Saturday transfer round up - Hughes forced abroad

According to The Daily Mail, both Mark Hughes and the clubs backers are becoming increasingly frustrated over the desire of clubs we are negotiating with attempting to over inflate the fee of players we are interested in:

Manchester City manager Mark Hughes is considering shopping abroad in the transfer window because Premier League clubs are pricing themselves out of the market.

Hughes and the club's billionaire backers from Abu Dhabi have reached the end of their tether after being stunned to learn it will cost them more than £15million each to sign defenders Joleon Lescott of Everton and West Ham's Matthew Upson.

Much like the current situation with Roque Santa Cruz, despite have unlimited reserves to spend there does have to be some sense applied when buying players - and surely fees in excess of £15 million for the players we are interested in are wildly excessive?

It does make you wonder though if there is a Plan B that the club have to fall back on given that we are almost approaching the half way point of the window and the frustration at the club is clearly growing over the inability to bring players in.

The article also suggests this is having a knock on effect on certain players as it is leaving them unsure of their future roles at the club.

A report in The Guardian indicates that target Craig Bellamy would prefer a move to Tottenham due to the fact he believes he has a greater chance of first team football. A logical thought and I haven't altered my opinion that character issues aside, I just don't see where he fits into our side.

The Express this morning ran a piece suggesting a gentlemans agreement was in place between the club and Michael Owen whereby he would join the club in the summer on the proviso that we remained in the Premier League and he remained fit for the remainder of this season.

A fully fit Owen seems a good pick up to me and you would he would guarantee goals in a side creating as many opportunities as ourselves. However, fitness has to be a concern and he does not possess a good record against the top four sides - a definite worry if we are to have ambitions of Champions League football.