Adebayor's potential move to Spurs collapsing over terms, leaves
City facing a £12m loss on striker
Feeling blue: Adebayor was loaned out to Spurs for the season,
but Man City can't seem to flog him
Manchester City are facing the prospect of
handing Emmanuel Adebayor a free transfer.
And that would take the amount of talent written off by
boss Roberto Mancini towards £90million.
The Blues are furious that, after agreeing a cut-price
£6m deal with Tottenham for a player they valued at £12m, the move
is collapsing over personal terms.
City were desperate to save Adebayor’s £170,000-a-week
wages – and remove a major obstacle stopping them making a £20m
raid for Arsenal’s Robin van Persie.
The champions told chairman Daniel Levy that they would
accept a cut-price fee of £6m to help Spurs offer Adebayor a
package close to the wages he earns at the Etihad.
City feel Levy has now backtracked – a move forcing
them to examine the prospect of either allowing the former Arsenal
hit-man to leave for free or giving him a pay-off to compensate him
for the money he will lose on the final two years of his
contract.
A City insider said: “It was felt there was two ways to
handle Adebayor. Either we could ask for a fee in excess of £10m
knowing we would have to spend perhaps half of that compensating
the player for lost earnings.
“Or, by asking £6m, the buying club would be able to
offer wages acceptable to Adebayor.
“Tottenham knew that was our intention. Now they want
us to accept the lower fee and pay Adebayor off.
“Basically they want a player who scored the goals that
took them to fourth place in the Premier League last season for
nothing.”
Sunday Mirror Sport can reveal that signing Van Persie
will remain an impossible dream while Adebayor stays.
Mancini has issued a thinly-veiled attack on the
failure of City’s football administrator Brian Marwood to land his
No.1 target.
But even if City doubled their initial £15m offer to
tempt the Gunners, Van Persie will not join the same club as
Adebayor.
The Dutchman still hasn’t forgiven his former Emirates
team-mate for the stamp which left him nursing a head wound and
earned Adebayor a three-match ban for violent conduct when City
beat Arsenal 4-2 in an explosive encounter in September 2009.
Like City, Manchester United and Juventus will not meet
Arsenal’s £30m valuation.
But Adebayor’s continuing presence at the Etihad is a
stumbling block for City.
Merry-go-round: Adebayor and Robin Van Persie could
both be moving clubs this summer
Mancini is unhappy that Marwood has been unable
to offload both Adebayor and Roque Santa Cruz. But City have
already lost more than £45m of the £431m they have spent in
transfer fees since Sheikh Mansour took over the club in August
2008.
They have also lost another fortune subsidising wages
to compensate for the loss of earnings once a player leaves the
club, either on loan or permanently.
Santa Cruz, a £17.5m buy from Blackburn, is available
for free but clubs are reluctant to match the £90,000-a-week wages
he will earn in the final year of his contract.
If he and Adebayor leave for free, that will wipe
another £42.5m off the players Sheikh Mansour has bought.
Kolo Toure, a £16m buy from Arsenal, can go for £5m.
And £16m Nigel de Jong will leave for free when his contract runs
out next year. Robinho, a £32m marquee signing who arrived when
the Abu Dhabi United Group took over, was sold to AC Milan for
£15m.
Craig Bellamy joined Liverpool on a free after costing
£14m, while £12m Wayne Bridge will have his £90,000-a-week pay
subsidised while on loan at Brighton.
Keeper Shay Given joined Aston Villa for half of the
£6m he cost from Newcastle.
But Jerome Boateng was sold for a profit. He cost
£10.5m from Hamburg but moved to Bayern Munich for £12.4m.
