Manchester City's Sparky has £100m kitty
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Hughes set to finally get his man and seal £18m Santa Cruz switch
Roque Santa Cruz is set to become a Manchester City player in the New Year despite interest from Real Madrid
Manchester City will kick-start the January sales by agreeing a fee of £18million with Blackburn for striker Roque Santa Cruz in the next 24 hours.
Talks are at an advanced stage, with both clubs keen to complete the move quickly. City manager Mark Hughes is anxious to secure a player he signed for Blackburn from Bayern Munich for a bargain fee of £3.8m just 16 months ago, while new Rovers boss Sam Allardyce expects to be handed £10m from the sale and wants as much time as possible to spend it.
Santa Cruz himself insisted on Tuesday he would only quit Ewood Park for another Barclays Premier League club despite interest from Real Madrid.
The 27-year-old told Radio Primero de Mayo: 'I would like to stay in England. I like this league. It is one of the most competitive in the world.' He added: 'I have nothing to do with any offers. They are made to the club and the directors make a decision.'
As revealed by Sportsmail earlier this month, Allardyce has always accepted he would have to sacrifice his prize asset to afford the reinforcements he needs to keep Blackburn up.
Santa Cruz, 27, has to agree personal terms, but that is not expected to be a problem considering the wealth of City's owners, his close relationship with Hughes and an admission on the eve of Allardyce's first game that he wanted to test himself at a bigger club.
The Paraguay striker, who scored 23 goals in his first season in England, has yet to play under Allardyce because of a calf injury. Having had two bids turned down, Hughes will now get his man at the third attempt to begin what is expected to be a busy month of transfer business at Eastlands.
Hughes may also try and bring German international Philipp Lahm to Eastlands
He is also hoping to prise Germany's World Cup defender Philipp Lahm from Bayern Munich if Chelsea refuse to allow Wayne Bridge to join. Hughes pencilled the England left back on to his wish list almost as soon as the Abu Dhabi United Group takeover of City in August promised a money-no-object budget to sign New Year reinforcements.
But Chelsea are in no hurry to do business with City after seeing their deal for Robinho hijacked at the 11th hour in the summer.
Hughes is ready to pay £8m, but if Chelsea play hardball over Bridge, he will once again turn to his old club Bayern.
Lahm made the all-star team at the 2006 World Cup and has six years' Bundesliga experience with the club he joined as an 11-year-old. He was a Barcelona target last summer but signed a new deal until 2012, so is likely to cost more than £8m.
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DO NOT GO TY
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I thought the board promised Big Sam that Santa Cruz won't be sold?!
£18m quite expensive for a 27-year-old.
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Sparky has £100m kitty
Roque Santa Cruz tops Hughes’ wishlist
Hughes’ wishlist
Roque Santa Cruz
Craig Bellamy
Wayne Bridge
Kolo Toure
Joleon Lescott.
Shay Given
MARK HUGHES will kick open the transfer window today armed with £100million. Manchester City owner Sheikh Mansour and chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak are giving full backing to manager Hughes despite a poor first half of the season.
Blackburn striker Roque Santa Cruz tops Hughes’ wishlist. Sparky said: “We have to make sure the players we want to bring in are good for us in terms of quality and their position in the squad. If we do, I’m very positive for the second half of the season.”
Hughes is ready with a £15million bid to grab Paraguay hitman Santa Cruz, 27. He also wants to be reunited with Craig Bellamy too and hopes £10m will prise him away from cash-strapped West Ham.
Boss Hughes is also looking to strengthen the defence. He wants Chelsea left-back Wayne Bridge, Arsenal centre-back Kolo Toure and Everton defender Joleon Lescott.
He will also test Newcastle’s resolve with a £10m bid for Republic of Ireland goalkeeper Shay Given, 32.
Hughes wants this month’s deals done as soon as possible. He said: “We hope we can do business quickly because that will help us. “It’s not an exact science. You have to look at what’s out there, what’s attainable and the price clubs are asking for.
“If things are right for the team and the club, then you start to make things happen.”
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one player cost about £17m each? expensive.
I'd rather he spend the money on 3 world-class players. 1 defender, 1 midfielder, 1 forward.
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£100m kitty and Hughes are targeting those players?
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You must first be strong and able in the premiership and qualify for the CL then the other big stars from Europe will then be willing to join you mah...
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city are making the same mistake many clubs made.
sacked the manager before buying players!!!
what is the point of signing a lot of players only to find they dont suit the plans of the next manager? then spend another bundle to sign another batch?
hughes is just not good enough to lead city. they should sign someone with proven record.
mourihno is the right person.
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I think Santa Cruz see after Forest thrash Man City i think he will say: I better stay at Blackburn Rovers than Man City
Wayne Bridge say: Haiz i regret going Man Blue , Chelsea Buy mi back plz plz -
Some of the City players are demoralize because they see and expect a number of new players coming in and they could be out soon so... No heart to play well anymore... Hughes should get rid of those dead wood and bring in his own players asap to cure this problem... The fellow playing in the left-back position will be out now with Bridge signed... And more to come in this next 2 weeks...
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what happened to their star player robinho and that big talker SWP?
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Hughes’ wishlist
Roque Santa Cruz
Craig Bellamy
Wayne Bridge
Kolo Toure
Joleon Lescott.
Shay Given
100 million to buy these kind of player? well, it say 2 things about mark hughes.
all those money spend during thaksin days are basically all wrong buy due to this own misjudgement!
these kind of player are not going to bring man city into the uefa cup at the worst!
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Originally posted by dragg:
what happened to their star player robinho and that big talker SWP?
They will remain at midlands... for now.
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Hughes’ wishlist
Roque Santa Cruz
Craig Bellamy
Wayne Bridge
Kolo Toure
Joleon Lescott.
Shay Given
All these players are quite old and dont have many more good years left in them.
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don't forget what mark did for rovers...
little money but great result..
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Originally posted by reyes:
100 million to buy these kind of player? well, it say 2 things about mark hughes.
all those money spend during thaksin days are basically all wrong buy due to this own misjudgement!
these kind of player are not going to bring man city into the uefa cup at the worst!
I don't think he bought many players during Thaksin's time... I think only SWP and Ben Haim can be consider his purchases... Even Jo probably isn't... Thaksin even wanted Ronaldinho or Fat Ronaldo... He was also unfortunate that the Abu Dhabi took over very late just before the window closed and they only got Robinho which I think isn't his purchase either...At present, Not many or no big players really want to come to City until they see it as a serious side. So they need these kind of players first to get them there before those really big names will come.
Chelsea wasn't very different actually... They got Glen Johnson, Duff, Scott Parker and a then not very big yet Frank Lampard too... Eventaully they move on to bigger things but they also had to pay a priced for it as well... Cos every player they became interested became extra costly during those days... Harry Kewell and Duff were seen as almost equals then... Duff eventually went for $17m as he had a released clause of that amount in his contract... Harry went to Pool for $5m only...
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Originally posted by FirePig:
Hughes’ wishlist
Roque Santa Cruz
Craig Bellamy
Wayne Bridge
Kolo Toure
Joleon Lescott.
Shay Given
All these players are quite old and dont have many more good years left in them.
These players are maybe what he really need, decently good players with experience and seasoned in the Premiership...
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Originally posted by zocoss:
I don't think he bought many players during Thaksin's time... I think only SWP and Ben Haim can be consider his purchases... Even Jo probably isn't... Thaksin even wanted Ronaldinho or Fat Ronaldo... He was also unfortunate that the Abu Dhabi took over very late just before the window closed and they only got Robinho which I think isn't his purchase either...At present, Not many or no big players really want to come to City until they see it as a serious side. So they need these kind of players first to get them there before those really big names will come.
Chelsea wasn't very different actually... They got Glen Johnson, Duff, Scott Parker and a then not very big yet Frank Lampard too... Eventaully they move on to bigger things but they also had to pay a priced for it as well... Cos every player they became interested became extra costly during those days... Harry Kewell and Duff were seen as almost equals then... Duff eventually went for $17m as he had a released clause of that amount in his contract... Harry went to Pool for $5m only...
If i rem correctly, lampard don't belong to the same batch of purchase like what you've mentioned. He joined during claudio ranieri's time, pre-abramovich era.