Club accused over Gago

Judging by these comments, the agent of Fernando Gago and Real's Jorge Valdano are none too pleased with our conduct over the transfer that wasn't:

"City used us," Gago's agent Marcello Lombilla told radio station Onda Cero. "This has never happened to me before. I don't want to talk about the figures that City were offering because they approached Madrid without even knowing there wasn't physically enough time to put something together."

Real's sporting director Jorge Valdano was equally unimpressed with City's attempts, claiming that their lack of preparation hindered any hope of reaching a deal.

"They had nothing prepared, not even one document signed," Valdano told El Pais. "They had not reached an agreement with the player and they would have had to have done everything in 40 minutes."

It is difficult to know how true the accusations are, but it is not a stretch to thinkg that whilst Gago may have been on the 'wanted list', it was not until the deal to sign McDonald Mariga ultimately collapsed that there was a real intent to pursue Gago and salvage something from deadline day.

Given it was so late in the day though (with a 5pm deadline) that confirmation that Mariga's work permit had been declined, this would have left little or no time to negotiate and tie-up a deal for Gago (hence why suggestions of an initial loan surfaced on Monday), and if the accusations have some substance, does definitely show a lack of contingency and forward planning by the key decision makers in charge.

The lowdown on the Gago 'non-deal'

The Guardian's man for all things La Liga, Sid Lowe, brings us some background on the reasons why a deal for Fernando Gago did not ultimately transpire:

Manchester City failed in last-minute efforts to sign the Real Madrid midfielder Fernando Gago in a deal worth a potential €18m (£15.7m). Gago, who had asked Madrid to allow him to leave, spent much of today in a hotel awaiting developments but was forced to stay at the Santiago Bernabéu after the clubs failed at the 11th hour to reach agreement on the terms of the transfer.

City were keen to bring the Argentina international to Eastlands and Madrid were willing sellers but, with time running out to finalise the details and complete paperwork on a permanent move, City proposed a loan with an option to buy for €18m only for Madrid to refuse.

The article goes on to state that Madrid were hoping to squeeze a higher fee from ourselves by leaving negotiations until the last stages, only to (incredibly) not realise that in England the deadline closed several hours before the Spanish one.

I can't say I'm hugely disappointed this one did not go through. A loan deal may have been interesting to see how he fared over half a season or so, but from seeing Gago play he hasn't shown me enough to suggest he would be a huge asset or upgrade to those currently in the squad.

Gago signing 'unlikely'

Sky Sports are having a busy old day, and there is yet another transfer story involving ourselves, and like the Adam Johnson one, it is not necessarily positive news:

And with Real having failed to secure cover in midfield, one of the player's two agents, Marcelo Lombilla, is meeting with Real director general Jorge Valdano to try and resolve the situation.

"Lombilla is in Madrid and has met twice with Valdano but I do not believe that he will leave," Gago's other agent, Zoran Vekic, said.

"There is still a meeting pending, but I doubt that Madrid will let him join Manchester City because it is not a question of money."

Hughes still keen on Diarra

"He's obviously a player I like. He's a good player, but
he's still a Portsmouth one. Things may develop for him but the window isn't
open at this moment so we'll just have to wait and see what happens."

>>telegraph.co.uk

There was a piece in today's Express that suggested whilst Diarra favours a move to Madrid, he is willing to listen to other offers, which could obviously sway things in our favour.

As coy as Hughes was being with his comments, it is clear that he would like to sign Diarra but like I have posted previously, I'd be surprised if he didn't end up at Madrid.

It has been an up and down week with all the speculation and stories surrounding Diarra, and will only escalate the further we head towards January.

Diarra set for Real deal

"We have always said we would only allow our players to
leave if we received an exceptional bid. We could not stand in the way of a move
such as this for Lassana."

>>telegraph.co.uk

I guess this will now show if our reported interest in Diarra is genuine or not, and if the believed bid from Real is around £20 million, it will test the resolve that we will not overpay for players.

I would be hugely surprised if he didn't sign for Real now Portsmouth have accepted an offer (especially given these comments), and if he does slip away from us does Hughes have a Plan B for this area?

Diarra move in the balance

Some up and down news today regarding the possible signing of Lassana Diarra, with mailonline suggesting Real have captured his signature (after being fairly confident in recent days he would end signing for us), only for Guillem Balague to later suggest we could trump Madrid both in terms of wages and transfer fee.

Later in the day though, this piece on sport.fr (translation required) suggests though that a move to Madrid could be finalised in the next 'forty-eight hours'.

No wonder Jack is all over the place on this one.

Closing in on Diarra?

Manchester City remain the favourites to sign Portsmouth's Lassana Diarra in the January transfer window, despite reports in Spain suggesting new Real Madrid coach Juande Ramos is preparing a rival offer for the 23-year-old.

>>guardian.co.uk

Reports have surfaced since Juande Ramos took over at Real Madrid that he would also be looking to add Diarra in January, but it does appear we still hold the upper hand and given Portsmouth's financial situation, a rumoured bid of around £20 million would more than likely land him.

Interestingly, it does appear that Diarra may have a 'get out' clause in his contract - most likely as the result of a minimum bid, if his comments are correct:

'I was able to add a clause to my contract, so if I shine here, and if a big club wants me, I already know that everything will go well. I don't want any more battles.'

Deadline day - Robinho signing confirmed

So says Sky Sports anyway, and for a fee of £32.5 million. And the BBC now report it as well.

I cannot imagine any other signings will get announced by us on what City apart, has been a fairly lacklustre deadline day, and still no word on Berbatov.

With that I'm off to bed as I've been going at this non-stop since I got in from work (so who knows what Jack must be feeling like after his sterling efforts today) and I'm about to drop.

Hopefully when we all wake up tomorrow, there won't have been any last minute hitches and Robinho will shortly be paraded as a City player, which, with the signing of SWP as well should make the Chelsea game an interesting one in couple of weeks time.

It really will be just liking watching Brazil....

Deadline day - Robinho set to sign

Seemingly all but confirmed now, with Ramon Calderon stating:

"We have agreed to sell the player for human reasons, for footballing reasons and for an important quantity of money."

Marca are also now confirming it.

It is a lot of money - certainly more than Chelsea were willing to pay and is a real marker of our intentions, but an immediate question is where exactly will he fit into the line-up as it has created a log jam in the attacking forward role now.

It will be an important signing as it will be a real 'impact' signing for the new regime and will put us firmly on the map (the sort of signing Thaksin hoped Ronaldinho would be), and although the deadline will likely pass without any further signings, it bodes well for January and (more importantly) next summer when we could see some real business being conducted.

What it also will deal is increase the pressure on Mark Hughes to deliver Champions League football - perhaps not this season, but definitely next.