Sir Alex Ferguson praised his players last night after a dramatic 2-1 win over Wigan Athletic took Manchester United to within one point of the Barclays Premier League title, but the champions’ battling performance was overshadowed by the increasingly uncertain future of Carlos Tévez, their inspirational striker.
Tévez brought United back into the game with a brilliant equaliser to cancel out Hugo Rodallega’s first-half opener, before Michael Carrick sealed victory with an 86th-minute winner. United need a point from the visit of Arsenal on Saturday to confirm their third successive championship, which would move them alongside Liverpool with 18 domestic titles.
However, instead of looking forward to a potential title party at Old Trafford, Ferguson became embroiled in another dispute about Tévez.
Although the United manager insisted that negotiations with the Argentinian over a new contract were progressing well, despite Tévez’s claims on Sunday that he wants to leave the club, he was immediately contradicted by a spokesman for Kia Joorabchian, the player’s adviser. Tévez has been at Old Trafford on a loan deal for two years, but the club have yet to meet the fee — believed to be £22 million — that his owners are demanding to make the arrangement permanent.
“The situation has not affected Carlos at all,” Ferguson said. “He knows I want him to stay. I had another chat with him today about it and David Gill also had some more meetings today and I’m sure it has progressed further. The situation has never changed. The problem is we’re not negotiating with a football club. The terms we have offered Carlos are very good, so we’ll see.”
Joorabchian almost immediately gave an interview to Sky Sports in which he claimed that no progress had been made, with his take on events clarified by his spokesman. “It is true David Gill came to see Mr Joorabchian and they had a cordial meeting,” the spokesman said. “It is categorically untrue that Manchester United made an offer to try to persuade Carlos Tévez to stay at the club.
“In 2007 Manchester United agreed a two-year loan deal for Carlos Tévez and at the same time agreed the terms that would make the transfer permanent. They have not taken up that option.”
Ferguson’s admiration for his players was less open to debate, although the Scot did criticise Cristiano Ronaldo, who put in a subdued performance and missed several clear-cut chances. “Cristiano could have scored a hat-trick tonight,” Ferguson said. “Normally he makes the goalkeeper work at least, but nights like this one can happen in football.
“We had to be patient. We were the better side and I thought we should have had a penalty too, but weren’t getting anything tonight. We’ve done it ourselves with a fantastic goal by Michael Carrick and a fantastic performance. We will aim to win against Arsenal now. I don’t listen to the criticism they’ve had recently. We know what a good team they are.
“We had to show the resolve of champions against a very determined Wigan side. This was a really tough hurdle, but we got there with a fantastic second-half performance. We were determined, we never gave in, kept going and got a little bit of luck in the second half, but we were fantastic.
“I told them at half-time to keep going and to keep their discipline because the referee was annoying them with a lot of his decisions. I told them to keep their mouths shut and play the game.”
Steve Bruce was left wondering if he will ever get the better of the club he played for with such distinction after coming close yet again. “I thought this was going to be the night, but I’m still trying,” the Wigan manager said.
“They’ve shown everyone the quality and integrity of the Premier League. There’s no question they were rattled, but we needed to go another ten minutes. We did everything we possibly could
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