Manchester United’s long-time CEO David Gill has explained there were two key factors behind Carlos Tevez joining Manchester City.
United signed Tevez on an initial two-year loan in 2007 and he quickly became a favourite among fans, players and Sir Alex Ferguson at Old Trafford.
Mere months into his stint, the legendary United boss declared his hopes of signing the Argentine striker permanently and United attempted to do so when the loan expired in 2009.
However, Tevez controversially decided to move across town and join fierce rivals City instead.
Gill, who served as United’s chief executive for a decade between 2003 and 2013, has revealed that a lack of guaranteed playing time and the owners of his rights earning much more money from a move to City were the reasons why he swapped the red half of Manchester for the blue.
David Gill explains why Carlos Tevez joined Manchester City
Speaking on Rio Ferdinand’s Five podcast, Gill said: “Well Tevez, we had him for two years and we had the right to buy him for £25.5m and we exercised the option to do that.
“I think you, you will know it better than I, but whereas in the first season it was him, Wayne [Rooney] and Cristiano [Ronaldo] up front, the second season we brought in Dimitar [Berbatov] and things like that.
“So perhaps he wasn’t in the team as much.
“I think ultimately the people who controlled him, because he wasn’t owned by a club. We weren’t dealing with a club, it’s is the people we did the deal with to get him in for the two years. Fully cleared by the Premier League, FA, I hasten to add.
“They basically got a lot more money by taking him to City. That was it. That became a financial thing for them. I think if Carlos had been insistent on staying at Manchester United then he could have stayed at Manchester United because we said we were prepared to pay that money for him to stay.
“But ultimately he felt, for whatever reason, better opportunities at City or whatever it wasn’t going to work out because the owners of his rights, so to speak, it’s not allowed anymore but at the time it was, the owners of his rights effectively almost doubled their money I believe.”
A significant move
Though Robinho arrived the summer previously following the Abu Dhabi United Group’s shock takeover of City in 2008, it was the signing of Tevez that was the real statement of intent from the new owners.
Not only had the Blues signed a world class striker to take their team to the next level but they had done so from under the nose their greatest rivals and the biggest club in the country.
Signing Tevez while also pulling the rug from under United was a double blow and an important signal that City weren’t just ‘noisy neighbours’. They were there to compete and knock United off their perch.
It took a couple of years for success to arrive but City qualified for the Champions League and won their first trophy under the new regime – the FA Cup – in 2011. Since then the floodgates have opened.
There have been better signings along the way. David Silva, Yaya Toure, Sergio Aguero, Kevin De Bruyne and Erling Haaland just to name a few. But Tevez might be the most significant as the others may never have followed if it wasn’t for the early building blocks his move put in place.
