MANCHESTER CITY have admitted that the club’s leading striker Carlos Tevez has submitted a formal transfer request – but that it had turned the application down.

In a statement released this morning, the club said the striker – who has been famously homesick for his native Argentina, where his wife and two daughters live – had formally asked to be sold to an Argentine club but that it was not prepared to let him go at present.

“It is with disappointment that we confirm to our supporters that Carlos Tevez has submitted a written transfer request. The Club can also confirm that the request has been rejected,” the club statement read.

The Club remains disappointed by this situation and particularly with the actions of Carlos’ representative.

The statement continued to elaborate that the club coach Roberto Mancini and the rest of the management were sensitive to his personal circumstances, but said that the transfer request was in “stark contrast” to Tevez’s public and private positions.

Significantly, over recent months, the Club has also received numerous requests from Carlos’ representative to renegotiate and improve his playing contract as well as more recently a request to extend that contract by another year.

However, in line with the Club’s policy of not negotiating playing contracts mid-season this has not been granted.  Carlos’ current five-year contract has three-and-a-half years to run and he is the highest paid player at the Manchester City Football Club.

Many of today’s papers had speculated about the striker’s future at Eastlands; the striker was known to have a series of rows with Mancini, and the Observer in particular suggested that Tevez may have planned to retire in order to concentrate on his family life.

The striker had notably suggested before the World Cup that he would contemplate retirement if Argentina were to win the tournament, saying it would have left him with little else to achieve in the game.