I have no idea what spell Galliani has put on Man City striker Tevez, but with only a few days left to go in the transfer window, the player who hasn't featured for his team since November 2011, has so far refused to go anywhere but AC Milan. One would think that a player in his position, who has no chance of playing for Manchester City again (Unless Mancini resigns or is sacked) would be eager to get on with his footballing career and move to PSG or Inter who have reportedly had good negotiations with Man City. But Alas, it seems Tevez has his heart set on Milan , and is willing to put it all on the line to make it happen.
Milan on the other hand, with their heavyweight transfer Guru , Galliani, have approached the matter from a different angle. A sort of a Pirate's approach if you like. They simply agreed terms with the player essentially convincing him that he shall be playing for Milan, then submitted a loan offer with a right to buy that gives Man City no guarantees. An offer they could not accept, which they didn't. But it matters not, it was all part of Galliani's game plan. He then had further negotiations, added a few favourable terms in the offer, but it was still far from convincing for Man City. Having negotiated twice now with no success, Galliani turns to Maxi Lopez. A second rate striker that wouldn't cost much and would be used as a fringe player on the bench, in chess terms, a pawn. He somehow got Maxi Lopez and his club (Catania) to agree to a deal and put it on hold depending on whether Tevez's deal goes through or not. Galliani then approaches Man city for the third or fourth time, seemingly running out of patience with them issues an ultimatum along the lines of: if I don't get Tevez by this weekend, I'll sign Lopez. Hardly a strong bargaining chip as the two strikers are in completely different classes, but Galliani knows this, and simply wants to up the pressure on Man City who are running out of time and options.
If you try and look at Man City's position, they have a highly paid world class player who has not played in more than 3 months, that has a reputation for disrupting the dressing room and is not easy to handle for the coaches. They have probably already tried to offload him onto several other clubs, receiving interest from only 3 clubs (Milan, Inter and PSG). With Inter not entirely convinced by the player (Maybe due to his dressing room antics and some fear that he may disrupt their current run of form), and Tevez rejecting PSG, Man City are only left with Milan's mediocre offer.
Analyzing the situation above, Galliani and Tevez are winning this fight. Milan already have Ibrahimovic, Robinho and El Shaarawy upfront, with Pato joining the strike force every once in a while. Inzaghi, although out of favor, is also available, and Cassano is expected to be ready for next season. So in reality, Milan are really not that desperate for another striker. Tevez is ineligible to play in the champions league with Milan, which reduces his importance greatly. In addition, Galliani has structured an agreement with Maxi Lopez to use as a further bargaining chip. From this standpoint Man City stand no chance of receiving an "appropriate" offer for Carlos Tevez. For them, the only logical and rational thing to do is to take whatever offer Milan has given them. Of course, there is always another course they could take and potentially use for bargaining: Self Destruction.
Man City's chairman seems to have gotten involved in things recently and issued the following statements:
“Carlos remains a player with contractual obligations to Manchester City for the next two and a half seasons," Al Mubarak said in a statement to The National in Abu Dhabi.
"Unless we receive an offer that we deem appropriate, the terms of his contract will be enforced.
“Inter and Paris Saint-Germain approached discussions with us in good faith, and it is always a positive experience to deal with people with a professional approach.
"As things stand AC Milan isn’t an option for Carlos Tevez. Mr. Galliani and his advisers have developed a misplaced sense of confidence from their premature discussions with Carlos and his advisers.
"If they want to be a consideration in this transfer window they would do better to stop congratulating one another and begin to look at how they would meet our terms.”
Although no one would doubt that City have the ability to absorb Tevez's wages with no problems at all, this stance, I believe, is a typical self destruct- If i'm dying then i'm taking you down with me approach. In this situation, however, I don't think it would work. As I mentioned earlier, Milan are not desperate for a striker, so if City remain stubborn , Galliani will simply walk away with no real loss. For City,however, the stakes are much higher.
1)They would be stuck for at least another 5 months with Tevez paying his wages in full.
2) In the summer, there is no guarantee that they would be able to offload him for a fair amount.
3) If Man City refuse Tevez's move to Milan, it will only anger the player further, and he just may refuse to go anywhere in the summer.
4) Tevez doesn't seem to be too bothered getting paid for sitting around and doing nothing and could decide to see out his contract unless he's allowed a move to a club of his choosing.
5) If City wins the Premier League, Tevez would be entitled to the Squad Bonuses plus any additional Bonuses in his contract
6) Man City already have trouble meeting the UEFA Financial Fair play rules and they wouldn't be doing themselves any favours keeping Tevez on their payroll for doing nothing
Conclusion:
Logically and Emotions aside, It would be very surprising for Manchester City to reject Milan's offer for Carlos Tevez.
Due to the player's stubbornness their best option would be to allow his move to AC Milan.
If Manchester City decide to reject the offer, they would be hurting themselves simply to avoid feeling out-manoeuvred and outsmarted by Galliani, and to stop Tevez from getting what he wants.
I am not sure what the deal is with Maxi Lopez, but I have a feeling that his purpose is to be a smokescreen/ bargaining chip and will not sign for Milan regardless of what happens with the Tevez deal.
Regardless of the outcome of this transfer saga, Galliani has proven once again that he has mastered the art of negotiation. If he ever writes a book about negotiation techniques, I'm certain it would be one worth buying.