Robi for Ibra?

This is a rumour that has been all over the Catalan press in recent days, and today it makes its way into the Manchester Evening News: a deal with Barcelona where we get Zlatan Ibrahimovic in exchange for Robinho and some cash.

The M.E.N. story says that Mancini is so much of a fan he would be willing to pay '£15m plus' on top of Robinho. This is even higher than was reported in El Mundo Deportivo yesterday - €10-15m (£8.4-£12.5m). There is certainly enough to make us believe something in this story.

We are actively and openly seeking to offload Robinho, and Barcelona could do with someone who plays on the left of a front three. Barcelona are not as keen to offload Ibra are as we are to sell Robi but his debut season at the Nou Camp was fairly mixed and he's not obviously in their best starting eleven. City are on the lookout for someone new to lead the line and Mancini had real success managing Ibrahimovic for Milan. The clubs could certainly reach a deal. The sticking point to me seems to be Ibrahimovic's willingness to join a team of our stature.

I'm afraid I am, like most English fans, an Ibra-sceptic. It doesn't need to be stated how talented he is, but I think there are legitimate questions to be asked over his reliability, his consistency and his application. Like Danny, I'm not convinced he's a natural partner for Carlos Tévez. And that, for me, is the main test we should apply in our search for a new centre forward.

Sport: City bid for Yaya, Ibra, Alves

More transfer gossip coming from the Spanish tabloids today, and fairly interesting too. This is from Sport, which is Barcelona based and is well placed for stories regarding transfers in and out of Barça. The article in question says that an MCFC delegation was in Barcelona recently to talk of the transfers of three players.

First, of Yaya Touré: the report claims that we bid €20m (£17m) for the Ivorian with just two years left on his contract. Mancini is keen on his physicality and dynamism; I think he is close to being the box to box shuttler that we need. Barcelona's initial negotiating position was to demand €35m (£29.7m) but apparently they could settle on €30m (£25.5m). Interestingly enough, the report claims that the sticking point is Yaya himself. Despite the promise of playing with his brother he would rather play for Chelsea, from whom he is awaiting an offer.

Next up: Ibra. The article says after the signing of David Villa he is close to leaving the Nou Camp. While he is not keen on a club of City's size, nor on the English weather, he is keen on continuing to earn €9m per year. He would probably prefer a move to either Milan club though. I'm not keen on him at City, for reasons I've gone into before.

And then Dani Alves, for whom we reportedly bid €45m (£38.2m), instantly and understanably rejected, given his importance to the side.

Gourcuff, Ibrahimović linked

Two more rumours today - Bordeaux's Yoann Gourcuff and Barcelona's Zlatan Ibrahimović.

Barcelona's signing David Villa for €40m has inevitably raised questions over the future of Zlatan Ibrahimović . And, given how well he did under Roberto Mancini at Inter, we are inevitably linked. Today's M.E.N. says that City are 'set to step up their interest' which could mean almost anything. I think this is fairly easy journalism, but then I do think the following points are true: Barcelona would sell if a big bid came in, Roberto Mancini is interested, we could afford the fee and the wages. The only absent side of the square is Ibra's enthusiasm: he does have a fairly high opinion of his own abilities, and I'm not sure he'd want to play Europa League football.

The next is Gourcuff: a graceful, classical No. 10 who won the French league with Bordeaux in 2008/09 but who might now join the exodus from the Chaban-Delmas along with Laurent Blanc and Marouane Chamakh. According to Ian Herbert Mancini 'has an interest' in Gourcuff, and 'a move for a player valued at £21 million is a possibility.' Like the Ibra rumour, I'll wait till there a few more leaves on this tree before writing more about it, suffice to say that Gourcuff isn't quite the dynamic box-to-box player some think we need, but would certainly be a marvellous addition to our attacking options. He's a joy to watch.