Other day...another big money rumour |
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'Manchester City told David Villa will cost them £120million'
Manchester
City are reeling after Spanish giants Valencia quoted them an amazing
world record £120million fee for top target David Villa.
City
supremo Garry Cook brought in top officials and agents to hammer out a
deal - and the Arab-backed money men were willing to shatter the
British transfer record with a £40m-plus bid. But City, who gave the
Villa and Valencia negotiators VIP treatment, were rocked when the fee
was revealed. And the Spanish side are not willing to drop the price.
Cook
and boss Mark Hughes are bitterly disappointed that the move now looks
doomed. They are finding it almost impossible to land their targets
despite their new-found wealth. Valencia have financial problems but
refused to go lower than £120m.
Villa is interested in the move
but is powerless to make the transfer happen. He has been Hughes's top
target since he topped the scoring charts at Euro 2008 - and since City
came into their Abu Dhabi billions. City insiders reveal they have now
virtually given up the chase.
The Independent look back at last night's UEFA Cup tie...
'City's stuttering progress jarred by Robinho injury'
Racing Santander 3 Manchester City 1
Robinho
is doubtful for Manchester City's Premier League game against West
Bromwich Albion on Sunday after the Brazilian striker suffered a
recurrence of an ankle injury in last night's Uefa Cup defeat by Racing
Santander. Robinho made a surprise start for City but played only 45
minutes as he was struggling with the problem.
"Robinho was not
able to continue so he is a big doubt for the weekend," said Mark
Hughes, City's manager. "It it his ankle again. We are staying here
overnight so we will check everyone in the morning. In the last three
games he has been struggling with an injury and that was a concern to
him tonight."
Even though City's campaign in the group stages
ended in disappointment, they still advance to the knockout stages in
top spot. That means they will face a third-placed side in one of the
other groups when the draw for the last 32 is made today.
Goals
from Jonathan Pereira and Oscar Serrano put Santander in the driving
seat before half-time. Juan Valera extended their lead before Felipe
Caicedo scored a late consolation goal for City after stepping off the
bench.
Hughes, who made wholesale changes to his side, said:
"Ideally we would have preferred to have won the game but credit to
Racing, they are a good team. Their motivation was to try and get into
the next round. We had already qualified so that might have taken a
little bit of edge out of our game. We made changes as we wanted to
give the likes of Shaun Wright-Phillips, Stephen Ireland and Vincent
Kompany a little bit of a rest. I think that was important given the
number of games coming up. They are key players for us.
"In the
second half we just needed to steady ourselves and we did that. We have
to take the positives out of the game. We have topped the group and
that was the order of the day. We are grateful for that."
Racing
Santander: Coltorti, Valera, Garay, Cesar Navas, Marcano, Munitis,
Colsa (Lacen, 77), Luccin, Oscar Serrano, Tchite, Jonathan Pereira
(Juanjo, 83). Substitutes not used: Mario, Goncalves, Pinillos,
Christian, Bedia.
Manchester City: Schmeichel, Zabaleta,
Richards, Ben-Haim, Garrido, Hamann, Fernandes, Vassell, Elano
(Kompany, 60), Robinho (Ireland, h-t), Evans (Caicedo, 75). Substitutes
not used: Hart, Onuoha, Ball, Logan.
Referee: S Gumienny (Belgium).
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