This is a story we are hearing more and more of - Robinho has been linked again with a January move to Barcelona. It's in three of the Sunday papers today, after some pretty heavy coverage in Sport and El Mundo Deportivo over the last week.
The story is quite simple: Barcelona want a specialist left-forward, with Thierry Henry ageing and Andrés Iniesta's fitness being unreliable. Robinho is a perfect fit, and they know that Mark Hughes will not exactly stage a sit-in protest to prevent his leaving MCFC. Today's stories put more flesh on those bones.
Pete Jenson in The People reports that Barça officials will meet with City at the World Club Championships in the UAE in December - and will propose a six month loan deal with an option buy in summer 2010. The News of the World story is similar - that the crunch meetings will be in Abu Dhabi in December. The deal mentioned is slightly different, though - suggesting that Mark Hughes will try to use Robinho as bait to get long-term target Yaya Touré.
There's a twist in the Mirror though - suggesting that Barça want not just Robinho but Vincent Kompany too. They need a holding midfielder who will not be playing in the African Nations Cup (Yaya and Seydou Keita will both be involved) - and they know that he is no longer first choice at City. Even more interesting is the claim that City want not just Yaya Touré but also Carles Puyol out of any deal. Swap deals involving two players are rare enough - swap deals with four even more so. So I can't see this going through.
The simpler deal - Robinho on loan - does sound plausible. With Craig Bellamy on form, he's not going to get in the side for a while. And I can't see him taking his benching much better than Martin Petrov, particularly in a World Cup year. So expect to hear from this again.
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5 comments:
THE FACT THAT HE ISNT REG FOR EUROPE/CHUMPS MEANS HE IS A VERY ATTRACTIVE PROSPECT FOR THEM, AND FROM WHAT I HAVE SEEN FROM HENRY THIS SEASON, HE'S LOST A BIT OF PACE AND IS AGEING, ROBBI WOULD BE A GREAT REPLACEMENT FOR THEM! I WOULD LIKE TO SEE HIM REPLACED WITH A WINGER...
YAYA WOULD SOLVE OUR MIDFIELD ISSUES
sorry for capitals
Toure would be a more than adequate replacement for Robinho. Kompany will regain the holding role for City when he's fit again. He's got more to offer than De Jong, he could even end up as a centre half with Lescott moving to the left back spot.
Oh wake up! This is just re-heated gossip from this summer.
Hughes is trying to put together a top 4 side and challenge for EPL and CL next season. Do any of you think Bellamys knees will last to Christmas? Selling or loaning out Robinho would be extremely stupid.
If you look closely at the stories they are just copies of copies with creative add ons. It really gets up my nose the way you and people like you swallow every stupid story about City that the media cooks up.
I still think Robinho will be gone in the New Year. He just doesn't fit into the current City side and certainly doesn't put in the work rate.
Petrov will have less to maon about after Bulgaria's drubbing in Cyprus which leaves them less likely to be going to South Africa in the summer.
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