Tevez resigned to Old Trafford exit

CARLOS TEVEZ appears almost certain to leave Manchester United when his two-year loan spell with the club expires next month.

United are struggling to reach a compromise with Kia Joorabchian, whose company holds Tevez’s economic rights, and the club are beginning to resign themselves to his departure, despite insisting, in public at least, that they want to secure him on a permanent contract.

An impasse has been reached over the fee Joorabchian is demanding for Tevez’s services. United have been told they will have to pay at least £22m (€24.7m) to buy the Argentine forward but the Premier League champions are unwilling to meet that valuation.

There is also unease within the Old Trafford hierarchy, not least from manager Alan Ferguson, about negotiating the minefield of third-party ownership.

Liverpool are the latest club to be linked with a move for Tevez, 25, although the player himself is keen to stay at Old Trafford, having become a firm favourite with the supporters, who booed his substitution by Ferguson during Saturday’s title-clinching draw with Arsenal. A group of fans then gathered outside the Old Trafford directors’ entrance to protest at the failure to sign Tevez, a gathering that eventually had to be dispersed by poilce.

Tevez has stoked the ire of Ferguson by repeatedly going public with his discontent. He launched another outburst on Friday, telling an Argentine television station that he had been shown a “lack of respect” by the club’s senior management, including Ferguson.

“I know that I am not going to continue at Manchester United,” he said. “I feel that they have lacked respect towards me. It’s not about whether they pay £5million more, but I feel I have been badly treated.

“There are ways in which the club is managed that I don’t understand. When you don’t agree with the manager in how the club is run... I don’t have faith in a lot of things that happen here.

“I’ve been here for two years and the directors have never come to speak to me. Not once have I had a meeting with them.

“It’s best that I leave the club so as not to clash with Alex Ferguson and the directors.”

Perhaps inevitably, Tevez was less strident when asked to clarify his future by a Sky television reporter during United’s title celebrations on Saturday, claiming only that it would be “very difficult” for him to stay.

Either way, nothing is likely to be rubber-stamped until after the Champions League final on 27 May, when United face Barcelona.

“The actual situation will be cleared up in early June,” said David Gill, the United chief executive. “Carlos has done very well. We’d like him to stay, but the actual economic situation needs to be clarified.

“It is an unusual situation. When we did our deal to acquire Carlos two years ago, his economic rights were owned by a company controlled by Kia Joorabchian. That’s a feature of a lot of South American players.

Ferguson, for his part, insisted yesterday that United would not be held to ransom by Joorabchian. “The demands originally put to us were unrealistic,” he said. “Like other clubs, we have to be aware of the consequences of the credit crunch.

“It’s no time to be careless about money. As far as Tevez is concerned, everybody would be best served by a willingness to compromise.”

While Tevez’s future remains in doubt, Cristiano Ronaldo’s appears rather more clear-cut. The Portuguese winger, who agitated for a move to Real Madrid last summer, has been the subject of more transfer rumours but Gill insists the player is not for sale.

“We made it clear he’s on a long-term contract,” he said. “He’s been fantastic both on and off the pitch throughout, he’s supported us in what we want to do commercially and he’s been a model professional. He is not for sale. He’s a great player and he’s part of our club.

“Footballers want to win things and I think any footballer would recognise he has much more chance of winning things, certainly in the short to medium term, at Manchester United than Real Madrid.”

United’s hand appeared to be strengthened over the weekend when it emerged that Ronaldo is likely to sign a personal endorsement contract with Nike, United’s official kit suppliers. Real are supplied by adidas, who are unlikely to respond favourably to a new galacticos being the face of one of their biggest commercial rivals.