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.

Petrov out, Bentley in?

The big story today is that we are in talks with Spurs over a Martin Petrov plus cash deal for David Bentley.

Like most City fans, I am not up for this at all. Not only is the prospect of David Bentley in blue quite unappealing - he was unambiguously a bad apple before his recent drink-driving conviction, but it seems like astonishingly bad business for the club. The deal rumoured (it may turn out differently) was to take Bentley for Martin Petrov and £10million!

The problem here is not our end of the deal; we don't need the money and, having played Craig Bellamy on the left last Sunday, it looks like we don't need Petrov. Rather, the problem is what we're giving our closest rivals. Martin Petrov, as an old fashioned outside left, is a rare commodity in the Premier League. He's also rather good - better, I think, than almost all of his fellow left wingers in the EPL: Albert Riera, Stewart Downing, Morten Gamst Pedersen, Matthew Etherington and so forth. Giving him to Tottenham, given how good a job he could do there, doesn't seem smart. Also giving Tottenham £10m to spend on David James, Niko Kranjčar, Sandro or whoever else they're going for makes even less sense. And all of this for one of their reserves?

What could have been

Fascinating stuff from Daniel Taylor and Ian Herbert about players that we tried to sign already. Interestingly enough, it's all the names that appeared in the papers: David Villa, Lassana Diarra, Gigi Buffon, Joleon Lescott, Yaya Touré, Mikel Arteta etc etc.

Two interesting bits though: the first names Hughes gave to ADUG when told of the money available were Valencia's Davids Villa and Silva. But we were quoted £130million and decided against it.

Hughes wanted Tévez but the board feared he would be unpopular with the fans. He certainly wouldn't be unpopular with me.

Henry? Drogba??

Two rumoured moves for ageing French speaking forwards tonight: Thierry Henry and Didier Drogba.

The Henry story - reported by Ian Herbert and Oliver Kay (strong indicators of veracity) - is that he is to be one of our main targets next summer. Garry Cook has decided against another bid for a marquee signing this January, but sees Henry as perfect for the summer. This seems perfect to me: he is a big enough name to satisfy the marketing aspect of the galactico purchase, and - as he is busy proving this season - has still got it as a footballer. When the 2009/10 season starts he will just be turning 32, but I'd still love to see him at City.

Regarding Drogba, I'm less sure. It's in The Sun, who do not have much a track record with City, and The Daily Mail - but not by their resident City expert Ian Ladyman. Apparently we're going to make an approach - and will ask Chelsea to 'name their price'. Shaun Custis just uses it as an excuse to bring back 'Robinho to Chelsea' rumours. Drogba has shown recently that, formidable though he was for Mourinho, he is a disruptive influence under managers he does not respect. What exactly would be the point in throwing in another anti-Hughes influence into an already volatile dressing room?

de Jong deal done

Unequivocally good news.

One of our most pressing concerns: a lack of bite and quality in central midfield - has been addressed. A product of the famed Ajax Academy, he won their Player of 2004/05 before moving to Hamburg. He has 30 Dutch caps and was a regular for them in Euro 2008.

In terms of his style, I can only point you what former coach and fellow Dutchman Martin Jol said of him recently; that he:

"is the type who will thrive in the Premier League. He's tough and can build up the play, and that's a rare combination. He's like Michael Carrick only smaller. He's a very good professional who lives for football and over the past two seasons has been maybe our best player."

His length of deal (four and a half years) means that we now have a good core of players contracted to 2013: Micah Richards (20), Michael Johnson (20 - I still have hope), Joe Hart (21), Pablo Zabaleta (24), de Jong (24) and, err, Craig Bellamy (29).

This means of the six things I identified on New Year's Eve as priorities for the Transfer Window, we have tied up three: a centre forward, a holding midfielder and a left back. All that's left is a centre back, another goalkeeper and a new contract for Danny Sturridge.