OUT
Adebayor (£25m) available for
£12m
Wayne Bridge (£12m) available
for £5m
Shaun Wright-Phillips (£8.5m)
available for £5m
Roque Santa Cruz (£18m) available
for £4m
Jo (£17m) available for £4m
Shay Given (£7m) available for
£7m
IN
Wolfsburg's Bosnian frontman Edin Dzeko as a £35m
target.
The world's richest club will listen to offers in the January
transfer window for Emmanuel Adebayor, Wayne Bridge, Shaun
Wright-Phillips, Roque Santa Cruz and Jo.
Keeper Shay Given will also be made available — but for the £7m
he was originally bought for.
All six stars were signed by Mark Hughes, City boss Roberto
Mancini's predecessor, at a total cost of £87.5million.
But few have figured regularly this season and Mancini fears the
presence of some of them is having a negative influence at the
club.
City chief executive Garry Cook and chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak
discussed the transfer window with Mancini before flying to Abu
Dhabi to meet owner Sheikh Mansour for a board meeting.
There, they delivered Mancini's plans for the restructuring of
the squad for a second-half title push.
They include landing two new strikers, with Wolfsburg's Bosnian
frontman Edin Dzeko topping the list as a £35m target.
City will take the biggest hits on strikers Adebayor, 26, and
Santa Cruz, 29.
Adebayor cost £25m from Arsenal but is available for £12m after
failing to set the world alight following his move in July
2009.
Paraguayan Santa Cruz, meanwhile, was an £18m buy from Hughes'
former club Blackburn but will be up for grabs at a mere £4m.
City, though, seem prepared to make losses in all areas of the
pitch.
Left-back Bridge, 30, cost £12m from Chelsea in January 2009 but
City will now accept £5m.
And then there is winger Wright-Phillips, 28, who returned for a
second spell at City following an £8.5m move to Stamford Bridge in
August 2008.
He spoke about his desire to see it out at City this season but
talks on a new deal have stalled and the club will take £5m for
him.
The £17m deal for Brazilian flop Jo, 23, was agreed by former
boss Sven Goran Eriksson but completed under Hughes and City know
they will now be lucky to get £4m.
In fact, the only player City bosses want their full money back
on is Given, 34, who they bought from Newcastle in January
2009.
The Republic of Ireland stopper lost his place to Joe Hart at
the start of the season and said this week he had to get a move in
the New Year.
Ironically, Given will play his first Premier League game of the
season away to Fulham on Sunday when he replaces Hart, who is out
for a week with a back injury picked up on England duty.
What City will not do is compensate the highly-paid players if
they move. The six stars in question earn between £60,000 and
£130,000 a week and will struggle to get the same wages
elsewhere.
But City will tell them and their agents they are knocking down
asking prices, so the players can get the moves they want - and
return to action again.
In short, any make-up in wages will have to be organised with
the buying club.
City have already lost just over £10m this year on British
record signing Robinho, who was bought for £32.5m and sold to AC
Milan for £22m in August.
And striker Craig Bellamy, 31, a £14m buy from West Ham, is
currently on loan at Cardiff.
But the City hierarchy are determined to back Mancini in his
plans despite outside pressures.
Mancini told the club's board in the summer it was his way or no
way if he was going to continue as manager.
City lie fourth in the table after an incredible £320m
investment in the squad in just over two years.
