frank, is to âkeep on top of yourself, work hard and when you get your chance [take it]â.

âYou have to respect the manager, respect the team and the quality of the squad we have,â he added.

Spoken like the model professional Lampard always appears to be, which is ironic as, unlike pre-tantrum Tevez, Frank has never been popular with Sounessâ âaverage man in the streetâ.

Tevezâs attitude also jarred so soon after the world cycling championships gave us one of the best examples of teamwork you are ever likely to see.

Mark Cavendish took the title, propelled to individual glory by a British team who sacrificed their own races to give him his big chance.

The wealthy young riders in that team have not always seen eye to eye with the Manxman or each other but came together for the greater good.

Cyclists, footballers and average men on the street. Thereâs rich ones and poor, good ones and bad.