SOCCER NEWS:MANCHESTER CITY and Chelsea are leading the race for Carlos Tevez after he opted against signing a lucrative new deal at Manchester United because he "wasn't the most wanted person" at Old Trafford, according to his advisor Kia Joorabchian.
United chief executive David Gill had been in discussions with Joorabchian, with the aim of keeping the popular Argentina forward. But, despite the offer of a five-year contract that would have made Tevez one of the highest paid players at the club, the 25-year-old has decided to leave.
Tevez, according to Joorabchian, ruled out the prospect of moving to Liverpool as a mark of respect to United fans, but appears interested in the possibility of joining City or Chelsea.
“We ruled Liverpool out because of the competitive nature of Manchester United and Liverpool,” said Joorabchian.
“He has a lot of respect and a lot of love for the fans of Man United and I think he would rule Liverpool out as being the biggest competitor.
“City and Chelsea probably would be the two clubs that are on the table.
“City have obviously been in contact with us. I’ve spoken to (City executive chairman) Garry (Cook) and to (manager) Mark (Hughes) on several occasions.
“We haven’t talked to them about a contract, we haven’t talked to Chelsea either about that because we’ve respected the fact that Carlos is a Manchester United player.
“Without getting into the point of whether he’s going to City or Chelsea or wherever, the issue is I think Carlos wants to go to a club which has real ambition, a club which is showing intent, a club which he can help achieve great things.
“What is important is Carlos is very happy in England. He’s extremely settled down, his family is in very good shape here, they love the country. He wants to stay here.”
Joorabchian insisted the decision to reject a five-year deal at Old Trafford was not down to money. “I don’t think it’s correct to say ‘his face doesn’t fit’. He was very much a part of the Manchester United team the last two years but clearly the last one year he’s been very disappointed.
“I think he’s been even more disappointed that it has to come to the fact that the loan deal finishes.
“If it was, let’s say, Wayne Rooney’s contract finishing six months before, or Cristiano Ronaldo’s contract finishing six months before, would they have offered a better deal to them at that time or would they have tried to secure their services a bit sooner?
“He has that little bit of a feeling that maybe he wasn’t the most wanted person at United. Rightly or wrongly, that’s how he feels.
“I personally think United made a fantastic contribution to try to secure him with a last-ditch offer but I think it was a little bit too late and there wasn’t enough time for Carlos to think about it.”
“They didn’t really give him any offers for two years. Over the duration of two years there was a lot of talk about signing him but we never actually got to the point of actually receiving any offers for him.
“The offer of Manchester United was a very good offer. It came about 10 days ago. It was the loan price of €10.5 million plus the final option price of €30 million. They made him a good contract but Carlos needed time.
“I want to make it very, very clear: we never ever at any time asked them for more money, or any kind of money – never at any point during the last two years.
“Even after they made their offer we never asked for more money. We never spoke about that. I think Carlos just felt over the last two years they hadn’t made the effort to sign him and he needed a little bit of time.
Bolton, meanwhile will resist any offers for Kevin Davies, with Blackburn Rovers manager Sam Allardyce believed to want the 32-year-old striker whose career he resurrected at the Reebok Stadium. With Roque Santa Cruz on the verge of joining Manchester City, Allardyce is keen to sign another forward.
