Manchester City’s new signing Carlos Tevez has denied claims by Sir Alex Ferguson that the Manchester United manager tried to contact him to persuade him to stay at Old Trafford.
Ferguson claims he offered the 25-year-old a deal in March to turn his two-year loan move, which expired this summer, into a permanent switch. He also said he texted and phoned the Argentine but received no response.
“I was there for two years and Sir Alex never called or sent any text messages in that time,” said the striker.
“The only time he talked to me was after a match against Roma to discuss a situation of playing for Argentina.
“It doesn’t seem that this is the way to treat a player in two years at the club. It doesn’t seem there is a line of communication.”
Tevez believed he was kept waiting too long for a permanent deal to materialise and, in the meantime, was unhappy at his lack of first-team opportunities.
Ferguson said on Monday: “I half expected Tevez would be going a long time back.
“I think he maybe did a deal around January because I spoke to him and gave him an offer on the night we played Inter Milan (in March) and he never came back to me.
“I phoned him on holiday and he never got back to me and I texted him twice and he never got back to me then either, so obviously he had made his mind up a long time ago.
“He was a good player and did well for us. But he obviously assessed the situation and wanted to go somewhere else.”
Tevez denied any suggestion a deal had been agreed with City in January 2009 as he sought to placate United fans about his reasons for moving.
“The fact I did not stay at United was not because of the fans,” he said.
“They must understand a part of my heart will always be with them. They were always extremely supportive, even when I wasn’t playing.”
“He’s always thrived under competition and strived to be number one wherever he goes.”The rumours just won’t go away and the price of John Terry joining big-spending Manchester City is ever shortening – do you think Mr. Chelsea will go sky-blue?
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