what the papers say

Big names linked as window starts to close

The Times

"Chelsea snubbed Manchester City bid for John Terry"

Manchester
City will take their spending in the January transfer window past the
£40 million mark this weekend by acquiring Shay Given from Newcastle
United, but it emerged last night that they failed with perhaps the
most audacious bid of all — an attempt to recruit John Terry from
Chelsea.

The Times has learnt that Garry Cook, the City
executive chairman, spoke to Peter Kenyon, the Chelsea chief executive,
this month to make a firm inquiry about Terry’s availability. As with
the pursuit of Kaká, who chose to stay at AC Milan, City planned to
make an offer that neither club nor player could refuse, but, despite
questions over Roman Abramovich’s long-term financial commitment to the
West London club, Kenyon dismissed the inquiry out of hand, saying that
the England captain is not for sale at any price.

Terry is
aware of the approach from City — and that Sheikh Mansour, the
Manchester club’s owner, would have been willing to increase his
£135,000-a-week wage to make him by far the best-paid player in British
football — but he was pleased to hear of Chelsea’s decision to declare
him off limits.

Having enjoyed leading Chelsea throughout the
Abramovich era, the centre back is understood to have little appetite
for taking on a similar challenge at City at the age of 28 and is eager
to spend the rest of his career at Stamford Bridge, where he is driven
by the desire to win the Champions League after the bitter memory of
defeat by Manchester United in last season’s final.

Terry is
the latest name on a list of high-profile targets that Mark Hughes, the
City manager, identified, having been encouraged by Sheikh Mansour to
try to sign the best players in each position. The bid to sign Kaká was
well documented — and came closer to fruition, according to Cook, than
many are willing to accept — while there were also bids for Gianluigi
Buffon, the Juventus goalkeeper, Yaya Touré, the Barcelona midfield
player, Lassana Diarra, who joined Real Madrid from Portsmouth, and
David Silva and David Villa, the Valencia pair. City were staggered
when Valencia told them that the price for a combined deal for Silva
and Villa would be £135 million.

City have also been frustrated
in bids for Kolo Touré, the Arsenal centre half, Joleon Lescott, the
Everton defender, and Roque Santa Cruz, the Blackburn Rovers forward,
any of whom could be the subject of a renewed bid before the transfer
closes on Monday evening.

One signing close to completion,
however, is that of Given, the Newcastle goalkeeper, who was given
permission yesterday to begin discussing personal terms with City even
though a transfer fee has yet to be agreed. The fee is likely to be in
the region of £7 million, with Given eager to become City’s fourth
signing of the month after deals for Wayne Bridge, Nigel de Jong and
Bellamy.

“The situation with Newcastle is that we put a bid in
for Shay Given,” Hughes said yesterday. “I’ve said before that I’m
looking to bring in an experienced goalkeeper. We also put in an
improved bid for Roque Santa Cruz, which was rejected. We now have to
make a decision on that. We have time if we decide to do that. No other
bids are on the table.”

City have encountered criticism from
Steve Bruce, the Wigan Athletic manager, over their alleged conduct in
the deal that took Wilson Palacios to Tottenham Hotspur. Bruce claimed
that City had acted in collusion with Tottenham over Palacios so that
the North London club would leave the way clear for City to sign Craig
Bellamy from West Ham United.

Hughes played alongside Bruce for
Manchester United, but there is no love lost between the two. “I’m not
sure what he’s talking about,” Hughes said. “I think Steve himself said
we were interested. We didn’t publicise that. That was down to him. He
was a good team-mate. We’ve moved on.”

Daily Mail

"EXCLUSIVE: Given transfer to City looks certain after keeper fails to show up for training"

Republic
of Ireland goalkeeper Shay Given looks certain to join Manchester City
in the next 24 hours after failing to show for training this morning.

Given has put in a transfer request and wants to seal a £8 million switch to Eastlands before Monday's transfer window shuts.

The
former Celtic and Blackburn keeper who has been at St James Park for 11
years is believed to be in the north west sorting personal terms and
his medical.