Man City boss orders Tevez to keep quiet

Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini has ordered Carlos Tevez to draw a line under his spat with Gary Neville after the Argentina striker branded his former team-mate a boot licker and a moron.

Tevez’s colourful outburst came after he and Neville clashed during City’s 2-1 win over Manchester United on Tuesday and has set the scene for another explosive meeting between the clubs in next week’s second leg of their League Cup semi-final.

“These things can sometimes happen after a match,” Mancini said Friday. “The players are tired and sometimes they do not think what they are saying.

“It is important that this matter is finished now as we need to focus on our next game.”

Sir Alex Ferguson declined to get embroiled in a dispute that was triggered by Neville writing in a newspaper column that United’s manager was right to sell Tevez to City last year rather than pay the 25 million pounds it would have cost to sign him permanently.

“I’m not interested,” Ferguson told reporters. “He (Tevez) is not our player any more. I’ve nothing to say about it at all. Players argue with each other and have a go at each other time and time again, it’s not an issue for us.”

Ferguson refused to condemn Neville, United’s club captain, for raising his middle finger to Tevez as the Argentina striker jubilantly celebrated the first of his two goals on Tuesday evening.

Asked whether he was disappointed in Neville’s conduct, Ferguson replied: “No. What conduct? I didn’t see that at all.”

Tevez admitted on Wednesday that he had been hurt by Neville’s comments and, through his representatives, issued a fairly measured statement accusing the defender of showing uncharacteristic disrespect to a former colleague.

But in a radio interview with ESPN Argentina, conducted in Spanish, the forward’s tone was far more scathing.

“My celebration was directed at Gary Neville,” he confirmed. “He acted like a complete sock-sucker (boot-licker) when he said I wasn’t worth 25 million, just to suck up to the manager.

“I don’t know what the hell that idiot is talking about me for. I never said anything about him.”

Tevez, who has struggled to learn even basic English in his four years in England, added that he had been taken aback when his team-mates alerted him to press coverage of Neville’s opinions, originally expressed in a column for the Times of Malta.

“My team-mates were asking what I thought,” Tevez recalled. “And I wondered to myself: “What’s the ‘tarado’ (translation: cretin or moron) talking about me for when I never said anything about him.”

Tevez was hugely popular with the United fans during his two years on loan at the club but having opted to cross swords with Neville he is guaranteed a hostile reception at Old Trafford next week, although that will not concern him too much if he can help City reach Wembley at the expense of his former employers.

The forward will sit out City’s FA Cup match against Scunthorpe on Sunday to ensure he is as fresh as possible for the trip to Old Trafford, Mancini confirmed.