Argentine striker Carlos Tevez wants £250,000 a week for West Ham return

Carlos Tevez has demanded £250,000 a week to rejoin Premier League side West Ham United from Boca Juniors.

The former Hammer joined West Ham in 2006 along with Javier Mascherano from Brazilian club Corinthians, before moving to Manchester United on a two-year loan deal after just one season.

He won back-to-back league titles and was a Champions League winner before joining crosstown rivals Manchester City where he won a third league title in the 2011-12 season.

Tevez went on to ply his trade in the Serie A with Juventus in 2013, and won consecutive league titles, and then opting to rejoin his boyhood club Boca.

Despite the fact that Tevez was going into the twilight of his career, West Ham co-owner David Sullivan confirmed to the Daily Mail that the club had made an offer to bring him back to the Premier League for £150,000 a week — plus bonuses — which would have made him the highest-paid player at the club.

“All this business, ‘I love West Ham’, well it’s ‘I love West Ham if they give me £250,000 a week’,” Sullivan told the Daily Mail.

“So how much love is that for West Ham? I actually offered him £150,000 a week to come back plus bonuses.

“I thought that was an incredible offer for someone who loves West Ham. And it was a huge gamble for us because he’s 33 now and hasn’t done it in South America.

“We tried to get Tevez but he wanted £250,000 a week — and is he past his best? He hasn’t set the world alight in South America.

“In his last year at Juventus he was great. But £250,000 a week? He’ll probably stay where he is now, but he doesn’t pay a lot of tax down there.

“It wasn’t a publicity stunt, I saw him being our number one striker. I was hoping he would reproduce what he did at Juventus a year ago. He was a fantastic player.

“But where do you draw the line with what you are prepared to pay?”

Tevez is currently preparing to face Independiente del Valle in the first leg of their Copa Libertadores semifinal and with Gold making it clear that West Ham won’t match his demands, it remains to be seen if the Argentine forward will return to play for the English side when they kick off their 2016-17 campaign at the Olympic Stadium.