Milan and Kaka hit back

There was an interesting piece in The Independent, which lifts a lid a little on some of the complexities behind the deal, and perhaps (from our standpoint at least) why the deal failed:

Cook's six-man delegation, including lawyers with expertise in intellectual property rights, had headed to Italy with high hopes. They knew they needed to sell their image rights ideas to Leite before they would manage to meet and convince Kaka himself. But that seemed unlikely from the moment they sat down. Attempting to establish whether Kaka's current deal with Adidas left any room for City to tie up image rights deals of their own and earn a return on their £91m investment, the club met a wall of resistance from Leite.

City told Leite of their ideas for a Kaka Foundation, through which his image would make money for a "humanitarian" cause. There was talk of lucrative digital TV and internet image rights deals. Privately, City were astonished that Kaka's current entire image rights income is believed to be €8m (£7.4m). In Cook's previous role with Nike, he was responsible for the international image rights of the basketball player Michael Jordan. They earn him $12m (£8.6m) a year for his signature alone. Football clubs have not touched the surface of such commercial opportunities.

But Leite would only talk about the player's personal terms. "They didn't want to get to the complexities and the sophistication," Cook said. "They just wanted an offer in cash terms." A brooding presence as the talks foundered was Galliani, in a side room nearby.

Getting nowhere as Monday night drew on, City suggested a period of reflection and shook on a plan to meet again in Milan today. Leite's desperation for a quick deal then led City to agree to bring that date forward 24 hours. A new day, they seem to have figured, offered hope of a change of heart. But after Cook and his delegation had left, the Italians decided they could not wait – and run the risk of City embarrassing them by unilaterally calling talks off. Cook was in the departure lounge of Milan's Linate Airport At 11.03pm, Italian time, when he received a phone call from Alberto Zilani, Leite's translator. "We want a cash offer now," Zilani said. Resigned to the fact that the deal was going nowhere, Cook called it off and both clubs formally announced the fact.

However, not so clear cut according to reports in the Italian press today, via this piece from The Mail:

'The truth is that in six hours of talks with Manchester City they only asked questions and didn't make an offer for Kaka.

'How on earth did they think they were going to buy him? It's one thing buying a property or a company but completely another when you are trying to charm one of the best players in the world.'

Gazzetta revealed that the negotiations had taken place in the law offices of Milan firm Izzi-Tognazzi and were stop start as City were constantly ''asking for time outs.''

Gazzetta said that Kaka's agent Bosco was getting fed up at the fact that City's Gary Cook and Simon Pierce were just asking questions primarily on the player's image rights.

Gazzetta also claimed that at 10pm on Monday night City, after ''consulting with the shaikh said they would make an offer via email the following day.''

Gazette wrote: ''At that point Bosco and AC Milan vice president Adriano Galliani looked at each other and asked to call off the talks. Cook tried to change direction but it was too late as Galliani had already called Silvio Berlusconi.'

The one worry I had with the fall out from the aborted deal, was how this would affect our ability to sign players of a similar standing to Kaka in the future.

The worry is that Cook's stinging remarks yesterday could turn out to be ill advised, given that surely Milan and Kaka's words are likely to hold more weight in the footballing world than Cook's argument that Milan were 'bottlers'.

Perhaps it would have been far wiser to have bitten his tongue and simply thanked Milan and Kaka for their interest and time during the negotiations, rather than to come across as a slightly inexperienced and naive negotiator with little idea of how to conclude a high profile transfer?

Kaka - the fall out

The recriminations and mud slinging have begun today amidst the aftermath of end of negotiations to bring to Kaka to the club.

Perhaps borne out of frustration, or simply to get make a pre-emptive strike before the inevitable criticism, Garry Cook laid heavily into both Milan and representatives of Kaka (though not Kaka himself it has to be said) with some stinging comments:

“It’s a mixture of disappointment and some frustration too. I think the intention from AC Milan was clearly to sell their player and Manchester City’s intention was clearly to bring him to the football club.

“I think there was some political pressure and definitely media space that they engaged in. To be honest, I think they bottled it, simple as that.”

“It would have been great to have had Kaka at this football club, the Premier League would have benefitted, football would have benefitted and we were willing to make that investment on rational terms. Unfortunately, the behaviour that they showed was not what we had expected nor had we anticipated.”

“We’ve been to Milan four times and the delegation yesterday involved three lawyers that represent the legal counsel for Manchester City football club.

“It also involved a board member who had flown half way around the world from Abu Dhabi, myself and one other senior executive.

“We were confined to a room, with no food or drink, and we asked some questions of the football club and more importantly we asked some questions of the representatives of the player and they simple could not answer the questions.

“What they wanted to talk about was; ‘how much are you going to pay him?’We chose not to get into that and we didn’t make an offer to the player.

“Is he a great footballer? Yes. Does he represent all the values you would want to have as an ambassador of the sport global and were we looking for the opportunity to joint venture in areas that would take this club on to a different platform? Yes, but unfortunately the landscape changed and his representatives wanted to talk about how much we were going to pay him.

“Money was certainly the motive yesterday.”

A widely reported comment from Cook was that Milan 'bottled it', and whilst it made for a great byline, there is a definite truth within this as the fan reaction - whilst not a surprise - was quite vitriolic towards Adriano Galliani and Silvio Berlusconi, and whilst the reputed transfer figure of £100 million was needed by Milan, to effectively force a fan idol out of the club in return for the filthy lucre would have been a disastrous PR move and one that the Milan hierarchy, however costly, could not follow through with.

Kaka himself though believes it was more to do with divine intervention than anything else that led him to remaining in Milan:

'I believe I have made the right choice. To have gone to Manchester City could have been a great project but in the past few days I have prayed a lot to understand what the right team would be and in the end I have decided to remain here.

'I don't want anything else, I just want to be well and be happy in the place where people love me.

'From this story I have understood how people love me at Milan, the fans and my team-mates have helped me make this choice.'

None of us know quite how near or far from signing Kaka may have been, but given representatives of the club (let alone the manager) did not meet him - allied with Cook's comments - suggests it was not as close as we were led to believe by the media as a whole.

One theme that has been raised is the knock on effect this could have in our pursuit of other 'world stars', in that this could damage our aspirations of adding the very top players to the club. I don't necessarily subscribe to that view and would like to think Kaka's decision is very much a one off, in that it was solely motivated by the depth of his feeling for both Milan the football club and Milan the city, and however 'interesting' our 'project' was, a move to ourselves or any other club for that matter was not something he could contemplate at this stage of his life.

The whole issue does not reflect too well on ourselves, something evidenced given the level of feeling we have seen over the past week or so, and it has proved how difficult it is for us to conduct transfer business given the spotlight that has now very much fallen upon us.

Kaka move called off

Manchester City has terminated its discussions with AC Milan over the possible transfer of the player Kaka.

Following a meeting in Milan today, the Club felt that it was unlikely that the two parties could reach common ground for an agreement.

The discussions reached only a preliminary stage and the player was not involved at any time. No commercial terms were framed.

Commenting on the situation, Garry Cook stated: "Whilst Manchester City Football Club has an obvious interest in world class players of the quality of Kaka, we owe it to our fans that such a transfer must work on every level; commercially, financially, in terms of results on the field and within Manchester City's broader community."

>>mcfc.co.uk

Breaking news of sorts as although talks were being held in Milan, there was no further announcement expected during the early part of this week.

It is a strange statement from the club, not giving much away in terms of why the pursuit has been terminated, and not much from Milan either, with the exception of Silvio Berlusconi himself commenting:

"It was my intervention but also his," Berlusconi said. "When I heard he preferred to stay, that he hadn't thought about losing a chance for a higher salary and that he put the values of the club, friendship and fans affection above all else, I said, 'Come on,' and we hugged."

Perhaps last weekends piece in The Observer wasn't so far fetched after all.

I'm sure there will be much more to come from this story over the next twenty four hours or so.

Kaka transfer round up

As we all know, Kaka was in Milan's line up last night for their 1-0 victory over Fiorentina, playing the full game.

At the end of the game, there were embraces for team mates amidst scenes of unrest in the crowd, with the Milan fans venting their anger of Adriano Galliani and Silvio Berlusconi:





It is hard to read too much into last nights events, as if he was pulled out of the line-up it would have been apparant a deal was almost concluded. His appearance last night - whilst emotional - could not be totally construed as a tearful farewell.

Mark Hughes's post match comments following the Wigan game poured a little cold water on the progress, describing the move as 'complex':

"But it is not a simple transfer. It is not just a case of talking to the club and talking to the boy and getting the deal done within 24-48 hours. The deal, if it is to be concluded, is very complex as there are so many elements to it.

"It is not going to be an easy process and won't be concluded quickly. I am sure we will give it the amount of time it deserves. We find ourselves in a special situation. We are interested in one of the top players in the world."

The Daily Mail suggests Kaka is in 'turmoil' over whether to agree to the move:

Kaka, the 26-year-old, God-fearing superstar at the centre of what would be the biggest football transfer in history, has been reduced to tears as the enormity of the £100million deal that will see him exchange Milan's world-famous San Siro for the rather more prosaic City of Manchester Stadium sinks in.

Whilst it is also suggested that Real Madrid could be set to match any offer, although given their off field instability with Ramon Calderon resigning this week this is highly unlikely.

Perhaps most of interest today is a piece in The Observer:

The adviser to Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, City's billionaire owner, told Observer Sport from Abu Dhabi last night that media coverage of City's offer for the Milan player, plus reported £500,000-a-week wages, was wildly unrealistic – giving credence to growing rumours in Italy that the story has been hyped up by Milan owner Silvio Berlusconi, in an attempt to earn good publicity when no move materialises and Kaká stays at the San Siro. First reports of the "£100m" bid appeared on a website owned by Berlusconi.

An interesting suggestion and one which flies in the face of everything that has been reported both here in the UK and Italy this week. I'd be amazed if the whole of the press (and rest of the country) had in fact been hoodwinked.

Far more likely is that Hughes's comments in relation to the complexity of the deal is more accurate, and this is backed up to a degree by comments from Kaka's agent. Diog Kotschco:

"We have to see a good project, a winning project, for any club to be eligible to have a player like Kaká. We have to be convinced that Manchester City can turn themselves – in the short term – into one of the best eight teams in the world."

It doesn't appear likely that any deal will likely be concluded by early part of this week, but expect this story to continue to dominate the headlines.

All eyes on the San Siro

On Saturday night at the San Siro, where he will start for Ancelotti alongside David Beckham against Fiorentina, support for the Rossoneri’s golden child will be tangible and premeditated.

Protests at his proposed sale are planned and some are predicting violence.

>>The Mail

It is set to be a lively weekend in Milan where the Rossoneri faithful will no doubt be out to try and convince Kaka his future lies at the San Siro.

There was some thought that Kaka may not be in the line up for tomorrow's game when Milan host Fiorentina in a crucial clash in Serie A, but all indications are that he will start as negotiations are not as advanced as some in the press are leading us to believe.

Kaka's depth of feeling for Milan should not be underestimated as we all consider whether he is likely to indicate he will join us or not, but the piece in The Mail does suggest that he is said to be deeply disappointed that the club have signalled their intent to accept the bid and 'push him into a corner' as he contemplates his future.

I guess we'll just have to sit tight.

Thursday transfer round up - all about Kaka

Step by step, it does appear that we are getting closer to actually being able to land Kaka and the media have been all over this story today in a big way.

There were plenty of reports going back and forth (covered here) but what we do know is that Milan have released a statement saying they are 'considering' the offer that has been put to them. There was even a mock up of Kaka in a City shirt on the Mediaset website:


Late this evening it is now being widely reported that Kaka has been given permission to speak to us, with the suggestion being it is more likely than not that he will end at the club:

Kaká has been given permission by AC Milan to talk to Manchester City as the prospect of the Brazil forward arriving at the Barclays Premier League club moved closer to reality last night.

It is still far from being a done deal of course, and it will take one hell of charm offensive to secure the move. Kaka's team mates Clarence Seedorf and Gianluca Zambrotta have urged him to resist any overtures and they no doubt will not be the last to do so.

Press wise, there has not been too much written actually praising our attempt to sign Kaka, but this piece by Martin Samuel sums the situation up perfectly for me:

So, Kaka to Manchester City. What's not to like?But, ye gods, there are some miserable people out there. The death of football, one bloke called it. An impossibly rich man attempts to spend £100million of his personal fortune to bring a truly great footballer into our game in a way that opens up the domestic competition, and this is a bad thing?

Definite reading for the 25% who voted no to the signing of Kaka on the MEN website.

The Guardian are suggesting the total fee could rise as high as €150m (£135m), breaking down as:

• €120m as a fee for Kaka
• €20m in agents' fees
• €10m for Kaka's father

They have also put together a neat graphic within the piece to illustrate how he would fit into a new 4-1-4-1 formation that Hughes has drawn.

An interesting angle in the Mail, where Ian Ladyman has been dispatched out to Milan to gage the mood, and unsurprisingly it seems the mood is one of fear:

To understand just what selling their Brazilian prince would mean to the Rossoneri you have to do more than listen to Sandra, the charming assistant. 'If Kaka leaves then I will die,' she wails, in classic, over-the-top, Italian style. 'He just cannot leave us. He just cannot.'

Having been to The San Siro on occasion to see Milan, it is evident just how much in the hearts of the fans Kaka is - and the feeling is no doubt reciprocated, so as well as trying to convince him we are a viable option for him, he also faces the prospect of walking away from Milan - a place where is held in the highest esteem.

Gabriele Marcotti has some good analysis in The Times, profiling how he feels Kaka would adapt to the Premier League:

At 6ft 1in and weighing nearly 12½st, he is big and solid, the kind of player who rarely gets outmuscled. He is also extremely durable. He has not suffered a significant injury since he was 16 and has featured in more than 90 per cent of Milan’s Serie A and Champions League matches in his 5½ years at the club. Many of the games he missed were the result of being rested.

Marcotti also feels that with a couple of real quality additions - namely a true goalscorer and dominant defensive midfielder to allow Vincent Kompany to move into defence, we would also not be far short of achieving Kaka's requirement of a top four finish next season.

A busy day all in all, but the tide appears to be in our favour at present. Hurdles have been navigated and soon (perhaps as early as next week) the ball will be very much in Kaka's court for him to decide whether to make the move or not.

Kaka deal off, or is it?

From arabianbusinessnews.com:

Manchester City has withdrawn its world record $150 million bid to sign Brazilian superstar Kaka, according to a senior source close to the club’s owners.

The Abu Dhabi-owned club tabled the bid earlier this week, with Kaka, currently playing for AC Milan, saying he wanted to stay at the Italian club until he retired from the game.

It had been expected that further talks with his representatives would take place on Thursday.

But the well-placed source, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told Arabian Business: “The deal is off, and the offer is no longer on the table. The club is now pursuing another striker which it is very close to signing. Manchester City is about to unveil a new striker, but he is not called Kaka.”

But from the MEN:

Hughes dismissed the reports from the UAE, saying: “I've seen these reports but you have to bear in mind that the people who are being given a platform to speak do not represent the owner (Sheikh Mansour) or (chairman) Khaldoon (Al Mubarak).

“In my opinion they should not be given a platform to say what they have because in this instance it is completely untrue because negotiations are still taking place.”

He added: “It would be naive to think I have not been involved in discussions over this transfer. I have had meetings about it and have had an input.

“It is impossible to say whether it will go through or not but we will let everyone know when there is something to say.”

“It has been well documented that we have expressed an interest in signing him. Garry Cook and a number of other people went to Milan earlier in the week to get an understanding of the situation. To add any more at this stage would be wrong.”

No doubt more on this will unfold over the course of the day.

UPDATE 19:36 - It appears - according to Sky Sports News, via Milan's own TV station - that Milan are 'considering' an offer from ourselves, believed to be in the region of £107 million.

From reuters:

"There's an offer for Kaka from Manchester City and it is being considered by Milan," channel director Mauro Suma said.

"Considered does not mean decided or accepted. We are not faced with a decision made or a done deed. There are still hours and days ahead."

A Milan spokesman said Suma's comments were not an official statement by the Serie A club.

All now being widely reported of course.

UPDATE 20:44 - The BBC are reporting we have been given permission to discuss a move with Kaka and his representatives, quoting directly from his agent Diogo Kotscho.

Kaka open to a possible move

Contrary to the indications given yesterday, when he talked of his ambition to “grow old with Milan”, Kaká has told his agent, Diogo Kotscho, and Galliani that he may well accept City’s offer if the conditions are right. These apply not only to his wages, which would be worth £13.6 million a year after tax, but also to Milan’s acquiescence and the legitimacy of City’s plans and ambitions.

>>times online.

Following reports late this afternoon, in which Kaka appeared to reject any potential move, Oliver Kay in The Times suggests that this may not be the case with one of his advisors, Diogo Kotscho making positive noises:

“If Milan let us talk, then we will see what City have to offer. It was a great proposal but it’s not about only money. We have to see if Manchester City have a project to become a Champions League team and become one of the top teams in the world and to stay there long term.”

The report does suggest one condition that could be placed in any agreement would be a get out clause which would allow Kaka to move for a minimum fee should Champions League football not be attained by the end of the 2009/10 season.

It isn't the last we are likely to hear about Kaka over the next week or so, and you do get the impression that there will be plenty going back and forth before things fall in to place one way or the other.

More on the Kaka bid

After I initially posted that the news had not got a great deal of attention, the story blew up everywhere today with a mass of news, quotes and reports across both the press and TV.

What is clear is that there was a meeting that took place, with The Guardian suggesting a combined bid of £91 million was put to Milan to acquire not only Kaka, but Rino Gattuso and Dida as well.

Some cold water has now been poured on the possibility of a move with it being reported that Kaka is happy to remain at The San Siro but his agent has hinted that if the offer is right then he would consider it.

This morning - perhaps carried along with the press - it certainly looked as if there was a good chance of the move occurring, with it even being suggested that a deal could be agreed before the end of the January window but matters do look less clear now and it will be an interesting few days to see if any progress is made.

What seems to to be the concensus view by those 'in the know' is that Kaka needs to be convinced that we are heading in the right direction in order to match his ambition. Clearly, on the pitch we are not yet able to do that which lends even more weight to the importance of the second half of the season.

Further anlaysis:

• Owen Wilson
• Paul Wilson
• Henry Winter
• Gabriele Marcotti
• Italian press round-up

Kaka meeting?

Manchester City have opened talks with AC Milan over the possibility of bringing Kaka to the Premier League, Sky Sports News understands.

Sky Sports News chief news reporter Bryan Swanson has learned that City chief executive Garry Cook travelled to Italy to begin preliminary discussions with officials from the Italian outfit.

The potential blockbuster transfer remains at a very early stage and no bid has been lodged, with Cook keen to test Milan's resolve to retain the services of the talented playmaker.

>>Sky Sports.

I'm really not sure what to make of this.

There were some more rumours around this morning linking Kaka with a move to the club, with figures being quoted in the region of £100 million.

What is interesting though about this report is that club officials (namely Garry Cook) travelled to Italy to meet with their counterparts from Milan, suggesting it has to be a possibility and not solely a rumour put out to the press to fill column inches.

Cook is also not likely to travel out to Milan without at least some encouragement that it is a move worth pursuing and I'm surprised this story hasn't garnered more attention thus far, although it could be based entirely on incorrect information I suppose.

Kaka isn't going anywhere this January, yet has in the past been open about a move to the Premier League, but could this move really happen?