Manchester City Apologise For Carlos Tevez’s ‘r.i.p Fergie’ Banner

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Carlos Tevez holds up a banner saying ‘R.I.P Fergie’

Manchester City have criticised Carlos Tevez for a “significant error of judgment” after he waved a banner reading “RIP Fergie” during the club’s title-winning parade.

The newly crowned Premier League champions also apologised to Sir Alex Ferguson and Manchester United for the striker’s conduct.

Tevez was handed the placard, which had the offending words written on the image of a gravestone, by someone in the crowd watching the club’s celebration on the streets of Manchester.

The move prompted hundreds of Twitter users to voice disquiet at a gesture that may be viewed in bad taste due to Ferguson being 70 years old.

Tevez later issued an apologetic statement but that did not save him from criticism from his club.

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.”

The meaning behind the banner could well be a reference to Ferguson’s famous response when asked three years ago if United would ever be underdogs against City. “Not in my lifetime,” he said.

Tevez was smiling as he lifted the banner above his head on the top of City’s open-top bus parade but later said: “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.”

Tevez played for two years under Ferguson at Old Trafford before leaving for City in 2009. United’s manager said at the time that the striker, who had been on loan, was not worth the asking price to sign permanently. “Quite simply he is not worth £25m,” he said.

This is not the first time that Tevez has upset his employers at City. He spent more than three months on unauthorised leave in Argentina after falling out with the manager, Roberto Mancini, for refusing to warm up at Bayern Munich.

Tevez’s conduct soured City’s celebration of their first top-flight title since 1968.

The club have, though, inevitably started thinking about next season and are determined to take a tough line over their strategy in the transfer market this summer, refusing to pay over the odds to strengthen their squad or sell any player for less than their valuation.

With the demands of Uefa’s financial fair play regulations City know they may have to sell before operating towards the higher end of the market, with up to 11 of Mancini’s squad potentially available and Eden Hazard, the Lille attacking midfielder, among their prime targets.

The club believe that Milan’s failure to prise Tevez away in January for less than the £25m asking price, despite the striker’s dispute with Mancini, provided a watershed decision that underlined their refusal to let players leave on the cheap.

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