Džeko update

A strange day of Edin Džeko news. Last night the deadline passed for his €40million buy out clause. Now inactive, Wolfsburg would be under no compulsion to sell him to us. It seemed, at a surface glance, that our chance to sign Džeko had passed. Wolfsburg sporting director Dieter Hoeness said:

"The conditions have not been met.

"We are very pleased that the period of uncertainty is over. He is a player of huge quality who would have been very difficult for us to replace."

But this did not quite fit with what we knew. We had heard that City were keen on Džeko, but that we were relaxed about letting the clause expire so that we could freely negotiate a see with his club. We would not have done this were we not sufficiently confident of striking a deal. That is, if we were not sure that Džeko wanted to come to City, we would not have put ourselves in a position where the club had the chance to say no. Surely there was something else to this, another card in our hand?

So it is a relief but not surprise to read that deal is still alive. A Daily Mail exclusive on Wednesday says this:

Wolfsburg manager Steve McClaren will be disappointed with Dzeko's departure but will have a decent transfer kitty to launch his assault on the transfer market.

General manager Dieter Hoeness had earlier expressed delight that Dzeko was staying.

However, City's money in the end looks to have persuaded Wolfsburg it was too good an opportunity to turn down, regardless of timing.

This makes sense. The idea that we had let the clause lapse out of ignorance or complacency never sounded quite right. We have still got a long way left to travel to complete this deal, but we are still moving forward on the right road.