Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson has revealed his fury at Tottenham Hotspur signing former Reds defender Ezekiel Fryers.
The 20-year-old was out of contract at United and looked set to join Spurs last summer but the two sides failed to agree a compensation amount, United reportedly wanting £6m for the England youth international.
The defender left Old Trafford for Standard Liege and made the move to White Hart Lane as soon as the January transfer window opened, in a reported £3m deal.
The Reds boss is demanding authorities look into the matter as his side lost out on a sizeable fee for the left-back, although he accepts Spurs were not breaking any rules.
Speaking to MUTV, Ferguson said: "To me, I think it's a blatant manipulation of the rules.
"Tottenham did nothing wrong as he went to Standard Liege. They tried to buy him off us and we'd been looking for a certain figure. They wouldn't pay it but asked if they could take him down there on trial and, at that time, he was out of contract in June anyway.
"So he went down on trial and he went to Portugal with them. They then said they weren't prepared to pay the money and, all of a sudden, he signed for Standard Liege.
"We knew immediately and suspected that he would return to Tottenham in January and that's happened. It's a [Spurs chairman] Daniel Levy deal. You know, it's his fingerprints all over it. It's the kind of thing we expected he was going to do."
Tottenham have defended the deal they agreed with Fryers, a club spokesman said: "Zeki Fryers was out of contract in the summer. We had looked in to the possibility of signing the player but were unable to agree a deal on the terms Manchester United were asking.
"Zeki chose to go to Standard Liege, who paid compensation to Manchester United. Zeki enjoyed his time at Standard. However, when Standard sacked their manager in November Zeki wasn't part of the new manager's plans, which he accepts and understands happens in football.
"Unfortunately, a combination of this, and the fact that he had become homesick meant he wanted to return to England and his representatives made contact with clubs in England. This afforded us a second opportunity to sign the player and as per FIFA's solidarity contribution mechanism, Manchester United will receive five per cent of the transfer fee we have paid."
what do you think?
snape
this is an outrage they should take five league points off spurs and give them to united and this should stop things like this happening again.
david maxwell
take it your a man utd fan
Kelly Curtis
Whisky nose got a bloody nose.ha ha
Robert Smith
What a moaning old git
paddyj
Why does Mr Fergusen think he has some god given right to DEMAND everything, he does backhanded, sly things, remember the time he went to court to stop a player of his signing for Liverpool, saying he would not sell to any of the big clubs, then he sells another to Arsenal, with a smug grin on his face. He also finds it ok to purchase top players from other big premier league clubs, why do teams let their players go to him? Sheringham, Berbatov, Van Persie? why didn't they stop their players going under the same rules he used? Cant stand the man, he is a bad role model for the game.
Robert Mark Ferry
How many times has fergie tapped up a player from other teams so they leave for next to nothin. Does Ferguson think the game revolves around him and man it'd. He may have the fa wrapped round his finger, but he doesn't like the fact he hasn't got FIFA wrapped round his finger too.
Ron Adler
........and this from a knight of the realm! Not only does he intimidate referees but he takes exception to anything he's not doing himself. Get over it Fergie and move on!!
Martin Massey
I bet your the same in your sad life
Paul Gilbert
Believe all these critics of SAF are closet Man Utd fans - they only comment on ManU articles but not their own clubs -lol
t.bulgin
9:30pm on 4/1/2013
Tough luck fergie. Spurs only done what you would do. Suck it up.