ALEX FERGUSON and his players might have enjoyed silencing the Besiktas crowd on Tuesday, the loudest set of fans the Manchester United manager says he has encountered in more than 50 years in the game, but the sense persists that they would take far greater pleasure from turning down the volume on Manchester City when they renew hostilities on Sunday.

“They want to show people that they are the kings of the city but they aren’t yet,” Patrice Evra said yesterday. His use of the word “yet” was curious, as if acknowledging the manner in which City’s new wealth has seen them gaining quickly on the Premier League champions. Evra, however, believes there is a still a considerable gulf.

“This is a new Manchester City,” Evra said. “They are going for the Champions League and it will be a difficult game for us because they haven’t lost yet this season. They are ambitious, they want to stay in the top four, they have bought a lot of players and they have already beaten Arsenal 4-2 so they will be going into the game with a lot of confidence. But we are confident because we are Manchester United.

“We need to show that we are Manchester United, that over the years we have won a lot more than City, and we need to make sure we do that again. We have a lot of respect for City but we are Manchester United and every time we play City we really have to show that. They want to be kings of the city. Well, we have to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

The hostilities have intensified on the back of City’s unprecedented summer spending and, most provocatively, the now-infamous ‘Welcome to Manchester’ billboard of Carlos Tevez that City erected. Along with Park Ji-sung, Evra was Tevez’s closest friend at Old Trafford and the Frenchman is acutely aware how desperate his former team-mate is to overcome a knee injury in time to play.

“We have been joking a bit on the texts,” he said. “He told me they were coming here to win. I’ll wait for the reception he gets from the United fans but I think Carlito will do a great job for Manchester City. He is a good professional and he respected the United shirt a lot. The fans loved him. I don’t know if they will boo him or clap him but I said to him, ‘If they boo you, I will boo as well’.

“I think he might make it because he is a warrior and he wants to play against us,” he added. “I was surprised he left and a little bit angry. I kept talking to him, telling him to stay. I tried to persuade him because I didn’t want to lose my friend but he made a choice and I respect the choice. He had some good reasons and I just told him ‘good luck’. It’s not about one player or two players at Manchester United. The team is more important than any one player.”

Ferguson has shrugged off Wayne Rooney’s bad-tempered reaction to being substituted in Istanbul on Wednesday night.Rooney was replaced after an hour of his side’s 1-0 victory over Besiktas after running himself into the ground as a lone forward.

Given the work he had to do for England in two internationals, and a gruelling examination at Tottenham, when he was part of a side that completed the game with only 10 men, Rooney might have been glad of the break, particularly as Manchester City go to Old Trafford on Sunday.

Instead, Rooney was severely put-out, trudging all the way to the touchline, before shaking his head and throwing his boots to the ground in disgust. “It was always part of our thoughts to bring Wayne off,” confirmed Ferguson. “He had been playing as the lone striker for an hour, which is why he was always going to come off. He is never pleased to come off. He has so much energy he wants to play all the time.”

Although the win itself was fairly routine, with Paul Scholes pouncing 13 minutes from time after Nani had seen his blistering shot saved by Hakan Arikan, there were a couple of unsavoury incidents for Ferguson to reflect on.

Police were forced to intervene to get a group of Besiktas fans away from the visitors’ dug-out, while Ferguson confirmed Jonny Evans had been targeted by a supporter carrying a laser. “It was in the first half, although thankfully the police did something about it,” said the United boss.

“They managed to get the culprit, which is good because I noticed it particularly on Jonny Evans. It seemed to be on him all the time.”

Ferguson was also alerted to a security problem behind his dug-out, although he was eager not to make an issue of that. “Someone mentioned it to me, but I never saw anything,” he said. “I do know the fans made the loudest noise I have ever heard.”