CARLOS TEVEZ FUTURE IN DOUBT

United target 18-year-old wonderkid Douglas Costa

CARLOS TEVEZ - contract

DOUGLAS COSTA - wanted

By ANDY DUNN, 11/10/2008

THE OLD TRAFFORD future of Carlos Tevez has been thrown into doubt by Manchester United's pursuit of Douglas Costa.

United recently claimed there was no hitch in the Tevez deal - even though boss Alex Ferguson had hinted the Argie would have to wait until the end of the season before getting a permanent transfer.

But Sport of the World understands United are deadly serious about capturing 18-year-old attacking midfielder Costa, who is also on the hitlist of Barcelona and Real Madrid.

And after signing a new contract with his club Gremio, Costa's fee would be around £20million.

Fire

With United set to feel the financial squeeze as much as anybody, it is highly unlikely that a £20m move for Costa would be sanctioned in addition to a £30m deal for 24-year-old Tevez.

That, of course, is the astonishing amount United will have to pay to MSI, the company that owns Tevez's registration.

United are likely to hang fire over Tevez until they see how the chase for Costa pans out and, of course, until they see if Cristiano Ronaldo reignites his desire to move to Real Madrid.

But United are assembling a strong Brazilian contingent and Costa would be joining compatriots Anderson, Rodrigo Possebon and the Da Silva twins, Rafael and Fabio.

While Tevez's future is unclear, Gary Neville and Ben Foster are to be offered new deals.

The injury-plagued England internationals have spent the best part of THREE YEARS between them on the sidelines in recent seasons.

But both players, whose deals expire next summer, will open talks in the next few weeks.

Deal

United captain Neville, 33, has proved he is now back to his best after his prolonged ankle problems which kept him out of action for 18 months.

He signed a four-year extension to his deal in 2004 and United have a policy of not offering long deals to players above the age of 30.

He is expected to follow the lead set recently by Paul Scholes by signing a rolling one-year agreement - along with winger Ryan Giggs, who we recently revealed was in talks. Darren Fletcher also signed a deal to keep him at United until 2012.

Until this season, Neville had hardly played since injuring his ankle against Bolton in March 2007 and has not added to his 85 caps in that time.

But his role this season has convinced Fergie he is worth a contract extension. He made his first league appearance in 18 months against Chelsea last month.

He has also not given up on an international return following the recent omission of Manchester City right-back Micah Richards from Fabio Capello's squad.

Foster, 25, is currently on the treatment table again after twisting an ankle at the start of last month.

But the keeper will be rewarded with a contract extension until 2012 and improved pay terms of around £40,000 a week.

Your comments

This article has 24 comments

i wish tevez to stay in manchester united club

By nazrana. Posted February 21 2009 at 7:59 PM.

tevez is good player that's why united should transfor him.

By nirdosh. Posted December 6 2008 at 10:54 AM.

I see no reason for man utd pursueing any player at this moment bcos we have all we need in our team, Man utd should seal a permanent deal fos Tevez, he's a world class. We don't need any striker, midfielder or defender at all. We have more than enough of them. GET TEVEV PERMANENT DEAL

By Israel. Posted October 19 2008 at 11:04 AM.

And it happens again. This damn old fella so called great manager Furguson is after our kids again... Damn *******, in England the only way you can have a good team is buying out all the best players around the world, because if they depend on their players... we saw the result last Eurocup.

We can say they have good players only because of something that has nothing to do with football, which is the economical situation of the country...

By Matheus. Posted October 18 2008 at 10:15 PM.

Douglas Costa is the future best player in the world.... keep your hands off of him..let him make the gremio's fans happy!!

By gremiooo!!!!. Posted October 13 2008 at 11:10 PM.

I think Manchester has to bring this kid to headlines, because the community has a great history as the basis Roanldinho (Milan), Anderson (Man Utd), Lucas (Liverpool) and Carlos Eduardo (Hoffennheim).

By Leonardo Antunes. Posted October 13 2008 at 10:02 PM.

Would be great to see the next FIFA's Club World Cup

Gremio, with Costa x Manchester, with Anderson.

Is Manchester United a great Gremio's fan??

By Guilherme Camardelli. Posted October 13 2008 at 10:06 PM.

Keep your hands off of our player!!! Come back in two years with twice of this amount!!! Gremio - 105 years of glories!!

By Lucas Gremista. Posted October 13 2008 at 9:16 PM.

Forget about Douglas Costa. Tevez is much better. Not buying him, you'll leave the wonderkid with us, lol. Meanwhile, in 2 years my Grêmio will receive double for him.

By Marcel. Posted October 13 2008 at 8:47 PM.

Let the boy here! Douglas Costa is maybe a future genius, but he played just 2 matches as a professional, scoring 1 goal. Keep your pounds away from Gremio, at least until Gremio win his 3rd Copa Libertadores, next year.

By Luiz Valim. Posted October 13 2008 at 6:53 PM.

Douglas Costa is a great player.Saw him playing at grêmio.Sure if Manchester is going to help is very.The future best player in the world.

By Bryan. Posted October 13 2008 at 5:48 PM.

i would prefer tevez to that of younger kid costa ,this are the young player you here of today and in the next two years they'er off thier pace but tevez have proved that he his a world class player ,more so, he has adapted/ suited to united kind of p-lay .

By Tunde. Posted October 13 2008 at 5:41 PM.

You guys should be happy. This kiddo pwns! Hail Grêmio!

By Ronald. Posted October 13 2008 at 5:24 PM.

forget about this costa kid how many times do you hear of these players who will one day be the best in the world and then are never heard of again pay the 30mil for tevez hes proved what he can do already id ather get rid of ronaldo

By stephen kenny. Posted October 12 2008 at 9:59 PM.

Look forward to seeing both CARLOS TEVEZ and DOUGLAS COSTA sign contracts with Manchester United. man hity Dreamers

By Carl Warmington. Posted October 12 2008 at 6:38 PM.

city fans are deluded, if they think tevez would even consider a team which hasnt won anything for over 30 years, he left the hammers because he wanted to play for a top club, city will never be that

By paul wiggin. Posted October 12 2008 at 3:55 PM.

Oh, and you are quite right about not as flush as City.

If you check on Forbes you will find that Glazer is worth US Dollars 2.5 billion (October 2008), and also owns outright Tampa Bay Buccaneers (US Dollars 1.1 billion).

Sheikh Nayim is worth POUNDS 585 Billion, give or take ten billion.

A slight difference in assets!!

By ian. Posted October 12 2008 at 3:13 PM.

If you kept in touch with football you would know that United are not flush with cash.

Currently they are in debt to the banks to the tune of 700 million pounds and counting. To service that debt costs 81 million pounds this year alone. In five years time they need to start paying off the capital of that 700 million.

Whilst they are currently valued at 900 million+ they are still solvent. But if they should drop out of the top four and the Champions league they will not earn the funds to keep them in that position.

Watch Mr Glazer drop them then.

The reporter is probably right. Just think for a second. If United were flush with cash, why have they not paid for Tevez already???

By ian. Posted October 12 2008 at 3:10 PM.

Absolutely rubbish. What may be happening is United waiting to find out, how much they can lower the pricetag on Tevez. £30 mill. is too much - given his "owners" possibilities to go elsewhere just now. Of course, nowadays they'll have City. But I doubt very much that Carlos would go there.

By Per. Posted October 12 2008 at 2:38 PM.

City and Tevez? Don't think so/ MSi are sports investment vehicle, they engineer big money moves e.g. tevez to brasil and then to west ham after then to mufc. tevez is at home. he is not going anywhere.

if msi can get douglas da costa as well, then united really are loving it. like the tevez deal, 10m for a 2 year loan after which 5m payments annually until the 20/30m has been paid in full. that's why ferguson said a while ago now "man united are delighted by the way the tevez deal has been done". Man United have a good credit history and are flush with cash [not as much cash as city admittedly].

but tevez is united personified and he doesn't want to go anywhere., his family are happy and safe and he helped us win the league last year with critical goals.. so SCREEWWWWW YOUUU!!!

By Ux. Posted October 12 2008 at 2:21 PM.

Tevez is going to City.It's the worst-kept secret in Manchester.united can't afford him and Kia has been talking to them for two months.

By Cantona's downturned collar. Posted October 12 2008 at 11:16 AM.

United have a policy of not offering long deals to players above the age of 30.............lol I wonder who they copied that from!!!!

By Susie. Posted October 12 2008 at 10:30 AM.

man united would me mad to get rid of tevez as he is one of there best players most game he is the only one that puts in 100 and 10 percent in every match

By andrew weekes . Posted October 12 2008 at 11:02 AM.

united would be mad to get rid of tevez get shut of ronaldo instead

By lenny. Posted October 12 2008 at 9:09 AM.

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