Roque Santa Cruz is set to become a Manchester City player
in the New Year despite interest from Real Madrid
Manchester
City will kick-start the January sales by
agreeing a fee of £18million with Blackburn for
striker Roque Santa Cruz in the next 24 hours.
Talks are at an advanced stage, with both clubs keen to complete
the move quickly. City manager Mark Hughes is anxious to secure a
player he signed for Blackburn from Bayern Munich for a bargain fee
of £3.8m just 16 months ago, while new Rovers boss Sam Allardyce
expects to be handed £10m from the sale and wants as much time as
possible to spend it.
Santa Cruz himself insisted on Tuesday he would only quit Ewood
Park for another Barclays Premier League club despite interest from
Real Madrid.
The 27-year-old told Radio Primero de Mayo: 'I would like to
stay in England. I like this league. It is one of the most
competitive in the world.' He added: 'I have nothing to do with any
offers. They are made to the club and the directors make a
decision.'
As revealed by Sportsmail earlier this month, Allardyce has
always accepted he would have to sacrifice his prize asset to
afford the reinforcements he needs to keep Blackburn up.
Santa Cruz, 27, has to agree personal terms, but that is not
expected to be a problem considering the wealth of City's owners,
his close relationship with Hughes and an admission on the eve of
Allardyce's first game that he wanted to test himself at a bigger
club.
The Paraguay striker, who scored 23 goals in his first season in
England, has yet to play under Allardyce because of a calf injury.
Having had two bids turned down, Hughes will now get his man at the
third attempt to begin what is expected to be a busy month of
transfer business at Eastlands.
Hughes may also try and bring German international Philipp
Lahm to Eastlands
He is also hoping to prise Germany's World Cup defender Philipp
Lahm from Bayern Munich if Chelsea refuse to allow Wayne Bridge to
join. Hughes pencilled the England left back on to his wish list
almost as soon as the Abu Dhabi United Group takeover of City in
August promised a money-no-object budget to sign New Year
reinforcements.
But Chelsea are in no hurry to do business with City after
seeing their deal for Robinho hijacked at the 11th hour in the
summer.
Hughes is ready to pay £8m, but if Chelsea play hardball over
Bridge, he will once again turn to his old club Bayern.
Lahm made the all-star team at the 2006 World Cup and has six
years' Bundesliga experience with the club he joined as an
11-year-old. He was a Barcelona target last summer but signed a new
deal until 2012, so is likely to cost more than £8m.
