Hughes 1 Harry 0

The Times are apparently reporting that Man City will pull out of the deal for Palacios if Spurs end their interest in Craig Bellamy. Basically, we've both bid for the West Ham striker (our bid is surprisingly more according to reports this evening but West Ham do not want to do business with us). Bellamy might fancy a move to Spurs over City, so Hughes is obviously frustrated with our persistent bids distracting the player from joining him at Eastlands.

You following this? Reading between the lines, City don't actually want Palacios, but using the art of bluffing, are suggesting they could easily beat us to his signature, so if we want Wilson we have to end our interest in Bellmay.

So ridiculous, it just might be true.

Or maybe we're not really in for Bellamy. Hmm...

...In a rich mans world

Kaka is apparently going to be offered £500,000 per week to play for Manchester City. And there we have it. The modern game summed up in one simple sentence. A world class player, a ludicrous amount of money and a minor football club.

No disrespect to City, but young lads growing up in Brazil don’t dream about playing for them. But it doesn’t matter, as seen by Chelsea’s success. Signing Kaka will no doubt result in several other leading world-class players make the trip over to the Premiership to Eastlands to earn millions whilst a roller-caster adventure begins for their fans. It doesn’t matter if Kaka or anyone else for that matter hasn’t heard of them. It’s the Premiership and the owners have billions at their disposal. They might need to upgrade their manager from Hughes to someone with more clout globally to guarantee a few of those signatures (again, see Chelsea’s success) and it’s win-win if the trophy cabinet gets some shiny new inclusions.

Every kid growing up at the minute that aspires to play professional football must be laughing their heads off. It’s no longer about playing for the club you love. As long as you are good and especially if you are outstanding, someone will pay an abundance in wealth to make sure you play for them. So why stay loyal?

Then again, bite their hand off perhaps? Players of Kaka's ilk surely don't need the money City have to offer. Or maybe there isn't a sum of money in the world too big for a pro footballer. At a guess, Kaka won't move away from Milan because he's already rich, loves his club and want's to win more medals. Others, like Robinho's ilk, won't be too difficult to sign-up.

Most dream of playing for the real big clubs, enriched with tradition and vibrant history. Madrid, Barcelona, Milan, Manchester United etc. How will Man City or Chelsea be remembered? I guess big clubs will always be big and kids will always aspire to play for them. So we don’t have to worry about youngsters telling thief fathers:

“Dad, when I grow up, I want to play for Manchester City cause they’re really really rich”.

Arse Shaving hurts

Latest news is an echo of what we know already. He was in London (for Pav's birthday as well as speaking to an unnamed Prem club) and has now flown out to the Dominican Republic for his hols.

I think it's time to close this one off and look forward to signing an unknown continental/African player or one from the Championship (less of the Raziak ilk) instead.

I've even dismissed the possibility of re-signing Defoe as I keep forgetting that Man City will simply bid whatever over-estimation Pompey (or whoever else) price tag their players with.

Liverpool want rid of Keane? Sell him to City for £25M.
Pompey are broke? Sell Defoe and Johnson to City a cool £20M each.
Owen? Walk to City and get paid 200k per week for just scoring goals in the month leading up to January.
Zokora, best DM in the country, sell him to City for £30M.

Endless possibilities.