MANCHESTER, England (AP):

Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson says Carlos Tevez ignored his phone calls and text messages as he tried to persuade the Argentina striker to stay at the club.

Ferguson said yesterday that he made repeated attempts to keep Tevez before his two-year loan deal expired last month.

"I half-expected Carlos Tevez would be going a long time back," Ferguson said in his first public comments since Tevez rejected United last month. "I think he maybe did a deal around January because I spoke to him and gave him an offer on the night we played Inter Milan (in March) and he never came back to me.

"I phoned him on holiday and he never got back to me and I texted him twice and he never got back to me then either, so obviously he had made his mind up a long time ago. He was a good player and did well for us. But he obviously assessed the situation and wanted to go somewhere else."

The Premier League champions were willing to pay 25.5 million pounds ($41 million) to sign Tevez to a permanent deal, but he now looks set to join wealthier crosstown rivals Manchester City.