Manchester City have offered AC Milan a world record £100-million in cash in a bid to land former World Player of the Year Kaka, newspaper reports here said Wednesday.
A four-man delegation led by chief executive Garry Cook met top officials at Milan’s headquarters on Tuesday, where they offered to make the Brazilian player the highest paid in the world on £15-million a year after tax, the Daily Mail and the Sun tabloids reported.
Silvio Berlusconi, Italy’s Prime Minister and Milan’s owner, has resisted previous attempts to lure the 26-year-old Kaka away. But the player has said he is unhappy with his role in the AC Milan team and would love to play in the Premier League.
The Times newspaper on its website reported that City officials had gone to Milan armed with a salary offer from Sheikh Mansour, their billionaire owner from Abu Dhabi.
City chief executive Cook, met Ariedo Braida, the Milan sporting director, and Adriano Galliani, the Italian club’s executive vice-president, to discuss the offer, the Times said.
There was no official word from Manchester City, who have struggled for form all season and are currently just two points clear of the relegation zone casting doubts over the position of Hughes who took over at Eastlands from former England boss Sven-Goran Eriksson last year.
Press reports have suggested that the visit of Newcastle on January 28 has been pencilled in as a potential debut day for the former world footballer of the year, deposed by Manchester United’s Cristiano Ronaldo on Monday.
Despite City’s activity in the player market, former Blackburn boss Hughes has been insisting he is not a big fan of the transfer window.
”I don’t particularly like the transfer window because you have to wait to address things that could be sorted out a lot more quickly under the old system,” Hughes told the Manchester Evening News.
”I am sure there were reasons behind bringing in a transfer window in the first place but I cannot fathom what they were.
”There have been weaknesses in our squad for quite some time and I have not had the opportunity to address them.
”Now we get to January and prices are inflated and the expectations are heightened. I don’t think it is a healthy situation.” – Sapa-AFP