In the 2006/07 season, West Ham were facing the drop.

In the opening 29 games of the season, they had won just five games; against Charlton Athletic, Blackburn Rovers, Arsenal, Sheffield United, and, shockingly, Manchester United.

With nine games of the season remaining, they desperately needed a hero.

Step forward one Carlos Tevez; now a bona fide Premier League legend, thanks to his time at Manchester United and Manchester City.

But when Tevez was finally transferred - it took a while, owing to third-party ownership and the signing of Javier Mascherano at the same time - he didn’t settle straight away into life in Upton Park.

Because of events that would take place later in the season, Sheffield United became the most vocal and aggrieved critics of the Premier League’s decision to allow West Ham to sign the Argentinian duo in the first place.

Both were clearly two of world football’s brightest young talents at the time, and both were signed in reasonably suspicious circumstances. But it was during a game against the Bramall Lane side in November - one of the side’s few pre-Christmas victories - which proved to be controversial long before relegation even entered into the mind.

After being substituted, Tevez stormed off, throwing a tantrum and leaving the ground. He received a fine from his manager and his teammates, but although the Hammers won the game on the day, you get the feeling that if Sheffield United ended the season incensed that West Ham had somehow cheated them out of their Premier League status, they were more than likely laughing at the mess the East London club had managed to get themselves into on that day in November.

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They were in an even bigger mess in March when, after three successive wins - the club’s first back-to-back victories since late October and early November - Sheffield United hosted West Ham at Bramall Lane and won 3-0. A 4-1 defeat to Chelsea followed, and the Irons looked to be heading for the drop. Once again, the Blades faced West Ham and surely weren’t overly concerned about the Irons’ transfer dealings when they were celebrating victory and possible survival.

It was only on the last day of the season when West Ham managed to escape. A Tevez-inspired side won three more games on the spin to put their survival in their own hands, but it was perhaps the most fearsome Premier League trip that awaited them - an away fixture at Old Trafford.

That was the game which really announced to English football that Tevez was more than just a good player - he was a talismanic player and a man for the big occasion. A man who could take on the biggest and the best and win - something that, for such a small, but hard-working player was the backbone to his game.

That graft is actually shown in the goal he scored to win the game for West Ham that day - his final appearance in a Hammers shirt.

After Tevez had brought the ball down on his chest and held off challenges from two Manchester United players, the Argentine played a quick one-two with his strike partner Bobby Zamora. But it was Tevez’s quick-wittedness and his low-centre of gravity that made the goal - he was then able to react to a deflection off the final United defender before slotting an impressively cool finish below the onrushing Edwin Van der Sar.

It was a goal that launched a thousand protests, from Sheffield United, who were eventually relegated after defeat to Wigan - and would have been down even if Tevez hadn’t scored - but from others around the footballing world, too.

Just how would West Ham United have managed to persuade two promising Argentinian talents to join their club if it weren’t for the fact that their representatives in a murky world of third-party ownership, Kia Joorabchian, had wanted to buy the East Londoners?

Right now, the Irons are unlikely to care.