'Shut your trap, keep quiet' - inside Carlos Tevez's explosive feud with Gary Neville after shock Manchester United exit

Argentinian forward Carlos Tevez left Man United in controversial circumstances back in 2009, heading to Manchester City and taunting his former teammate after a derby-day goal.

Few have dared to cross the divide between Manchester United and Manchester City, and no one has done so as controversially as Carlos Tevez.

Post-war only 14 have donned both red and blue shirts and even fewer have gone straight from one side to the other. Tevez decided to make his move north through the city when the 'noisy neighbours' were making more noise than ever, with United receiving nothing.

The Argentinian had been a controversial figure as soon as he arrived in England, initially signing for West Ham United in a breach of the Premier League's third-party ownership rules, after it was realised that he was part-owned by businessman Kia Joorabchian's Media Sports Investment (MSI) company.

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After keeping the Hammers up with a final-day goal against United, Tevez made the move to Old Trafford in the summer of 2007. Again, his move was not without drama and after issuing West Ham with a High Court Write, MSI paid £2million and the striker joined on a two-year loan.

Tevez's impact at United was instant, the energetic forward scoring five goals by the end of November and forming an electric attacking unit alongside Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo. It was around that time that Sir Alex Ferguson insisted a fee was already in place to make the move permanent - but as ever, things didn't go so smoothly.

United won the Premier League and Champions League double in Tevez's first season, with the striker netting an impressive 19 goals. But in the summer of 2008, Ferguson sanctioned the £30million purchase of Dimitar Berbatov from Tottenham.

Tevez saw his minutes dwindle and as United planned to make the move permanent, he was preparing his exit. He eventually crossed the untouched path, heading north from Old Trafford to the Etihad.

Calendars in Manchester are always marked for derby-day but those of a United persuasion experienced another level, knowing it would see their former striker in blue. Ferguson's side came away the victors in a dramatic league clash that September, Michael Owen's added-time winner making it 4-3.

But in the League Cup clash the following January, City would get the 2-1 win and Tevez the spoils, scoring both goals. It was his first, a first-half penalty, that caused a stir as he seemed to aim his celebrations at Gary Neville.

The United right-back had recently had his say on Tevez's exit when writing for the Times of Malta. He said that Ferguson 'knows exactly what he's doing and understands when a player's time is up' and also suggested his side did right not to match the Argentinian's demands.

"My celebration was directed at Gary Neville," Tevez admitted in an explosive interview with ESPN Argentina. "He acted like a complete boot-licker when he said I wasn't worth £25m, just to suck up to the manager. I don't know what the hell that idiot is talking about me for. I never said anything about him.

"I will never show a lack of respect towards anyone. Just as I was running off to celebrate the penalty I had scored, I came across Gary and I said to myself: 'Shut your trap, keep quiet.' I didn't go overboard in my celebration and it was directed at Gary, not at Ferguson and not at the fans.

"I think he did the wrong thing because I was his teammate and I never said anything bad about him. He was ­saying that Ferguson was right when he said that I wasn't worth £25m, when he was saying this and that... I always respected Neville."

Neville, for his part, gave Tevez the middle finger in response and both were cautioned by the Football Association for their actions. And the Argentinian was out for revenge again after making it 2-0, this time taking aim at United's directors.

"For the second goal I ran to the touchline and cupped my ears and looked up to the part of the ground where the United directors were sitting, and also to Ferguson in the dugout, because I wanted them to know this was my response to them saying I was not worth the money," he added.

"People from United have been speaking about me publicly and criticising me but I wanted to do my talking on the pitch because that was the best way of responding to all these people, such as Neville, who were saying United were right to let me go."

Tevez's City career was never short of controversy, and the Argentinian was put on gardening leave for almost four months after alledgedly refusing to come off the bench during a Champions League defeat against Bayern Munich. He also received widespread condemnation for holding up a sign that said 'R.I.P Fergie' after winning the Premier League - a nod to the former United manager's claim that his side would never be underdogs in Manchester during his lifetime.

In 2020, Neville reflected on the forward's exit from United and it seems that the ill-feeling between two hasn't fully faded.

"What annoyed me about Tevez was he downed tools in his second season, that and sitting on the treatment bench, starting coming out late for training, started messing around, he was playing the club," Neville told Sky Sports. "I couldn’t stand that. Particularly as I was at the time, which was a ferocious Manchester United person inside, never thought about anything else in my life, only United every single day.

"And the idea that someone would come into that changing room and not be at their best. I understood that he had circumstances but his people were in his ear all of the time, he was so led by his people.

"It was always going to come to an end like it did. I felt disappointed as a professional that he didn’t act the right way. I didn’t have a problem with players leaving the club like David Beckham left the club, Cristiano Ronaldo left the club, Ruud van Nistelrooy left the club, great, great players.

"But there was a way to leave the club and there was a way to behave when you were there. So the problem I had with Tevez wasn’t that he went to play for Manchester City – which in itself is a problem for me – that wasn’t the main issue, it was the way in which it played out in the last few months. I didn’t like it."