City agree Tevez deal

MANCHESTER CITY last night announced they have reached an agreement to sign Argentinian striker Carlos Tevez.

The 25-year-old, who left city rivals United at the end of last season, has agreed personal terms and is expected to pen a five-year deal at Eastlands.

City have confirmed the deal has been ratified by the Premier League and the FA, and Tevez is expected to meet up with his new team-mates on their pre-season tour to South Africa.

City boss Mark Hughes is delighted to have snapped up the former South American Footballer of the Year and expects Tevez to add another dimension to his team.

“It is terrific news,’’ Hughes said. Carlos is an international player of the highest class who possesses all the attributes that will help drive this club forward.

“He is not only outstanding technically but he is a reliable goalscorer and someone who will contribute fully to the team ethic. He gives us another exciting attacking dimension. I cannot wait to welcome him to City.”

Having lost out in his battle to keep Tevez, Manchester united manager Alex Ferguson yesterday declared his belief the former West Ham player had already done a deal to move on.

“I half expected Carlos Tevez would be going a long time back,” said the United boss.

“I think he maybe did a deal around January because I spoke to him and gave him an offer on the night we played Inter Milan (in March) and he never came back to me.

“I phoned him on holiday and he never got back to me and I texted him twice and he never got back to me then either, so obviously he had made his mind up a long time ago.

“He was a good player and did well for us. But he obviously assessed the situation and wanted to go somewhere else.”

And Tevez could now be partnered by Emmanuel Adebayor with the Eastlands outfit believed to have held talks with Arsenal over the possibility of signing the Togo striker.

Adebayor has been linked with a move away from Arsenal this summer, with a number of European clubs said to be interested in his services.

It is believed a five-year deal has been proposed, for a transfer fee of £22m (€25.5m), and personal terms of £170,000 (€198,000) a week.

Sources close to Arsenal claim theGunners are willing to let Adebayor leave with the striker having struggled for form last season.

Should Adebayor leave Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger could bid for Bordeaux forward Marouane Chamakh.

Meanwhile Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez is still battling to keep Javier Mascherano at Anfield in the wake of Xabi Alonso making his position with the club virtually untenable.

Alonso is believed to have contacted the Liverpool manager and told him he wants to leave the club and join Real Madrid, but stopped short of asking for a transfer.

The Spain midfielder remarkably made the call less than 24 hours before he married his long-term girlfriend Nagore Aramburu in his home city of San Sebastian on Saturday, where the guests included former Liverpool team-mate Luis Garcia and Everton midfielder Mikel Arteta.

That plea to Benitez came as the Bernabeu giants stepped up their relentless pursuit of the 30-year-old, and although Benitez still does not want to sell, there seems little chance now that Alonso can remain a Liverpool player.

But whereas Alonso looks like he is on his way out of Anfield, Mascherano is still very much in Benitez’s plans.

The manager intimated towards the end of last season that the Argentina captain would be given a new contract this summer, and that is now a matter of urgency for Benitez.

The Spaniard has privately claimed suggestions Mascherano’s wife cannot settle in Liverpool has been an excuse, and he believes he is much more likely to persuade the midfielder to stay.

Alonso, surely, is now a different matter. Benitez has revealed he had a string of phone calls from Alonso while the player was away with Spain at the Confederations Cup in South Africa. And since then he has become increasingly irritated by further calls from the player as Madrid’s interest has heightened.

This latest call was probably the final straw, but Benitez will be determined to get a fee approaching £30million (€34m), despite Madrid’s offer being considerably smaller than that figure.