Fergie says Tevez not worth 25 million – report

Sir Alex Ferguson has hit back at Carlos Tevez, saying the Argentinian striker wasn’t worth the 25 million pounds that rivals Manchester City paid for him, reports said on Tuesday.

The 25-year-old international signed a five-year contract with City after his two-year deal at United ran out at the end of last season.

Tevez, a fan favourite at Old Trafford, has claimed Ferguson never got in touch to try to persuade him to stay.

But Ferguson told English dailies in Kuala Lumpur, where United are on an Asian tour, that this was not true.

“We made contact with Carlos. We sent him texts and spoke to him when he was in Argentina,” he said.

“Our chief executive, David Gill, made an offer to (agent) Kia Joorabchian and we spoke to Tevez before we played Inter Milan (in March) and told him we had spoken to Kia, but we never heard back.”

In the end Tevez went to big-spending City, where he will play alongside Arsenal striker Emmanuel Adebayor next season.

Ferguson drafted in Michael Owen on a free transfer to replace him, and made clear he felt Tevez was not worth what City manager Mark Hughes paid.

“In my opinion, I don’t think he was worth 25 million pounds,” he said.

“He was popular with the supporters. The fans quite rightly have their heroes and I was happy to go along with the deal as long as it was the right one but, quite simply, he is not worth 25 million.”