Champions League pressure too much for Manchester City, says Tevez

(CNN) — Over a billion dollars was spent, the English Premier League title was won, its neighbors’ feathers were duly ruffled, but the pressure to adapt to European football proved too much for Manchester City says Carlos Tevez.

Tevez, who signed for Juventus in a $13 million deal last month, enjoyed four years at City where he helped the club win the FA Cup and a first league title in 44 years, when they pipped rivals Manchester United on the last day of the 2011/2012 season.

But it was the club’s failure in European competition which left a sour taste in Tevez’s mouth with City failing to in their bid to compete with the continent’s biggest clubs.

City has failed to progress from the Group Stage of Europe’s elite competition in each of the past two seasons and the Argentine striker says the pressure and expectation on the players proved too great for the team to handle.

“Yes, there was way too much pressure,” Tevez told CNN.
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“It came from everyone — the club, the fans. I think that too much pressure just hurts the team.

“What happened was that there so much hype and pressure to be one of the giants of Europe and we didn’t do it.

“We dropped out in the first round of the Champions League on both occasions.”

City will now hope that new manager Manuel Pellegrini will help to turn its fortunes around following the departure of Roberto Mancini.

City’s former Italian coach and Tevez endured a difficult relationship with the Argentine’s apparent refusal to warm up during a Champions League tie at Bayern Munich in September 2011.

Subsequently the Italian announced that Tevez would never play for the club again before finally relenting, but the Argentine says he only has respect for his former manager.

“He’s a winner,” added Tevez.

“I think he’s a winner because he always wants to win and he takes his team to the maximum place to be able to win. Everyone who knows Mancini knows that he’s a winner from birth.”