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Carlos Tevez shocked Sir Alex Ferguson when swapping Man United for 'small club' Manchester City in the summer of 2009.
"Fergie, sign him up," chanted Manchester United fans as Carlos Tevez sauntered back to the halfway line.
Tevez scored the second goal in a 2-0 victory over Manchester City in May 2009, a win that meant United moved a step closer to successfully defending their Premier League crown.
But Tevez's future had dominated headlines in the build-up to the Manchester derby. “I didn’t read any of the papers. He’s a Manchester United player,” insisted Sir Alex Ferguson.
Tevez's future at Old Trafford had been dramatically thrown into doubt after he gave an exclusive interview to the News of the World. "I am very sad about this, but I guess what I’m saying is goodbye. I don’t think I’ll be a United player next season," he said.
"They have never made me an offer or given me a contract. I have not been treated as a member of the family. The fans treat me like family, but United have not signed me, so they don’t respect me."
Tevez was coming to the end of his two-year United loan, but the deal was expected to be made permanent, with chief executive David Gill stating the situation would be resolved in 'early June'.
Although United had communicated their intention to sign Tevez permanently throughout the season, the framework for a deal hadn't been finalised and the player felt he'd been disrespected, which led to a dramatic departure.
United submitted their proposal, but it was too late. Tevez's representatives informed the club he would be leaving, and reports then emerged linking him with Liverpool and 'noisy neighbours' City entered discussions.
“He [Tevez] was a thorn in our side. I thought he played exceptionally well," said Mark Hughes after City's defeat in the derby. "I’ve read the reports, but I don’t want to comment."
Tevez completed his move to City for £25.5million in mid-July and said: "City showed me their ambition to be one of the biggest clubs in the world and I was happy to join.
"Money was not the most important thing about my move. I have a coach who wants me and a good fanbase and environment around me. I'm excited about working with Mark Hughes and building a good relationship with him. The objective is to win the league and I'm here to win things."
Speaking about the controversial transfer years later, Rio Ferdinand told William Hill: "The big one was when Tevez went there from us. That moment I was like 'rah' because I knew how good he was.
"We knew exactly what player they were getting. We were like 'nah', at the time I was like 'this guy doesn't understand the rivalry, what is he doing?' But at the same time, I knew the story behind it.
"He wanted to sign the contract at Man United well before that time. United delayed and didn't come to him, and the kind of guy he is, I have respect for him in the end for it, because he said you know what, you have disrespected me.
"He thought, 'I don't care what you offer me I am not signing'. I remember David Gill, the chairman at the time, asked me to ring him and speak to him and his agent and try to tell him to listen and sign.
"I remember his agent saying, 'Rio, it doesn't matter what money they offer him, he won't sign. He feels he has been disrespected, so that's it'. As much as I was disappointed, I respected it."
However, signing Tevez from under Ferguson's nose wasn't enough for City, who commissioned a billboard to rub their rivals' face in it. David Pullan was City’s chief brand and marketing officer and wanted to make a grand statement.
Pullan masterminded the 'Welcome to Manchester' billboard and persuaded club chiefs to commission it
“He didn’t want to run it because he felt it was antagonistic towards United fans at a time when the whole Abu Dhabi ethos was to be respectful,” Pullan told The Athletic.
“They [the owners] didn’t want to play that game of being antagonistic. I sat down with him and said, ‘Look, this isn’t a big two fingers up at United. It’s tongue-in-cheek, it’s funny, it’s a way of showing our fans that, despite all the changes and all the money coming into the club, we still understand them and we still care about them. We aren’t being disrespectful'.
"It’s celebratory. It’s the first opportunity for City fans to celebrate getting one over on their old rivals, so why not? He was persuaded that it wasn’t a negative thing to do. The fans loved it. And the rest is history.”
The billboard was positioned in the heart of town in Deansgate. The artwork was soon splattered with red paint and it continued to be targeted by angry fans.
Pullan continued: “Every morning, there would be socks filled with red paint lying on the street at the bottom of the poster. Overnight, the United fans would come down with tins of red paint, fill up these socks and throw them at the poster to try to turn it red."
The billboard cost £30,000, but Pullan described it as "one of the most valuable pieces of marketing ever".
The world was listening when Ferguson responded to the stunt. "The billboard in Manchester is just City all over, isn't it? They are a small club with a small mentality, and all they can talk about is Manchester United," he said.
"That's all they've done and they can't get away from it. The poster is a stupid thing using Tevez in that way and they've shown an arrogance which does them no favours.
"It's clear that it's a go at us because they think taking Tevez away from Manchester United is a triumph. But it's poor stuff. I thought Tevez would go to City a long time ago, so it didn't come as any surprise."
Ferguson continued: "There is an edge being put on us because of all the buying City have done. For me, City's biggest triumph could simply be getting those players to the club. I don't know if they will do anything.
"It's not easy to get into that top four. City's spending is demoralising only if you panic about the buying. They have the money, and when they offer it, most of it will be cash.
"But, at the end of the day, Everton did well against us, they did brilliantly against Liverpool and well against Chelsea last season. So it will not be easy for City and they don't even come into my equation at all.
"I don't look upon City as my biggest challenge. The best City team against the best Everton team is still a game, isn't it? For all the buying they have done, they still have to pick a team with balance.
"And that won't be easy for Mark. What's he got, eight strikers? So if he picks a squad to go to Chelsea he has to leave four behind. He has to deal with that and I know it will not be easy."
Ferguson's response caused a stir in the Etihad boardroom. “The fact it irritated him caused a bit of a wobble with the owners. They didn’t want to take him on, head-on," Pullan explained.
"They didn’t want to make it out that City was the future, United were the past. We weren’t trying to annoy Ferguson, but the fact he allowed himself to get annoyed by something so small tells you everything about the direction of travel at that time.
"It wasn’t the intention, but the fact it got to him would have been seen, certainly among the fans, as a very positive side-effect.”
Tevez later scored a brace in a 2-1 win against United in the League Cup semi-final and sprinted to the touchline with a message for Gary Neville, gesturing that he talked too much.
Neville had spoken in the media to say United were justified in not signing Tevez. The tensions between the clubs continued to simmer and reached boiling point when City visited Old Trafford in the league.
United won 4-3 thanks to a late Michael Owen goal, and Ferguson gave City’s chief communications officer, Vicky Kloss, the hairdryer treatment for the 'Welcome to Manchester' billboard in the tunnel.
Ferguson believed Kloss had been responsible for the stunt. "The goal for this club is to win the league, it doesn't matter what we do against Man City. We want to be at the top," he said after the game.
"Okay, at the moment, we have a neighbour and sometimes they're noisy. You cannot do anything about that. You just have to get on with your life. The demonstration of our playing power was obvious to everyone, we were fantastic today."
Tevez was involved in more controversy at the end of the 2011/12 season when he waved a banner reading 'RIP Fergie' during a title-winning parade.
The banner was intended to respond to Ferguson’s claim that "not in his lifetime" would City be superior in Manchester, but it was widely considered distasteful, and City apologised.
A City spokeswoman said: "The creation of the tasteless material is in itself reprehensible and in accepting and brandishing it, Carlos has made a significant error of judgment.
"The club wishes to express its sincerest apologies to Sir Alex Ferguson and Manchester United Football Club for any offence or distress caused."
Tevez attempted to clarify: "I got carried away in the excitement of the moment and I certainly didn't mean any disrespect to Sir Alex Ferguson, who I admire as a man and a manager."
United were happy with City's statement and it seemed the incident had been put to bed, but Tevez stoked the fire again when speaking to Spanish media. “It seems like Ferguson is the president of England," he said.
"Because every time he speaks badly of a player or when he always talked rubbish about me, I never went out to say he had to apologise. When you mess up you should go out and apologise, but I do not apologise.”
Despite there appearing to be some bad blood between Tevez and Ferguson, the player insisted in 2016 there was no fallout.
“With Ferguson, nothing bad happened, it was a normal relationship. I went to United for two years on loan, and in the final year, Ferguson told me that they were going to buy me permanently," he said.
“We got to the Champions League final in Rome and I didn’t have any contract on the table, even though they’d spent the whole year telling me that, so I went to City and they complained, but I never had the option of signing for United, so I was free.”
Ferguson did not speak to Tevez after his exit and was unimpressed to learn some of his squad remained friendly with him. "Carlos Tevez was my close friend, but I was not pleased when he joined Manchester City," Patrice Evra said.
“‘Carlito’, I said. ‘What are you doing? This shirt isn’t you. I have been to your house and you still have a picture of yourself wearing a United shirt near your pool table. You are a Red, you know deep in your heart that you are a Red’. Deep down, I think he still had a great affection for United.
"He once told me that he would always respect United fans. I know he did well for City, I know he was a great player for them, but he’d won league titles and the Champions League with United."
Tevez was sold by City to Juventus in 2013 having won the Premier League and FA Cup during his time at the Etihad.
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