We won't be held to ransom |
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"Roque fee rockets: Hughes fears price hikes for City as Blackburn deliver their Cruz missile"
The
problems facing Manchester City in the January transfer window became
clear last night when it emerged that Blackburn have pushed their
asking price for Roque Santa Cruz up towards the £20 million mark.
Both
City manager Mark Hughes and executive chairman Garry Cook have spoken
in the last three days of selling clubs trying to place a 'Manchester
City premium' on top of player valuation in a bid to extract as much
money as possible from the club now generally accepted to be the
richest in the world.
The case of Blackburn's Paraguay striker Santa Cruz would appear to represent the perfect example.
City
had bids of £12m and £14m turned down for the 27-year-old after Hughes
arrived at the club last summer and have made his signing a priority
for January after being encouraged by the player's desperation to move
to the City of Manchester Stadium.
However, it is understood that
Blackburn have upped the asking price towards £20m and it is clear that
City's resolve not to pay over the odds for players will be tested in
the new year.
That is especially true as they have now lost
striker Benjani Mwaruwari for several weeks. He picked up a hamstring
injury against Everton at the weekend and Hughes admitted: 'We're a bit
threadbare.'
The manager has told Cook that he must have Santa
Cruz and Portsmouth midfielder Lassana Diarra as he looks to reverse
City's slide towards the relegation zone.
But Cook said last
night: 'We have a very clear process and strategy by which we're
talking to clubs and players. There is definitely a Manchester City
effect out there. Unfortunately, that's affecting our ability to have
normal business discussions.
'I have a responsibility to the
owners but I also have a responsibility to the fans and I do not feel
we should be overpaying. We may go through this next window and if Mark
doesn't feel it's right, or if we feel that we're being pushed into
places that we don't want to be, then we might not go down that route.'
The
City board are pragmatic enough to realise that they may have to pay
over the odds to secure the players they really need in January.
However, it is clear that club owner Sheik Mansour is not prepared to
throw money at deals irresponsibly.
City have competition for
Diarra from Real Madrid but are confident they can pay better wages -
and Cook was bullish yesterday when asked about the club's league
position of 17th.
He said: 'I'm really pleased with how things
are going. I don't think we could be much happier. We have gone through
an awful lot of change, which is often difficult to manage. In the last
60-90 days, to go through the change of ownership and from one
personality to a completely new one is a big challenge.'
With City taking just five points from the last 24 in the League, there has been inevitable debate about Hughes's position.
Cook
was understandably reluctant to place further pressure on his manager
by setting targets for the second half of the season. But he said:
'Mark and I have always said top 10 and ideally top six is what we are
aiming for in the very short term.
'In the back half of the year
we believe there is going to be much improvement. Mark's plans and the
way he is running the team are going to build and change and confidence
will start to build. Once we get through the first window, when Mark's
impact will be able to advance the future of the club, things will
start to settle down.'
With striker Jo struggling to find his
feet after effectively being bought by previous owner Thaksin
Shinawatra, Cook has made it clear Hughes will choose the players from
now on.
'The process is that he comes to me, we agree on the
principles, we then have a weekly review with our owners by conference
call and that's the way we work,' said Cook.
doesn't talk about just buying the fantasy league XI, it's about
balancing homegrown talent with young talent breaking into the
international scene and complementing that with some great stars that
the fans, who are spending their hardearned money, want to see.'
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