Manchester City's warning for suitors

Jerome Boateng

Manchester City are refusing to be held to ransom by wantaway stars Emmanuel Adebayor and Jerome Boateng.

And if that means the two players remaining at the Blues when the transfer window shuts, then the Blues are willing to live with it.

Boateng announced yesterday that he has negotiated a four-year deal to join Bayern Munich after an injury-hit and uncomfortable debut season at Eastlands.

That came as news to Bayern, who deny they have spoken to the player or his representatives.

City have not given Bayern permission to speak to Boateng.

The problem is that Bayern’s £10million offer for the player is less than half of what City want for him.

Manager Roberto Mancini believes the 22-year-old defender will one day be one of the world’s top defenders, but will let him go as the player is clearly unhappy at City.

But the Blues, who paid £11.5m to Hamburg for the Germany international a year ago, feel he is worth much more.

The transfer of Phil Jones from Blackburn to United is a marker in the current transfer market, City believe.

The Reds paid £16.5m for an under-21 international, while Bayern are offering two-thirds of that for a player who reached the World Cup semi-finals with Germany last summer.

Boateng, who missed the first six weeks and the last two months of the season with injury, accused City of being awkward over the proposed deal.

“It is true that I have agreed with Bayern on a four-year deal, now it is up to Manchester to make it work,” said Boateng.. “At the moment they are making things a bit difficult.

“My dream is to have a starting spot within a year, hopefully at Bayern, and then I want to win the European championship with Germany.

Boateng’s unhappiness at City stems from the fact that he prefers to play in a central defensive position, whereas Mancini has seen him principally as a right-back.

Even in that position he has become second, and possibly third choice, behind Micah Richards and Pablo Zabaleta.

Ironically, Boateng feels Mancini’s insistence in playing him at full back is damaging his international career – even though he starred for Germany at left and right-back in South Africa last year!

“It is about the position,” he said. “Bayern want me as a central defender and that is also an advantage for the national team.”

Adebayor’s future is also very unclear, with Real Madrid not budging from their £5m valuation, and happy for their option on him, which ran until this week, to expire.

Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo has urged coach Jose Mourinho to do his best to keep the Togolese star, who scored six goals in his loan spell at the Bernabeu in the latter half of last season.

“I would keep him,”  said Ronaldo. “He is a very good footballer, but an even better team-mate. He is also very important in the dressing room. He’s like Marcelo, he transmits a lot of joy and positive energy.”

Tottenham and AC Milan are among teams looking at Adebayor, but City have told his representatives they will refuse any offers that do not come close to their valuation of the player, which is around £15m.

City officials have been meeting with their Udinese counterparts over the last two days in a bid to agree a deal over the Italian club’s Chilean winger Alexis Sanchez.

The Blues are still being cited as favourites to land the 22-year-old, with reports from Italy suggesting their inclusion of £4.4m-rated Vladimir Weiss – on top of £29m cash – has so far not been matched by rivals Barcelona, Inter Milan and Juventus.

Udinese owner Giampolo Pozzo has also suggested that United have re-entered the bidding for the player, who is said to have told his representatives that he would prefer a move to Barca or United.

Sanchez’s agent said his client’s future was still up in the air: “An agreement with Manchester City? Sanchez’s future is still wide open,” he said. “We’re working on it, after meetings with City, today we will have new appointments.”

Manchester City in pole position for Alexis Sanchez

Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini is yet to make a definitive move in the transfer market this summer

Manchester City are in pole position to sign Chilean whizkid Alexis Sanchez, according to the Udinese owner Giampolo Pozzo.

The Blues are refusing to be drawn into an auction for the 22-year-old winger, who has been compared to Cristiano Ronaldo.

But Udinese have already said he is worth at least £31m and have been trying to whip up an auction between City, Barcelona, Inter Milan and Juventus.

Reports in Italy suggest United are also interested, but the Reds are remaining low-key.

Said Pozzo: “He has a 50 per cent chance of him going. English football is the richest, and they know how to value a player – this is why City are favourites.

“If he’d go, at the moment Manchester City have the highest probability of signing him.

“But 35million euros won’t be enough.”

Sanchez himself claims he is in the dark over his future, but has refuted comparisons with Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, saying: “I I just know I want to play and improve as a person.”

Boy wonder bid: Manchester City lead race for Alexis Sanchez

IN DEMAND: Alexis Sanchez

Manchester City are determined to grab the initiative in the race to sign Chilean ‘Boy Wonder’ Alexis Sanchez.

The move to land the Blues’ top summer target appeared dead in the water a fortnight ago when Barcelona seemed set to clinch the signature of the 22-year-old Udinese star.

But that deal stalled over Barca’s refusal to go above their £20.5m valuation, and the refusal of Bojan Krkic to be used as a makeweight in the deal.

With Inter Milan and Juventus already foundering as the stakes get higher, City were today prepared to up their initial £22m offer to around £27m – a price likely to be accepted.

City will also explore the prospect of including a player in the deal with Vladimir Weiss one possibility.

Barca’s interest has flagged as they have stepped up their interest in Villarreal striker Giuseppe Rossi and Arsenal’s Cesc Fabregas – and they announced they have a £35m ceiling on their summer spending.

Real Madrid are the only other club capable and willing to go head-to-head with City, but they seem to be more intent on landing Atletico Madrid’s Sergio Aguero and Brazilian star Neymar.

The biggest stumbling block could be persuading Sanchez to move to England as he has already said he would prefer a move to Barcelona or to remain in Italy.

That is where Roberto Mancini comes in – he helped to talk David Silva into giving up the Spanish sunshine to join City, and the Blues’ top brass are hoping he can do the same with Sanchez.

Report says Kolo Touré has condition that makes him think he is fat

Kolo Touré is suspended from football until 2 September.

The full extent of the weight issues that led to Kolo Touré taking a banned substance and subsequently being suspended from football for six months has been laid bare in a report that diagnoses the Manchester City player as suffering from a "recognised medical condition" in which he had become "obsessed" with a "misplaced perception that he was fat."
The in-depth findings into Touré's disciplinary case for being found with bendroflumethiazide in his system claims three different doctors had seen him as part of the case. Their analysis was of a man who "for some years has had a problem controlling his weight, has become obsessed with his weight and more particularly the appearance of his belly".
The report, released by the Football Association, goes on to say the medical evidence "proved the existence of a recognised medical condition concerning his perception of his appearance" .Touré's case "was that he took the water tablets to reduce the size and appearance of his belly, flowing from his misplaced perception that he was fat, a symptom of his medical condition".
Touré was banned from all football activities, including training with the rest of Roberto Mancini's players, until 2 September, after admitting the offence following a routine drug test after the Manchester derby at Old Trafford on 12 February.
The report claims the 30-year-old told the commission he had been under the belief he was allowed to take the water tablets after putting them into a drug dosette marked "Herbalife" and showing them to the club's then doctor, Jamie Butler, during an overnight hotel stay before the FA Cup tie at Notts County on 30 January.
Touré's case was that he asked Butler "these are the supplements I take, are they OK?" According to the FA document, he "recalled Dr Butler looking through the bag, lifting out some of the contents and then telling him that "everything in the bag is OK.'"
However, Butler told the hearing he could not recollect seeing the bottle of water tablets at any stage, and that his recollection was that Touré simply told him he wanted to start taking some Herbalife products. His evidence was in stark contrast to that of the player.
The report finds Touré did not make sufficient checks to establish whether the water tablets contained any banned substances, pointing out there were "obvious and reasonable steps that he could and should have taken; for example, make proper inquires with the club or his own doctor".
Rather than checking with the clinic where the tablets were issued, Touré had "relied upon multiple hearsay: he asked his wife to ask her friend who asked a receptionist who asked a doctor. That was perfunctory and pregnant with risk".
Touré's legal team "comfortably satisfied" the hearing that he had taken the tablets purely for "aesthetic purposes" and not for any performance-enhancing means, but the former Arsenal player is criticised for ignoring the advice that is routinely presented to him as a professional sportsman.
The commission was "unimpressed with the argument that his medical condition impaired his judgment." The report adds: "Kolo Touré is 30 years of age. He has received anti-doping education. He has been tested many times before. He has appeared in an anti-doping film. He is a seasoned and experienced international player … knowledgeable about, and with experience of, anti-doping regimes.
"In short [he] repeatedly, and for some time, took medication contained in a medicine bottle labelled only [with] a white sticky label on which was printed 'water tablets x21'. Frankly, they could have been anything."

Young Manchester City guns taking the fast route

PROSPECT: Harry Bunn

The route taken by Manchester City’s new owners when they first came to Manchester in 2008 has become part of Blue legend.

New chairman Khaldoon al Mubarak might have been expected to throw open the doors of the City of Manchester Stadium, like the new gunslinger in town.

But, apart from the fact such showmanship is not the urbane City chairman’s style, the reality that he visited the club’s academy at the Platt Lane complex en route to the stadium was highly symbolic.

From day one, Khaldoon promised that the people he represented, Sheikh Mansour and the rest of the City board, had the academy down as a key element in the development of the club.

And, while a staggering £325m has been spent on bringing in the kind of talent which has pushed the Blues into the elite of English football, the investment in the academy has been more low-profile but just as significant.

With Uefa’s financial fair play rules about to start biting next season, the nurturing of home-grown talent becomes more vital than ever.

Not that City have ever needed a prod in that regard – Shaun Wright-Phillips, Joey Barton, Dedryck Boyata, Daniel Sturridge, Micah Richards, Stephen Ireland, Michael Johnson and Nedum Onuoha are all testimony to that fact.

Now the Blues are busy preparing the next wave of youngsters to try their luck in the first team next season.

One of the reasons Mark Hughes got the sack at City was his unwillingness to give young players a break. He felt that in a crucial season, experience was the way forward.

Roberto Mancini was briefed that he was expected to give young talent its head – and his first match in charge, the Boxing Day win over Stoke in 2009, saw Dedryck Boyata and Javan Vidal on the substitutes’ bench.

Age no barrier

Mancini went on to blood Boyata, Greg Cunningham, Abdi Ibrahim and Alex Nimely that season, and has again shown this season that age is no barrier, even though competition for first-team places gets tougher with every cheque written.

Those young players will have an exciting new challenge next season, with the inaugural NextGen Series beginning in September, a kind of Champions League for under-19 players.

City have been drawn in a group with Barcelona, Celtic and Marseille – with all matches to be played at first-team stadiums – and the six-month competition will build to a final in January.

The new competition will give young City talents like Abdul Razak, Freddie Veseli and Harry Bunn the chance to shine on an international stage, as well as playing at stadiums like the Nou Camp, San Siro, Celtic Park and Anfield.

But the older City players may be farmed out on loan next season, with the possibility that the elite development team may be scrapped.

City have a number of youngsters who are expected to push for first-team football in the next two seasons, including Israeli ace Gai Assulin, whose first season with the Blues was disrupted by injury.

Then there is 18-year-old Spanish youth international Joan Angel Roman, a sumptuously-talented attacking midfielder, whose 17-year-old countryman Denis Suarez has already been secured from Celta Vigo in a £1m move.

French under-17 winger Jeremy Helan, 18-year-old Ivorian Razak and Veseli – a defender who captained Switzerland to the Under-17 World Cup – are other names to watch. Then there is Bunn, son of former Oldham striker and City coach Frankie, named academy scholar of the year last season after a prolific season which saw him break into the elite development team.

With Boyata, Ibrahim and Nimely all a year older and ready to step up their challenge, the conveyor belt of talent is still chugging along at Carrington and Platt Lane. But Mancini has demanded a better output.

Khaldoon said at the end of the season: “We have continued to invest in the academy and brought on a lot of talent this year. The reserves finished second this year.

“I am very optimistic, especially with some of the talents brought in over the last 12 months.

“The academy continues to go from strength to strength.

“This is always going to be a priority. You need a successful academy.”

I would like to go to Bayern Munich, says Manchester City defender Jerome Boateng

Jerome Boateng

Manchester City defender Jerome Boateng has outlined his desire to join Bayern Munich this summer.

Boateng joined City from Hamburg on a five-year deal 12 months ago but already has his sights set on a move back to the Bundesliga.

The Germany international, speaking at a promotional event in Hamburg, said: "I would like to go to Munich. On my side everything is clear."

Boateng believes he can further his international career at Bayern after expressing his displeasure at being played at right-back at Eastlands.

He added: "I have already told (City boss) Roberto Mancini that I want to play in central defence and not at full--back.

"Bayern have indicated I will play in the centre. To play there regularly is important for me because I will have a better chance of playing in the national team."

Boateng accepts his fate is in City's hands, though.

"It is all about whether I am released. I hope it works," he said.

"Bayern are bigger than Manchester City, they are one of the top six teams in Europe. To play for them would be an honour for me."

Winger Alexis Sanchez back on Manchester City radar

Alexis Sanchez

Manchester City are again eyeing up their top summer transfer target Alexis Sanchez after his club Udinese said no deal has been struck with Barcelona.

The Blues are likely to be the only club to meet the Italian club’s £27m asking price for the 22-year-old Chile winger.

And that means Sanchez will either have to review his decision that he did not want to move to England, or remain at Udinese for another season.

Reports in the Spanish press earlier this week claimed Sanchez had agreed a £60,000-a-week deal to join the European champions and that agreement between the two clubs was a formality.

But Udinese poured cold water on that suggestion, saying they had not been in contact with Barca over the sensational winger, who scored 12 goals to help unfashionable Udinese reach the Champions League this season.

Udinese president Franco Soldati said: “Regarding reports of a possible transfer of Chilean striker Alexis Sanchez to FC Barcelona, I would like to point out that they are not true.

“No agreement has been reached between Udinese and Barcelona for the transfer of this player.

“Moreover, no meeting has been scheduled between the two clubs to discuss such transfer.”

That news prompted Inter Milan to consider tabling a bid for Sanchez.

But City are the only club to have made a concrete move for the player, even though the indications were he preferred to stay in Italy – until Barca showed their interest.

Barca are also weighing up big-money moves for Arsenal’s Cesc Fabregas and Villarreal striker Giuseppe Rossi, and may not be able to afford three major outlays.

City coach Attilio Lombardo revealed last week that City had cooled their interest in Sanchez, as it appeared he would remain in Italy, but they have not entirely given up.

They have been actively looking at other options, including Wesley Sneijder, Javier Pastore, Marek Hamsik and Ezequiel Lavezzi.

But the silence emanating from Carlos Tevez over his future means they cannot truly get on with their summer plans.

If Tevez’s camp can engineer his departure – which seems increasingly unlikely – City will have more money to spend and will also revise their entire strategy.