what the papers say

Boss prepared to wait for Santa

There's more fall-out from the transfer window, with claims that we were after Nicklas Bendtner and Schalke's Kevin Kuranyi.

The Guardian

"Hughes admits size matters as City crave Santa Cruz presence"

Mark
Hughes has spoken of his frustration over Manchester City's inability
to prise Roque Santa Cruz away from Blackburn Rovers. Hughes intends to
go back to his former club at the end of the season and trigger an £18m
release clause in Santa Cruz's contract, but the City manager admitted
his side are badly lacking a target man and, privately, he considers it
a bigger disappointment than the failed £91m bid for Kaka.

"We've
got a lot of technically gifted players but not many players of great
[physical] stature," said Hughes. "Our interest in Santa Cruz was well
known because, for all the good players we have, we sometimes lack that
physical presence [in attack]. Sometimes you need to put the ball into
the right areas in the box and things will drop for you. At the moment
we do not have that option. It is probably as a consequence of a lack
of a physical presence that has been highlighted time and time again."

Jo,
the £18m recruit from CSKA Moscow last summer, had been signed to fill
that role, but on the say-so of the club's former owner Thaksin
Shinawatra rather than Hughes, whose misgivings about the Brazilian are
clear. The 21-year-old had scored only once for City, in the 6–0
thrashing of Portsmouth last September, before ­joining Everton on loan
and Hughes's impression could be accurately gauged during a press
briefing last week in which he was asked if there had been any bids for
Jo. He deadpanned: "We don't want to sell Joe… Hart."

In the
absence of Santa Cruz, Hughes opted against selling Felipe Caicedo and
Ched Evans during the final week of the transfer window on the basis
that they could provide a more physical option to the attacking quartet
of Craig Bellamy, Robinho, Stephen Ireland and Shaun Wright-Phillips.
Celtic, ­Nottingham Forest and Cardiff City all made offers for Evans,
while Fulham wanted to take Caicedo on loan.

In total, City have
made five separate bids for Santa Cruz going back to the January
transfer window last year, when Hughes, ironically, was the manager of
Blackburn. The club ended negotiations after the latest rejection last
Friday, when they offered £18.5m plus Tal Ben Haim. Ultimately,
however, the longest-running transfer saga in English football is
likely to be resolved in City's favour, courtesy of the release clause
in Santa Cruz's contract. Blackburn will be powerless to prevent the
Paraguay ­international leaving if they receive an £18m offer although,
to City's frustration, that stipulation kicks in only at the end of the
season.

Robinho, meanwhile, has claimed he feels he can become
the world's best player with City. He explained he had concluded at
Real Madrid, his previous club, that he could not achieve that
ambition. "I think that in Manchester I can fulfil my dream of being
the best," he said.

Daily Mail

"Arshavin delay sees Man City miss out with loan bid for Arsenal's Bendtner"

Manchester City failed in a deadline-day bid to take Arsenal’s Nicklas Bendtner on loan.

City
spent most of Monday scouring the market for a tall centre forward
after they opted against forking out close to £25million for
Blackburn’s Roque Santa Cruz.

Instead, they targeted a loan for
6ft 3in Bendtner but Arsenal could not afford to let him go as they
were still unsure about Andrei Arshavin’s signing.

City were also
linked with Schalke’s Germany striker Kevin Kuranyi, who attracted
interest from Everton, Blackburn and Spurs after telling the Bundesliga
side on Friday he wanted to leave.