No captaincy return for Tevez

Published: 10 Sep 2011 - 07:00:12

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Carlos Tevez will not captain Manchester City this season.

Tevez, as captain, was inspirational last season and lifted City's first trophy in 35 years after victory in the FA Cup final. But Tevez expressed a desire to move closer to his family in South America and after a proposed move to Brazilian club Corinthians collapsed he was forced to return to City.

The 27-year-old is yet to start a game this season and Mancini feels Vincent Kompany should fully inherit the captaincy, saying: "The captain is Vinny Kompany. The reason is simple. Carlos in the summer wanted to leave the club for family reasons."

He added: "I respected his opinion to leave the club. But Carlos is here now, we didn't find any solution for him.

"He is a fantastic player for us because he can score 20 goals in one year - but I decided in the summer Vinny was the captain."

Tevez has been City's top scorer for the past two seasons but now appears to be behind Edin Dzeko and record signing Sergio Aguero in the pecking order.

Dzeko, who struggled to make an impact in the second half of last season after his Â£27million arrival in January, has been in particularly good form.

The 25-year-old Bosnian has scored seven times in four appearances this term, including one in the Community Shield and a hat-trick against Tottenham.

Mancini said: "Edin is a fantastic striker, he scores everywhere. I am sure that this year Edin can score a lot of goals for us."