MARK Hughes believes Samuel Eto’o is the man to fire City to the next level.

The Blues are keen to conclude a £25m swoop for the Barcelona hitman but are having to play a waiting game as the deal has hit a snag.

Eto’o’s agent is locked in a tense battle to extract a ‘loyalty’ bonus from Barcelona for the player before he will open meaningful talks with City.

But City boss Hughes made no bones about the fact that he feels Eto’o would be the right man at the right time for the club.

He said: “He is a world star and European Cup winner, the type that scores you 23 goals a season.

“With those type of players you know exactly what you will get – quality, a winner’s mentality and someone who will get people out of their seats. That’s the thinking behind the bid to bring him to City.

“We feel we are not a million miles away from having the tools to do the job we are being asked to do and, obviously, if we can bring a player of the quality of Eto’o to the club it will help our cause and we will try our best to do that.”

City have admitted that they are helpless to affect the outcome of Eto’o’s wrangle with Barca.

And they confirmed that talks have begun with Carlos Tevez’s representatives in a bid to bring the Argentine ace to Eastlands now that his temporary deal with United has expired.

Excited

Hughes asked excited fans to show some patience, pointing out that not all deals are as quick and uncomplicated as that which brought Gareth Barry to the club from Aston Villa.

"It’s difficult to say what the time scale will be for every transfer you get involved in," he said.

"Some are concluded quickly and are pretty straightforward, others have so many elements to them that it’s very difficult to tick all the boxes in a period of time, so people can get frustrated.

"The key from my point of view is that we are in the mix for top players, and wheels are in motion. We are trying to conclude deals very quickly in the window and if we can do that, it will be marvellous.”

DARIUS Vassell was met by chaotic scenes when he travelled to the Turkish capital Ankara to hold talks with local side Ankaragucu.

The City striker, who has been told he can leave the club, was met by 3,000 fans at the airport and had an escort of 50 buses and 250 cars to his hotel.

Vassell is one of six senior players released by the club when their contracts expired yesterday, the others being Danny Mills, Danny Sturridge, Glauber Berti, Dietmar Hamann and Michael Ball.

From the youth ranks the Blues have released goalkeeper Richard Martin, Matthew Brown, Ian Daly, Gregor Hartley, Ben Morris, Curtis Obeng, Chris Ramsey and Angelos Tsiaklis.

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