What's the matter, Carlos – can't you get a game?

"Welcome to Manchester" was the message plastered across a huge billboard when footballer Carlos Tevez signed for his club, Man City, once downtrodden but now the world's richest.

But the welcome at a nearby golf course yesterday was somewhat less ecstatic, the morning after the Argentina striker – who is paid £250,000 a week – was involved in a row over his failure to take to the pitch as a substitute. Tevez, whose career in the North of England seems to have run its course after spectacularly falling out with his manager and fans, apparently refused to play during Tuesday night's damaging 2-0 defeat to Bayern Munich.

The Argentine turned up yesterday at the Tytherington Golf Course in Cheshire with his wife Vanessa, having been told by his manager Roberto Mancini that his career at the club was "finished". The couple were turned away from the course, having failed to properly book a tee time – to the glee of several players on neighbouring holes.

Tevez declared in the summer that there was "nothing to do in Manchester", adding: "I don't even leave my house. I'm the stay-at-home type... When I finish my contract I will not return to Manchester ever – not even on holiday." Asked what was so wrong with the city, he said: "The weather, everything. It has nothing."

The golf club yesterday insisted that it was not a case of the city taking revenge.