Manchester City face the prospect of a £30million wage
bill next season for players that manager Roberto Mancini no longer
wants.
Mancini is desperate to ditch Emmanuel Adebayor, Craig Bellamy,
Roque Santa Cruz, Wayne Bridge, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Jo and Nedum
Onuoha from his first-team squad, but has found his plans hamstrung
by the astronomical salaries that players are banking at Eastlands.
City are ready to take huge losses on a group of players recruited
by former boss Mark Hughes who cost the club a staggering £85m in
transfer fees alone.
But so far there have been no takers, with clubs unwilling to
meet either City’s cut-price valuations or the big-money deals
currently being paid at Eastlands.
Adebayor, who cost £25m when he arrived from Arsenal two
seasons ago on a deal worth £130,000-a-week, is being touted around
Europe for £14m.
The striker is refusing to contemplate a move to Zenit St
Petersburg, while Marseille want City to slash their asking price
and subsidise his wages.
Bridge and Bellamy, who cost a combined figure of £24m,
are both on £90,000 a week, while £18m misfit Roque Santa Cruz, who
earns slightly less, is wanted back at Backburn only if he slashes
his £80,000-a-week earnings.
Jo, the Brazilian signed for an initial £6m in a deal that would
have cost City £12m more if it had been a success, is also surplus
to requirements as are homegrown pair Wright-Phillips and
Onuhoa.
The salaries of unwanted players add up to a mindblowing
£550,000-a-week – or close to £30m over the course of a season
without bonuses.
City have the resources to manage these luxuries thanks to the
riches of their Abu Dhabi-based owners but they are looking to
balance their books ahead of the forthcoming implementation of
UEFA’s Financial Fair Play Regulations.
A City insider said: “Unless there is some movement of players
out of the club in the next 10 days this promises to the biggest
test of Roberto’s management skills that he has ever faced.
“There is a group of players set to report back to the club who
have been made aware that he doesn’t rate them and he doesn’t want
them around the place.
“The big question is how will he manage players? What will he do
with them because they aren’t part of his plans and he won’t want
them in and around the first-team squad?”
