Gary Neville has admitted that the transfer that affected him as a Manchester United fan was when Carlos Tevez joined Manchester City.
It is quite rare in football that a player decides to sign for a team’s direct rivals as Tevez decided to leave United, where he was on a two-year loan to put pen to paper at City in 2009.
Some of the other famous cases involve Luis Figo’s move to Real Madrid from Barcelona and in the Premier League, when Sol Campbell left Tottenham Hotspur to become an Arsenal player.
Gary Neville says when Carlos Tevez signed for Manchester City, it got to him
Of course, Neville and Tevez were a part of the same United side that won the double in the 2007/2008 season.
However, in the campaign after that, Dimitar Berbatov’s arrival from Tottenham meant the Argentine’s playing time took a hit and in the summer after that season, he decided to make the move to the Etihad Stadium to sign for Mark Hughes’ City side.
Now, Gary Neville has reflected on how he felt when Carlos Tevez left Manchester United to head to Manchester City 15 years ago.
“The one for me for United, to be fair was [Carlos] Tevez that got me the most”, he said on The Overlap.
“He was with us for a year and a half, wasn’t he? I know it was a loan but it was a weird, ownership thing then, I think, I don’t know. But for us, he was a United player and I just thought that that front three of [Cristiano] Ronaldo, Tevez, [Wayne] Rooney was special. It was unreal. It was like, ‘Oh my God.’ And I just thought, if you played for United, you didn’t go directly to City.”
“It was almost like if you were playing for United that was winning things…”
Gary Neville went on to praise Manchester City hero Carlos Tevez, saying, “That’s what I’m saying, he hates United and to be fair, I had that thing with him [in the Carabao Cup in the 2009/2010 season] but do you know something, he was a great lad at United and he was an unbelievable fighter.”
“Towards the end, he became a little bit disillusioned because he started to get left out and stuff but I just thought, to me, ‘That wasn’t right, that one.’
Former Manchester United chief David Gill revealed in February that the Red Devils were keen to sign the ex-West Ham United striker permanently but the deal did not go over the line due to his representatives getting a better deal at City.
Carlos Tevez will have no regrets
Having won the Champions League and two Premier League titles with Gary Neville and Co. at Manchester United, Carlos Tevez will likely have no regrets about joining Manchester City.
Tevez’s decision to join City was vindicated as he went on to win a league title and an FA Cup at the club while becoming one of their main men as opposed to at United, where he had eventually become a bit-part player.
The former Boca Juniors forward made Manchester United look silly as they decided not to sign him permanently as he further cemented his status as a phenomenal player at Manchester City.
