It is a commonly held view that player power in the modern game is immense. Twelve months ago Wayne Rooney took on Sir Alex Ferguson, a manager who has had no problem in getting rid of the likes of Paul Ince, David Beckham and Ruud Van Nistlerooy, and won.

Only days after a visibly shaken Sir Alex announced to the press that Wayne Rooney had handed in a transfer request, citing United’s lack of ambition as cause for the shocking news, Rooney was awarded a five year bumper contract worth a reported £120,000 a week. This week, another player in Manchester has taken the player/manager power-struggle to another level. That player is, of course, Carlos Tevez, who refused to warm up when asked on Wednesday morning during City’s match against Bayern Munich. A new line has been crossed, and in this instance, it is important for football, not just Manchester City, that the club wins this battle.

Carlos Tevez has not made much of a secret of his desire to leave Manchester City. He handed in a transfer request last season in December, declaring that he could no longer work at Manchester City and that he wanted to return to Argentina to be with his family. He eventually withdrew the request, but it has been clear since that the Argentinean is not entirely happy at Manchester City, which he confirmed in the most disgraceful manner this week.

I, personally, can understand if Tevez’s unhappy that he misses his family and is no longer a mainstay in the Manchester City starting line up. He’s a father and he misses his children. He’s a professional footballer and he thinks he’s good enough to be starting every game. Money can’t buy everything, as the old adage says, and you can’t expect footballers to simply be happy wherever they are just because the money is good. These people are human beings, after all.

Human beings, however, ought to have the mental capacity to make a decision which takes these sort of factors into account. If Tevez didn’t think he would be able to last five years in Manchester, because he doesn’t like the city (which, by the way, he had already lived in for two years), or because he did not think he would be able to last that long without his family, then he should not have signed the contract. Signing the contract does not mean he should automatically be impervious to these sort of personal issues, but it does mean he has a professional obligation to fulfil the duties expected of him, regardless of whether or not he is happy. If he is up to the task of cashing his £200,000 pay cheque every week, then he should be up to the task of taking to the field for however long his manager says he should.

Not doing so is an offence to Roberto Mancini, the man who has done everything in his power to keep the Argentinean happy, who has defended him against all his critics, as well as to the City fans who made the trip from Manchester to Munich to watch their team play, and it is an offence that must be met with due punishment. Pulling out of games isn’t necessarily anything new, just ask Tottenham who have had to contend with the likes of Dimitar Berbatov and Luka Modric being unavailable in the midst of interest from other clubs, but refusing to warm up when asked to from the bench is the most public and shocking act of defiance from a player yet.

City have taken a step in the right direction by initially backing Mancini, suspending the player for at least two weeks whilst an investigation is carried out into the events surrounding the interest. Carlos Tevez has released a statement to the media claiming the whole furore is a simple misunderstanding; a sad attempt at reconciliation that seems to be the work of Tevez’s devious agent, Kia Joorabchian, but it won’t be, or at least it shouldn’t be, enough to save the former captain’s future at Manchester City.

Whether or not Tevez himself is all that fussed as to whether or not Manchester City put up with his nonsense for another year is at this point irrelevant. Mancini and Manchester City Football Club need to put up a united front at this moment and make it clear that City are not simply a club any talented footballer can just take for a ride. Beyond that, City this season have a real chance of picking up a first league title since 1968, and this is exactly the sort of trouble they need to avoid.

In December of last year, City threatened to seek compensation for breach of contract if the Argentinean refused to train or play. Should City’s internal investigation prove that Tevez did indeed refuse to play on Wednesday morning, I can think of no better course of action.