At our sister site EPLTalk.com and on all the major soccer sites, the buzz is about the proposed purchase of Kaka by Manchester City. Representatives from Manchester City have traveled to Milan and a bid has been made, reportedly in the region of £100 million, for the 26-year-old midfielder. This would more than double the previous world record transfer fee of £46 million when Zinedine Zidane was sold to Real Madrid by Juventus in 2001.
Is this sort of deal possible? Well, certainly the new owners of Manchester City have that sort of money to splash out. That is not in question. However, one has to wonder why Kaka would want to move to Manchester City right now and not in the summer, if he chooses to move at all. He has previously stated that he is happy at Milan and he does have a deal running through 2013. That said, the reported £500,000 a week wage packet being offered might be enough for even someone as principled as Kaka to think about jumping at.
From a football standpoint, it would be a step down for Kaka. Mainly in the fact that Man City are currently closer to the bottom of the table than they are the top and it is looking unlikely that they will secure any sort of European action for next season. He may be willing to become part of a rebuilding project during the summer but I would be supremely shocked if a move occurred in the next couple of weeks.
City need to focus on staying up and can start retooling in the summer once their top-flight status is preserved. I believe this is why Mark Hughes has been going for familiar names and experienced Premier League talent like Scott Parker and Craig Bellamy. They may not be the ones that will have City challenging for Champions League glory but they are quite capable of turning their current season around. I also think that The Citizens could use another defender to shore things up.
Either way, the next couple of weeks will be interesting for Manchester City fans.
Sticking with actual completed deals, here’s a quick rundown of some of the notable transfers thus far.
- Brazilian striker Brandao has joined Marseille from Ukrainian club Shakhtar Donetsk on a 3.5 year contract. Brandao, who is believed to have cost between 6 and 8 million Euros, could make his debut for the club in Saturday’s league clash at home to Le Havre. He is expected to wear the number 9 shirt. Marseille face FC Twente in the UEFA Cup Round of 32.
- Speaking of FC Twente, they have sold defender Rob Wielaert to Dutch rivals Ajax for an undisclosed transfer fee. Wielaert had developed into a key player for Twente and they had hoped to keep him at the club but the lure of Ajax was too strong.
- Sampdoria have signed Giampaolo Pazzini in a 9 million Euro transfer deal. The striker joins from fellow UEFA Cup contenders ACF Fiorentina, who will receive forward Emiliano Bonazzoli on loan as part of the deal. Bonazzoli had scored four times in five UEFA Cup games while with Sampdoria, but failed to find the net in nine league outings. His move to Fiorentina could become permanent in the summer. Fiorentina face Ajax in the UEFA Cup Round of 32 next month, while Sampdoria come up against Ukrainian club FC Metalist Kharkiv.
- Metalist have been busy preparing for that clash by signing a couple of players. Defensive midfielder Walter Acevedo from Argentine club San Lorenzo joins Ukrainian Under-21 international midfielder Denys Oliynyk (signed from Dynamo Kyiv) and defender Andriy Berezovchuk (signed from FC Metalurh Donetsk) as new faces for the stretch run.
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