Marca reports City bid for Milito

Spanish sport daily Marca has reported today that City have made a €12.5million (£10m) bid for Diego Milito.

Whilst that piece of information may well have been gleaned from the British press, there is enough within the article to suggest that a move is a real possibility.

I've linked to the original (in Spanish), but stick by my policy of quoting neither my very approximate translation nor the gibberish you get from Yahoo Babel Fish translator. But this seems to be the main points.

• Real Zaragoza are desperate to sell. The manager Marcelino wants to have at least four more signings by the close of the transfer window.

• They will have to get rid of some forwards. As well as Milito, they have Ricardo Oliveira, Sergio Garcia, Braulio and Ewerthon. And they have just signed Arizmendi from Valencia. These players are competing for two or three positions. So Milito and Sergio Garcia are likely to be sold.

• City's bid comes close to their estimation of €15million (£12m). Zaragoza's biggest shareholder, Agapito Iglesias, promised Milito that he would be sold this summer. And they will not be able to afford his wages next year: €3million/year, or roughly £46,000/week.

I simply have no idea whether this is new information Marca have got, or whether it's been cobbled together from what they've read in the English press about a £10m bid and what they already knew about the situation at Zaragoza. It is interesting to contrast it with a piece in Diario AS six weeks ago. This stated that City were interested, but would have to offer €18m (£14.4m) to buy Milito. A bid of €12m (£9.6m) was already in (from Napoli), which was insufficient.