Patrick Vieira's suggestion that Paul Scholes' return is a sign of 'weakness' has been ridiculed by Sir Alex Ferguson, who says Man City's own 'desperation' was evident in the recall of Carlos Tevez.
Earlier this week, former City midfielder Patrick Vieira gave an exclusive interview to the Daily Telegraph in which he said the decision to bring Paul Scholes out of retirement showed United's talent pool had run dry.
“Paul Scholes is a player that I really love and admire. But for him to come back just shows a little bit of weakness in United, because they had to bring a player back who was 37," said Vieira.
“I think it shows that, in the next few years, it will be really difficult for United to cope with other teams because, with all the respect I have for Scholes, him coming back shows that they don’t have talent in there to replace him."
Unsurprisingly, Ferguson had a different view, and warned City they were playing a dangerous game by attempting to unsettle their rivals.
"If it's desperation bringing the best midfielder in Britain back for the last 20 years then I think we can accept that," said Ferguson. "I think he (Vieira) was programmed for that. Roberto had a wee dig a couple of weeks back. We're all going to play our hand that way. There will be plenty of ammunition for that.
"If you talk about desperation, they played a player the other night (Tevez) who refused to go on the pitch, the manager said he'd never play again and he takes a five-month holiday in Argentina. What is that? Could that come under the description of desperation?"