The war of posters between Manchester City and United has now erupted into a war of words between the clubs two managers.

City began the fracas with a petty poster that gloated in the red face of Ferguson after Carlos Tevez chose to become another City millionaire mercenary rather than rot in Berbatov’s slothlike shadow on United’s bench.

The amazingly dull attempt at humour featuring the slogan ‘Welcome to Manchester’ and Tevez’s less than welcoming face was immediately attacked by United vandals who attempted to daub it in red paint.

Then we were treated to the photoshop retaliation from seething United fans who came up with a number of variations on the original poster. Most of the United humour centred on the lack of trophies at the Eastlands and the fact that despite the money theres still going to be no silverware at the end of this season.

This didn’t seem to bother the City fans who fired back with their own internet equaliser a photshopped Michael Owen on crutches with the words ‘Welcome to Stretford’ scrawled underneath. This showed the psychology of the City fans perfectly. They know they will probably win nothing and remain the weaker side in the City but they are just having so much damn fun watching United suffer in the transfer market whilst they dominate.

The attack on Owen’s fragile body and ego prompted an angry Fergie to intervene with a trademark rant:

“City are a small club with a small mentality. Arrogance comes in lots of different ways. They have had a problem ever since I came here. They think taking Tevez away from United is a triumph. It’s poor stuff.”

Mark Hughes took a job done approach after succesfully getting under the ageing scots prickily skin and revealed the motive behind the attack:

“The poster is in a similar vein to the banner at Old Trafford which counts the time span [33 years] since City’s last trophy. We are glad it’s got so many people talking.”

How this spat will be viewed at the end of the season is anyones guess. Will it be a footnote in the story of the season or will it be the moment City overplayed their hand or Ferguson cracked?