More Robinho rumours

This one is not going to fade away: The Sun and The Times both carry big Robinho stories, both suggesting that his moving to Barcelona is quite possible. First James Ducker in The Times who writes that Hughes may be willing to death if either Carles Puyol or Éric Abidal were thrown into the bargain:

Reports in Spain yesterday that City have agreed to sell Robinho to Barcelona for £33 million on a 4½-year deal are thought to be wide of the mark, but while Hughes is in no rush to offload the Brazil forward, he would countenance the player’s sale in January if it paved the way for him to move for Carles Puyol or Éric Abidal, the Barcelona defenders.

Hughes also admires Yaya Touré, the Ivory Coast and Barcelona midfield player and brother of Kolo, the City captain, but he would be unavailable for several weeks in January because of the African Cup of Nations.

Hughes' interest in Yaya Touré is no secret - although with Nigel de Jong in the form of his life I wonder if spending a lot of money on another central midfielder would be rather counter-productive. A move for one of those defenders would be a surprise, too. None of our defenders have really excelled so far this season (although some have been worse than others), but it would be a curious departure from Hughes' policy of buying only Premier League experienced players to go for Puyol or Abidal. And if we're going to buy a defensive stop-gap (Abidal is 30, Puyol is 31), they ought to be stop-gaps who will settle in instantly.

Anyway, the other new Robinho story is from Neil Custis in The Sun, who says that if Robinho doesn't get his first team spot back (he won't while Bellamy's knees stay firm, I think) then he will demand a move:

Robinho, 25, will demand a switch to Barcelona as he cannot afford to jeopardise his place in the Brazil team ahead of next year's World Cup in South Africa.

The player's representatives are already pushing for the move to the Catalan giants and Champions League holders.

There's lots more in the Spanish papers this morning, along the predictable lines of 'Robinho really wants a move' and so forth. Whenever one of the big Spanish sides wants a new player it all gets done through the press and while I wouldn't be distraught if Robinho left I can see why United fans got so frustrated with the Ronaldo stories in AS and Marca, just as Arsenal fans dislike all the Fabregas stuff in Sport and El Mundo Deportivo.