Blues step up Eto'o efforts

July 04, 2009

Samuel Eto'o

BARCELONA are finally ready to smooth the path for Samuel Eto'o to join City.

Joan Laporta, Barca's president, has indicated he is willing to show flexibility over the compensation wrangle at the heart of the Eto'o saga.

The Blues have already agreed a £25m fee with the Catalan giants to buy the striker.

But the sticking point has been a bonus clause in Eto'o's contract which entitles him to compensation if Barca sell him before his contract expires in 12 months' time.

Laporta is hopeful that a deal can be done to help Barca finance moves for Valencia striker David Villa - a one-time City target - and Liverpool midfielder Javier Mascherano.

And the president has indicated to sources in Spain that he may be ready to agree a pay-off to Eto'o to allow the move to Manchester to go through - or to renegotiate the transfer fee so that part of City's £25m offer goes to the striker.

The 28-year-old Cameroon international hit 36 goals for Barca last season, including the opener as they beat United 2-0 in Rome to lift the Champions League trophy two months ago.

He was understood to have been reluctant to join City initially, because of their lack of Champions League football next season.

But the Blues have the financial backing to make him one of the world's best-paid footballers, although the club have dismissed suggestions that he would earn £250,000 a week at Eastlands.

Patient

City boss Mark Hughes has already warned this week that he may have to be patient to get the stars he wants this summer.

A £30m bid for John Terry was rejected by Chelsea late on Thursday night as Hughes sought to add to the signings of Gareth Barry from Aston Villa and Roque Sants Cruz from Blackburn.

Chelsea's public knock-back over Terry has done little to help their relations with City, with the two clubs unable to agree a fee over out-of-contract striker Daniel Sturridge, who signed a four-year deal with the London club yesterday. City officially released the 19-year-old striker on Tuesday after he rejected a new deal but are entitled to compensation because of his age.

The 19-year-old's fee will now be settled by a tribunal.

Hughes is hoping to bolster his front line further by sealing a deal for Argentinian striker Carlos Tevez over the next few days.

The Blues boss has an eye on completing the signing of the former United man while his players are in Germany at a pre-season training camp.

One striker who looks less likely to figure in Hughes' plans for next season is Felipe Caicedo.

The Ecuadorian forward, who still has three seasons to run on his contract at Eastlands, has indicated that he would be interested in a move to Sporting Lisbon if he is not going to be getting regular games with the Blues.

The 20-year-old, a £5.2m signing from Swiss club Basel in January 2008, has also been interesting West Ham.

| Submit Comments | Comments (137) |

Showing comments 1 to 25 and replies | View All

kevin cairns, morecambe (04/07/2009 at 10:14)

city should up their bid for John Terry to 40 million pounds.

Peter Beagrie`s beagle (04/07/2009 at 10:17)

He`s on his way to us, ready to recreate the champions league final goal against the rags in the next derby! CTID

Sweep at half the price, Kent (04/07/2009 at 10:17)

It really is interesting to see how little people, outside of the club and its supporters, really understand about the project at city. I was talking to a good friend in the Pub last night who is a life long Charlton season ticket holder, he simply refused to believe that any of these deals are anything more than "paper talk". I was at pains to explain the intricacies , as I understand them regarding Laportas position at barcelona , and the fact that we would only have made abn approach for JT having checked the players willingness first but my mate wasn't having it.
He readily admitted if it was Manure Barca, real madrid or either of the Italian giants doing the courting that these deals would happen but " not for Man City".

I am afraid my mate and many others fail to understand the monumental and seismic shift in power that is occuring in WORLD football.

Good times to be a fan though even if others are yet to see it City are back and boy are they BACK IN STYLE :o)

Deano58 (04/07/2009 at 10:19)

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yawn. All this faffing around when we could have already signed Michael Owen on a free. He's good you know. No, honestly, he's past all his injury problems, scores five goals in every two games and will be the golden-boot winner at the 2010 world cup. No, seriously !

BLUE BOY!! MANCHESTER NOT LONDON!!, Manchester (04/07/2009 at 10:22)

Come on Hughes ...patience ...there taking the mick...Its simple I would think ..phonecall to Joan Laporta, "is he coming or not" then a phonecall to the player "are you coming or not" if he does not want to fine ...we move on! No hang on a min ...

Im sick to to the back teeth of money hunters ..as I always say..you put a blue shirt on to sweat blood ...not hum and har over money deals and popularity...if the heart is not in it "DONT SIGN HIM"

This player could well be Hughes future of success or not, and I personally think he is wasting his money!

MOVE ON MH !! Leave them sweating and look around !!

NUFF SAID!!

mcfc81, Manchester (04/07/2009 at 10:26)

Less of the Talking & get Sami & Carlos signed up!!!

deejayvu, everywhere (04/07/2009 at 10:29)

Why dont city just pay the extra bonus demand (like Newcastle did for Barton) just to get the whole thing settled and his signature on the dotted line.
This would be the mother of all transfers in England this decade. Never mind Owen for the rags, Eto'o is the way forward

CTID

jo alves (04/07/2009 at 10:29)

Dont think i can take much more, ive got everything crossed we sign Eto`o & Carlos come on lads put pen to paper, a good solid central defender & what a season we could have, Bing em home sparky & GC. CTID.

fowler, wythenshawe (04/07/2009 at 10:30)

get him please, everythin goin right at the moment for city an everythin goin wrong for united owen ,valencia as replacements for ron.an tev, the tide is turning gregp peel hall blue

Brisbane Blue (04/07/2009 at 10:37)

34 years

There you go. No need for David Allen to come on here today. Excellent.

eddieeric , holmes chapel (04/07/2009 at 10:38)

anyone under the same impression as me that the john terry saga is city being as mischievous as chelski have been over the daniel sturrage affair. and also telling the ruski you might own a few oil wells but we could if we want buy you out a 10000 times over. so play your funny tricks with us and we will make life very uncomforable for you me thinks so.

mcfc81, Manchester (04/07/2009 at 10:41)

I think one thing is for sure about all this, if we dont get either Sami or Carlos, Mr.Hughes & Mr Cook should be given there P45! Its like a getting a steak meal & then replacing it with a Big Mac! WE DESERVE THE BEST!

Stephen Denholm (04/07/2009 at 10:43)

Tevez has already signed and it will be made public once Etoo agrees terms...

They will both be paraded at COMS with an open gate which could include JT to make up a fantastic trio of additions to what is already a squad that can overhaul the so called BIG 4.

Say what you want about the massive wage deals and buying the premiership it is no different to what the Rags and CFC have done for the last 10+ years...........

Steve Manchester

Brisbane Blue (04/07/2009 at 10:46)

It's good to see that City aren't allowing themselves to be trodden all over in the transfer market.

Everton are (by all accounts) being told that 15 million is tops and not a penny more for Lescott

Barcelona won't get more than 25 million for Samuel Eto'o

Chelsea have dropped their bundle at City's offer for John Terry.

Meanwhile City are maintaining a dignified silence and appear to be going about their business in a professional manner. MH has expressed his personal admiration of the qualities of Eto'o and Tevez whilst the media are positively foaming at the mouth.

Furthermore it would appear that the foreign media and top European clubs are now regarding us as a legitimate threat.

It's a wondeful time to be blue.

Jay Tsar (04/07/2009 at 10:47)

Barry, Santa Cruz, Tevez, Eto, Lescott..As far as the media would have us believe are in the bag...Now we can dream of Terry and some world class defenders. I am proud of the club and looking forward to start of season!!! BLUE MOON!!

Wax on. Wax off, Jersey (ex Sale, Manchester) (04/07/2009 at 10:48)

Patience, patience my fellow blues, it is now only a matter of days until Eto'o and Tevez are wearing the sky blue of our beloved City. Something (and I don't know what ) is telling my that Terry will also sign. No-one in their right mind could turn down the reported sums of money potentially being offered to him.

Brace yourself blues, season 09/10 is going to be the best one ever!!

Sheikh Mansour - I love you!

jackblue, Prescot (04/07/2009 at 10:48)

With United shopping in the Championship, and City shopping in Spain it's a great time to be a blue lol.

Tommy "Chopper" C, Oz. (04/07/2009 at 10:49)

Couple of interesting points here. 1] Laporta is back tracking fast in an effort to save face with the barca fans and to raise the funding necassary to complete the deals he has shot his mouth off about. His treatment of Eto`o over the past twelve months has been disgusting given what the player has brought to the club, 150 odd goals in five seasons and been a major part of several trophies in his time there. He originally wanted to play this out in the media, then got the hump when Eto`os agent did the same thing. Had he had the foresight to keep the size of City`s offer confidential he would have had some chance of upping the offer from us, but he backed himself into a corner as he tried to paint Sammy as the bad guy and now he has precious little negotiating room.

2} Why did Chelsea choose to go public with our latest offer for Terry. Unless the player comes out again and confirms his loyalty to the londoners, it will only fuel the fire of uncertainty. City will certainly interperate silence from the player as a signal to intensify their interest. If Chelsea had remained silent, there would have been no cause for the player to say anything further to his comments in January. What have Chelsea to gain by making this public? probably nothing, but you can bet an improved offer will surely follow. Do they want to sell the player?, again, probably not, but they sure are testing the water.

chris dale (04/07/2009 at 10:51)

would rather take lescott for half the price of terry

KiwiBluemooner, New Zealand (04/07/2009 at 10:56)

Can anyone else see the beautiful irony in the fact that Utd's main summer business is in 'buying' a guy called 'owen'. No wonder only frees are in the offing when you're 'owing' 600m squid.

Utd are picking up the scraps from that fall off the Top Table pretending they taste like the finest caviar. Meanwhile...we are dining at the Lord Mayor's banquet and we are not yet even in Europe!!!

the fox, fox hole (04/07/2009 at 10:57)

it'd be nice if we put a bid in for vidic and offered to double his wages! all this talk of signing forwards, we need a couple of top class central defenders.

climb57 Droylsden, Droylsden (04/07/2009 at 11:00)

I think if eto`o and Teves were coming to City they would be here by now

maddogblue, Cheadle (04/07/2009 at 11:16)

If your going to do it then get on with it, as exciting as it might be, i don't want to be sat in front of Sky TV @ midnight on the last day of the transfer window, knowing and fretting that City haven't put all the (necessary), transfer business to bed.

Plain Speaking (04/07/2009 at 11:28)

We must be careful we show proper respect to other clubs. I would love to have JT at our club but Chelsea are not short of money. One of JT's major strengths is his attitude: 100% committment, we should not bring down our club's reputation by persisting in making offers to clubs that don't want to sell.
Mick

bluemoon19731, Somewhere over the blue rainbow (04/07/2009 at 11:32)

Don't know if we should get excited about this but JT has withdrawn from a testimonial today, apparently for personal reasons!!!!

http://www.ytfc.net/page/NewsDetail/0,,10673~1713354,00.html

CTID

()

Report

Manchester City