Carlos Tevez completed his move to Manchester City on a
five-year contract on Tuesday, and rubbished claims made by Sir
Alex Ferguson that he had shunned calls from his former
manager.
The Manchester United boss claimed he had attempted to contact
Tevez on a number of occasions to persuade him to remain at Old
Trafford, but was blanked. But Tevez has now claimed that is not
true.
Tevez, who cost the club a fee in the region of £25m, said: "I
was there for two years and Sir Alex never called or sent any text
messages in that time.
"The only time he talked to me was after a match against Roma to
discuss a situation about going to play 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.''
The 25-year-old did go on to thank United, adding: "David Gill
(United chief executive), Alex Ferguson and the club's fan base I
thank you for the time I spent there, but this is a new life for me
and I am happy to be at Manchester City.''
Sir Alex also believed that Tevez had agreed to join City as
long ago as January, something else the 25-year-old denies: "It is
United people talking about signing a contract (in January) but it
is not true that it was decided then.''
Meanwhile, Mark Hughes confirmed that City are still looking for
further signings and that talks are on-going with Emmanuel Adebayor
of Arsenal, and he is a firm admirer of Chelsea skipper John
Terry.
Hughes said of his future summer transfer dealings: "There may
well be opportunities that present themselves. There are areas of
the team we still want to strengthen.
"We would like to obviously be in a position at the beginning of
the season to have a team in place that we think can challenge this
year.
"If opportunities present themselves we could possibly buy more
players.
"I think there's been discussions between ourselves and Arsenal
[for Adebayor] but, as is my usual response about players that we
haven't signed, really it's not the right time or place to discuss
that - only in as much as yes there has been contact.
"There's a deal to be done possibly but it's not been concluded
as we speak. Until it actually happens, really it's not the time or
the place to discuss it here.''
When asked about Terry, he replied: "I have fantastic respect
for John Terry, ever since I saw him as a young player when I was
at Chelsea as a player myself.
"He's a great player and an outstanding captain. But he's very
much a Chelsea player at this moment in time.
"I have huge respect for him. I think any manager would covet a
player of the type of John Terry, but at this moment in time he's a
player for Chelsea so we have to respect that.''
When asked whether Tevez represents good value for money, Hughes
said: "Absolutely, for Manchester City, it's absolutely good
value.
"From our point of view, where we are in our development, to be
able to bring one of the top strikers in world football to our club
is a fantastic thing for us as a club, for our fans and everybody
connected with Manchester City.
"We're absolutely delighted that Carlos is here.''