Telegraph: City favourites for di María

That's the clear message of today's article by Jason Burt and Jeremy Wilson. They report that Chelsea have refused to pay the £36million asking price for Ángel di María, leaving us his most likely destination:

It is understood that Manchester City are keen to complete a deal next summer, when it is likely that they will move on Robinho, probably to Barcelona, but Di María's club, Benfica, are hoping to complete the transfer in January.

They have approached Atlético Madrid in a bid to sign Portuguese international Simao Sabrosa and want to try to push that deal through as soon as possible and before a lower buy-out clause in Di María's contract kicks in at the end of this season.

Interesting stuff. For why I don't think we will sign di María, as much as I would like us to, read here.

Di María to stay

So says the Benfica President:

"The Benfica fans can be calm. Di Maria will not leave the club in January," Benfica president Luis Filipe Vieira told A Bola.

"We know there is interest from big clubs in the kid but we need his help for many objectives like the Portuguese league."

More on Ángel Di María

This Sunday's main transfer rumour concerning City is a story in The News of the World that we have agreed a £36million deal to sign Ángel di María in January:

Although contract negotiations are not finalised, City are confident they will bring the in-form midfielder to Eastlands.

The Argentina star has been identified by Mark Hughes as a long-term successor for Robinho.

The Benfica playmaker, 21, has emerged as the inspiration behind the free-scoring Portuguese side's quest for the Europa League and their domestic title.

I'm still not sure I can quite see this one coming off. Di María - talented though he is - just does not fit with the profile of players Mark Hughes has tried to sign since the takeover. He's young (21 - ten days older than Michael Johnson), raw, with no Premier League experience, only three full Argentine caps and just a handful of Champions League games to his name. The main qualities Hughes looks for in a footballer: physical strength, stamina, a winning attitude, professionalism and so forth don't exactly strike you as defining di María that strongly. So the story just doesn't sound right to me.

Don't take this to mean, though, that I don't want it to happen. Far from it. One of the main characteristics of Hughes' post-takeover transfer policy has been the total absence of exoticism. Under Eriksson we signed players from, inter alia, Dinamo Zagreb, FC Sion, FC Basle, Real Sociedad and two from Shakhtar Donetsk. Since the takeover we've bought from Chelsea, Everton, Aston Villa, Blackburn Rovers and two from Arsenal. While there is certainly a real value to buying players with EPL experience, it's just a bit less fun. So the prospects of our signing a 21 year old Argentine wunderkind from Benfica is intensely attractive.

Times: City move for Di María

A new transfer rumour in the Sunday Times: City are set to move for Benfica's 21 year old Argentine winger Ángel Di María, should Robinho leave:

Benfica president Luis Filipe Vieira met City officials in Liverpool on Thursday before his club’s Europa League victory over Everton. Though Benfica will resist selling Di Maria during a season in which they hold a realistic chance of regaining the Portuguese title for the first time in five years, they will encourage suitors in the summer. Di Maria, whose transfer rights are 20% owned by a third-party investment fund, is valued by the club at more than £27m. At 21, the player has established himself in Argentina’s World Cup squad, having scored an audacious winning goal in the final of the 2008 Olympic tournament.

It's certainly a new one, and quite a surprise. I've seen quite a bit of Di María over the last year or so and he doesn't look much like the sort of player Mark Hughes would go for. Just go through the main criteria he looks for in signing a player: experience - at the top end of the EPL, and of winning trophies, a winning mentality, athleticism, being at the peak of his game. Put simply, none of them are there with Di María.

He's clearly a prodigious talent: technically gifted, able to breeze past defenders, with a good shot and a taste for the unexpected. But that's not to say that he's anywhere near the finished article. If we have to replace Robinho with a big money left-winger we are surely more likely to go for a more developed player. The News of the World today claimed that we are in talks to sign Franck Ribéry. I can't see us getting Ribéry, but he certainly seems more like a more plausible target than Di María.

An interesting possibility, though, is that a potential move for Di María signals a move to a new transfer policy; focussing on the best of young talent rather than established stars. Ultimately, I think that the pressure to get as close to third or fourth as possible this year will mean that we stick with targeting established names. But it's a good story either way.