Ronaldinho latest

Reports in the continental press this morning only further confuse as to the future of Ronaldinho.

Gazzetta dello Sport runs with a big piece claiming that last night Ronaldinho and his agent agreed to a two year deal with AC Milan, paid €6.5million/year (£5.2million/year or £100,000/week).

The issue now is for Milan to agree a fee for the player with Barcelona. According to Gazzetta, Barca have dropped their asking price from €35m (£28m) to €25m (£20m) in hope of forcing through a deal. Thus far Milan have only offered €15m (£12m), but Vice President Adriano Galliani is set to to travel to Barcelona to seal the deal, hoping to exploit the current weakness of Barcelona President Joan Laporta.

Catalan daily Sport has a different angle on recent developments. They claim this morning that so far City are the only club to have made a firm offer, which they put at €32m (£25.6m) - which fits with the prices quoted in the Gazzetta piece. Our situation is therefore the opposite of Milan's: reached an agreement with the club, but still nowhere near finalising anything with the player. Sport describes Ronaldinho's chances of agreeing anything with City as 'not too easy'. City have offered the player €250,000/week (£200,000/week - like Galliani said - double what Milan offered).

The article concludes in what Yahoo Babel Fish seems to suggest is a rather preachy tone. I won't quote it, because the translator results are rather unreadable, and adapting them into English may remove it too far from the original meaning. But the point seemed to be that Ronaldinho is definitely going to leave Barcelona, and it's time for him to start thinking seriously about City. And if Milan are genuinely interested, it's time for them to put an offer on the table which can match City's.

The saga continues.

Sunday rumours

• The Sunday Mirror says we're looking at Brad Friedel. Costing £1.5million, he would have a part time coaching role which would eventually become full time. So he would not be a replacement for Joe Hart, but a tutor for him. This strikes me as exactly the sort of thing we ought to do, but until Hart's signed his new deal we shouldn't threaten him with potential rivals. Why be number two at City when he can be number two at Spurs for more money?

• Gazzetta dello Sport claims that we're still interested in Dejan Stankovic. Inter are desperate to get rid of him (especially if they sign Lampard), as they could receive €10-12million for him, whilst also no longer having to pay his €4million/year - on a deal with three years left to run. There is interest from Juventus, but Inter would rather sell abroad. Apparently Atletico Madrid are favourites, although City and Everton are both in the frame.

• Marca has a piece about Real Madrid reserve Roberto Soldado. Despite interest from City (and Sampdoria), he's set to sign a three year deal with Getafe, according to Getafe President Angel Torres.

• The big news about Ronaldinho is an interview AC Milan Vice-President Adriano Galliani did with Italian daily La Stampa. When asked about the prospect of Ronaldinho joining Milan on loan, he replies that the player has rejected an offer from Manchester City, which is twice the value of Milan's offer. There are two pieces in the Catalan paper Sport about the potential transfer. This claims that Ronaldinho has demanded €15million tax-free per year. That's £11,870,000 annually, or £228,000 per week. This says that Milan is his much preferred destination, because of the chance to link up with his Brazil teammate Kaka'.
  

Stuff

• Today was a bizarrely news-heavy day for the club. We seemed to fit a fortnight's worth of announcements (kit notwithstanding) into one afternoon. Had our Press Office just been closed for the last few days?

• Two players' departures from the club were announced. Sun Jihai has gone to Sheffield United and Andreas Isaksson to PSV Eindhoven. Neither player made a number of appearances in keeping with their respective abilities.

• We're going to be on TV. There has been a deal done with ITV to show our home UEFA Cup games, starting with the EB/Streymun game at Oakwell on 31st July. The Celtic friendly (Wednesday 6th August) will also be on Setanta Sports: they have a list of the pre-season friendlies they're showing here which includes this game but not the AC Milan one, unfortunately.
  

• Apparently the first day of training was today. From what I can glean from Hughes' interview on mcfctv.com Corluka and Fernandes weren't there because of the Euros and I think Caicedo may also have been given a pass. I'd love to know if Bozhinov was involved: anyone know? The biggest news to come out of it, though, is Stephen Ireland's new hair. It's all gone. See pics here.
  

• Slightly more serious: Hughes talked about three other players in the Jo press conference today. Apparently the Richard Dunne deal is 'as good as done' (if I see 'Dunne Deal' in the papers tomorrow I will literally cry), which is obviously a good thing. He may be our third best defender, but he's a great captain and has years of experience at the club. Given the instability at the club for the past twelve months we need people like him around. Joe Hart is not as close to finalisation, but Spurs' purchase of Gomes from PSV, and our allowing the Dutch champions to replace him with Isaksson suggests it's more likely than not. (Is the fact that Johnson is not being discussed in the same way a very good or a very bad thing?). Finally, Hughes dealt with the Ronaldinho issue. I was pleased to hear him talk of the potential deal so enthusiastically (I had feared it was being imposed on him by Thaksin), but I'm still sceptical he'll join us. But this guy knows more than I do about it.

• Hughes did say that the squad is unbalanced (it is) and needs balancing (it does). But when asked if there was more money to spend after Jo and potentially Ronaldinho, he was rather evasive. Taken together, does this mean that we're going to have to sell to buy? We do really need a right winger, an experienced holding midfielder and someone who can play left back and centre half. And maybe even another centre forward. £3m for Samaras, £2m for Isaksson and even £6m for Bianchi just won't do it.
  

Balague: "A source close to the negotiations is very positive about the outcome of the transfer"

The indispensable guillembalague.com has a piece on the Ronaldinho transfer this evening:

Manchester City feel that everything could be sorted with Ronaldinho next week.
A source close to the negotiations is very positive about the outcome of the transfer. The details of the contract negotiations are advanced, and the fact that Milan seem to consider themselves out of the equation plays in to the hands of City.

Mark Hughes knows it is a risk to take the player and the club will use a huge percentage of its wage money (more than 20 per cent) on the Brazilian, but everybody at City is convinced it is a risk worth taking.

The suggestion that Hughes is comfortable with this plan is reassuring. I had feared it was only Thaksin's plan imposed on top of the new manager.

He goes on to say that a potential spoiler could be the replacement of Joan Laporta by Sandro Rosell as FC Barcelona President. Rosell is said to be close to Ronaldinho, and could even overrule Guardiola and ensure his staying at the club.

But interesting news nonetheless. Read it HERE.