TRANSFER NEWS: CARLOS TEVEZ has informed Alex Ferguson that he has no plans to return to Manchester United despite the club's renewed efforts to persuade him to reject Manchester City's overtures.
Ferguson has interrupted his holiday in the south of France several times over the last two weeks to ring Tevez and appeal to him to think carefully about the consequences of leaving a club of United’s standing but the Argentina international has so far been unmoved and in the last few days told the manager that he planned to sever his ties with the Premier League champions.
That is unlikely to prevent Ferguson trying to persuade him from changing his mind before the striker officially becomes a free agent on June 30th, but United’s management are realistic about the situation and increasingly fear that Tevez will soon confirm he is following Cristiano Ronaldo out of the club.
City have offered Tevez a 75 per cent pay rise, meaning a €165,000-a-week salary, and the chance to re-establish himself as a first-choice player whereas, tellingly, in all the various discussions with Ferguson there has been no indication that Tevez can expect to play in more of United’s key games this season.
Tevez’s main grievance is the frequency with which he was left out of United’s bigger matches last season and he has come to feel disenchanted because of the way the club’s chief executive, David Gill, has handled his proposed signing, repeatedly postponing talks before publicly stating that he thought Tevez was overpriced.
That has left the way clear for City to capitalise and, unless Ferguson can convince Tevez otherwise, the Abu Dhabi-owned club confidently expect to pull off one of their biggest transfer coups in modern times despite Liverpool also maintaining their own interest in Tevez.
City have the advantage because they can afford to pay Tevez the higher salary and have informed the consortium that owns the player’s economic rights they will pay the €30 million fee in one sum whereas Liverpool’s proposal is to drag it out with instalments over the course of his contract.
Tevez is also aware that moving to Anfield would irreparably tarnish his standing among those United supporters who have been campaigning for him to stay at Old Trafford. The player is described as “tribal” and is aware of the intense rivalry between United and Liverpool but, in his mind, he does not believe it would cause so much bad feeling if he went to City.
Meanwhile, Setanta has met part of its €41 million instalment to the Premier League that is due today and is believed to have hammered out a repayment schedule. The league received €12 million on Friday and Setanta will pay a further €12 million this Friday.
A final €17.5 million sum has been deferred until later this summer, despite indications from the Premier League that it would not consider renegotiating or deferring payments.
However, the Premier League has reserved the right to put the final year of Setanta’s three-year deal, which kicks in at the start of the 2009-’10 season, out to tender if it believes the rescue is foundering.
Industry sources said it could begin the process of reauctioning those rights before Friday by inviting offers from other bidders.
It is believed to be concerned that Setanta’s future remains in doubt two months before the start of the new season. Setanta holds the rights to 46 games next season and 23 for each of the following three seasons under a separate deal.
Guardian Service
