Manchester City tired of waiting for Eto'o and pull out of race to sign Barcelona star

Manchester City last night pulled out of the race to sign Samuel Eto’o after growing tired of the Barcelona striker’s failure to respond to their stunning offer of £180,000 a week after tax.

City expect to clinch a deal with Carlos Tevez in time to unveil him on Tuesday and are planning a further move for John Terry but have given up on Cameroon striker Eto’o.

Chief executive Garry Cook said: ‘Samuel Eto’o is undoubtedly a fine footballer but the circumstances surrounding him were such that the deal could not be completed.
'We now feel the time is right to pursue other avenues and we have a clear and strategic transfer plan, which we continue to follow.’

The news surrounding Tevez is far more positive for City fans, however. Sources at Eastlands are convinced they have beaten off interest for Tevez from Chelsea to
land the former West Ham and Manchester United striker for £25.5million.

And City are also quietly confident they can tie up a deal for Chelsea and England captain Terry before they fly to South Africa on a pre-season tour on Wednesday.

Chief executive Cook flies back to Manchester this weekend after attending Robinho’s wedding in Brazil and will spend Monday putting the finishing touches to the Tevez deal before turning his attention to Terry.

Chelsea themselves are keen to have Terry’s future resolved before they set off on a pre-season tour of the United States on Thursday.

He had brief discussions with owner Roman Abramovich’s closest aide, Eugene Tenenbaum, on his return to training on Thursday but more serious talks with either chief executive Peter Kenyon or even Ambramovich himself are planned for early next week.

It seems they will have plenty to discuss, with City poised to raise their bid for Terry to £35m and offer him £200,000 a week to join Mark Hughes’s squad.
The official line from Chelsea remains that they do not wish to sell Terry and that their skipper wants to stay. However, much could depend on whether they are prepared to increase the 28-year- old defender’s £130,000-a-week wage by around another £20,000.

Should Terry opt to stay at Chelsea, he is likely to appear at a press conference alongside his new manager Carlo Ancelotti before the trip to the States.

If not, then the possibility remains that Terry could be joining his new City teammates
in South Africa.

While Terry is tempted by the goings on at Eastlands, the same cannot be said for Eto’o.

According to reports in Spain the Cameroon striker has turned down the chance of a two -year contract extension at the Nou Camp and is ready to leave this summer rather than see out the remaining year of his current deal.

But it seems Eto’o would prefer to wait and see if an offer from the likes of Manchester United or AC Milan is forthcoming despite City having agreed a £25m fee with Barcelona.

Meanwhile, Robinho’s marriage to childhood sweetheart, Vivian Guglielmetti, in Guaruja, Brazil on Thursday afforded the City star the opportunity to reacquaint himself with his former employer, Santos president Marcelo Teixeira.

And although Robinho left the Brazilian side in acrimonious circumstances, Teixeira
wasted no time trying to talk the skilful forward into a return to the Sao Paulobased
club.

‘Now that he is married and calm, it will be easier for him to return to play at Santos,’
he said. ‘It is a plan that both he and I have. I wish he could return to the club as
soon as possible.’

Such claims were no doubt taken with a pinch of salt by Cook, who was joined by a
star-studded collection of Brazil stars at the ceremony, including Robinho’s Eastlands
team-mate Elano, £56m Real Madrid man Kaka , former Arsenal forward Julio Baptista and his national team boss Dunga.

Money issues aside, Terry is also understood to be concerned at the lack of serious
movement by Chelsea in the transfer market, with Yuri Zhirkov their only major
capture of the summer along with youngsters Ross Turnbull and Daniel Sturridge.
The fact that City are in the market for players of the calibre of Tevez and Eto’o,
having already landed Roque Santa Cruz and Gareth Barry, is certainly a statement of intent by their hugely wealthy Arab owners and may prove just as appealing to Terry as the cash on offer at Eastlands.

But given the difficulty in signing either Terry or Eto’o, and the debacle of City’s attempt to sign Kaka last January, it is clear their wealth is still not attracting the marquee names.

That would all change were they able to offer Champions League football, a situation that might well become reality next summer should Hughes be able to add more high-calibre players.

Hughes wants a sense of clarity about his squad. As long as Eto’o dithered, such a position was impossible to achieve, leading to last night’s statement.

Meanwhile it has emerged that City's England defender Micah Richards contracted swine flu during the summer while on holiday in Ayia Napa.

The illness was diagnosed and treated in Cyprus, but the star of Stuart Pearce’s successful Under 21 side was then kept in isolation when he returned home.

He has now fully recovered and is with City’s squad for their pre-season trip to Germany.

Chelsea snub £30million Manchester City bid for John Terry

Manchester City last night had a £30million bid for England captain John Terry rejected, as Chelsea told them he is not for sale at any price.

Stamford Bridge officials released a statement exclusively to Sportsmail after confirming that a bid had been made in person by City chief executive Garry Cook.
Cook asked to meet Peter Kenyon, the Stamford Bridge chief executive, yesterday to discuss Chelsea's pursuit of talented young striker Daniel Sturridge.
It was something that surprised Chelsea when they had already said they would be happy to let an independent tribunal set the size of the fee for the 19-year-old.

But an even bigger surprise followed when Cook suddenly presented a letter with a formal offer for Terry. Kenyon was understood to be stunned, not least because he had already made it clear to Cook last season that the club captain and the heartbeat of the Chelsea team was not available at any price.

A club statement issued last night said: 'Chelsea Football Club can confirm it has completely rejected an offer from Manchester City for John Terry.

'It was made clear to City, for the second time following another approach last season, that we would not entertain any conversation on the subject. At that time John also reiterated his total commitment to Chelsea. We would like to make clear, and will not do so again, that John is not for sale.'
That Cook offered such a derisory sum further amazed Chelsea. When Bayern Munich are demanding £65m for Franck Ribery and Cristiano Ronaldo has moved to Real Madrid for £80m, and when City are prepared to pay vast sums for players like Robinho and Samuel Eto'o, less than £30million for one of the world's best centre halves seems low.

But City have long had their eye on Terry and Chelsea suspect this amounts to the latest stage in a poker game designed to try to lure exactly the kind of inspirational figure Mark Hughes wants in his team at Eastlands.

When City tabled an offer last season, Terry expressed his loyalty to a club he has served with distinction his entire career.

But the money on offer could yet prove tempting when the richest club in England would be prepared to almost double his current £130,000-aweek wage. Terry is already the highest paid player at Stamford Bridge but City could take him into an elite occupied only by players such as Ronaldo and Kaka at Real Madrid.
City plan to make at least one major impact signing this summer. Not least because they were left so embarrassed over the Kaka debacle when Cook responded to missing out on the Brazilian by launching an astonishing verbal attack on AC Milan. The former Nike executive, relatively new to football at the time, branded the Italian giants 'bottlers'.

Right now Samuel Eto'o is still believed to be within their reach, although they feel they are being used by the striker in his pay dispute with Barcelona. Eto'o, who will cost around £25m, will be available on a free next summer but City have offered a staggering £10m a year, net, in an attempt to lure him to the Barclays Premier League this summer.

A more realistic target is Carlos Tevez, who is expected to join the club early next week - even though others are interested. City will not want to fail in their Tevez bid after missing out on Terry. Cook, whose transfer-market prowess is being monitored by City's backers, is under pressure to close deals.

One observer commented: 'City have a lot of clout in the transfer market because of their backing, but it's important they go about their business in the right manner also.'

Cook and his top team were pleased when Roque Santa Cruz eventually arrived from Blackburn to spearhead the attack, alongside Robinho and - hopefully - Tevez.

Mark Hughes, however, demanded a top centre back. Although City continue to monitor Arsenal's Kolo Toure, Terry was always first choice for Hughes, who sees him as the iron man to lead his team and stabilise a back four that often conceded soft goals last season.

City say they hope to break into the top four this season and moving for a player of Terry's standing would appear to support their claims. They mean business and, although they have failed with this audacious effort, there will be more money flowing from their coffers in the coming weeks.

Meanwhile, Chelsea's imminent £18m recruit Yuri Zhirkov has been provided with personal armed bodyguards for the first time in a move seen in Moscow as a sign that his deal is agreed.

Zhirkov, 25, is expected to arrive in London on Monday and has a reputation for mixing freely with journalists and fans.

But now security men prevent access to him. 'All we can do now is watch Zhirkov from a distance,' said Sovetski Sport. 'His huge and extremely intimidating bodyguards who followed him everywhere did not let us ask him any questions about negotiations of his move to Chelsea and the date of his flight to London.'