Sir Alex Ferguson has not been shy to engage in a war of words with his city rivals this weekend, and on Sunday he turned it up a notch by claiming Emmanuel Adebayor was offered to both United and Chelsea before he put pen to paper on a deal at Eastlands.

GettyImagesAdebayor: Did he really want to be here?

It is claimed that either Adebayor or his agents made a "desperate" bid to engineer a move to a top four club before committing to Mark Hughes' side. It confirms stories in the press at the time which did state the Red Devils had been approached and invited to make an offer.

There was a delay in Togo international Adebayor penning his City deal, and Sir Alex said: "When someone offers you that kind of money, it is a big attraction. That is the reason they have gone there.

"At the last minute, from what I can gather, either Emmanuel Adebayor or his agent phoned us after they had agreed a deal with City and then did the same with Chelsea. He was desperate to get to either Chelsea or us."

It comes less than 24 hours after Sir Alex slammed City as "arrogant" for putting up a poster in the city centre proclaiming, "Carlos Tevez, Welcome to Manchester". It was produced to underline the fact that City play in the borough of Manchester while United actually play in Trafford. No one has claimed responsibility for the poster, however.

"It's City isn't it?" said Ferguson. "They are a small club with a small mentality. All they can talk about is Manchester United; they can't get away from it.

"They think taking Carlos Tevez away from Manchester United is a triumph. It is poor stuff."

City may have irritated Ferguson but he does not see them as a title threat just yet.

Sir Alex also had a little dig at Rafael Benitez over his arm-crossing celebration against Blackburn Rovers during the run-in last term, which was a signal the game was over immediately after the Reds had scored. For Ferguson, that in itself was a sign of guilt.

"There was no doubt he was doing that," said Ferguson. "Liverpool were too quick to come out and respond that he was signalling they should take a free-kick a different way."