City’s leaking roof dampens Kaka hype
For all the confident posturing of the club’s powerbrokers in their pursuit of Kaka, the news that Real Madrid have emerged as a serious threat in the race to sign the midfielder from Milan will have pricked a few egos at Eastlands last night.
In City’s increasingly bizarre world, the mundane collection of three points against Wigan was completely overshadowed by their attempts over the past week to tempt arguably the world’s greatest footballer from San Siro to east Manchester.
A mischievous analogy to describe City’s nouveau riche pursuit of Kaka has been doing the rounds ever since news of their bid broke early last week, comparing the club to the down-and-out lottery winner that immediately races out to buy a plasma TV for his house, ignoring the leaking roof above his head.
There is an element of envy towards the club, who can now out-muscle anybody in the transfer market, but while City have little more to offer than money, Real have glamour, history and sex appeal to supplement their own riches.
The challenge facing manager Mark Hughes and City’s wealthy owner is to persuade Kaka that the blue half of Manchester really is the best place for him to develop his career.
“Very early on, Kaka was a player I was very keen on, but he’s one of those players you think will be unattainable,” Hughes said. “But you throw the name out there and hope something happens, but maybe you don’t anticipate anything ever will.
“An opportunity presented itself, though, and the feeling was Milan may well be receptive to an offer. That’s why we’ve pursued it because it may be that, in the future, a deal to bring Kaka to Manchester City will never present itself again. So when it does, you have to follow it through.
“You have to react quickly when the opportunity comes to acquire a player of that standard. You can’t hang about and think we’ll wait until the next window. You have to react when it presents itself.”
While City’s offer might not stretch to the £107m widely reported, the £60m bid understood to be on the table would still represent a world-record figure and Hughes admits that he and the club can do little to counter the accusations that the Abu Dhabi billions are ruining football. “I’m disappointed with that,” he added.
“Those accusations stem from wild speculation about what the final figure will be and how much the boy will earn, but those discussions are a million miles away from even being talked about.
“People are plucking numbers from the sky, doubling them and adding a zero.
“We’ve had initial contact with Milan and we’re trying to move it on. But there are a long of things that have to be addressed before we get there.”
On the pitch, City showed once again that defensive reinforcements should be the priority over window-dressing. Even prior to Richard Dunne’s second-half dismissal for stupidly kicking out at Amr Zaki, which will earn him a four-match suspension with it being his second red of the season, City were rocking whenever Wigan moved forward.
Hamburg midfielder Nigel do Jong is heading to Eastlands and he is likely to be joined by Wigan’s Wilson Palacios, but Dunne and co are beginning to show signs of wear and tear following half a season of plugging gaps left by City’s defensively-challenged forwards.
Still, it was full-back Pablo Zabaleta, operating as a makeshift midfielder, that settled the victory with his second-half volley from 20 yards.
Wigan should have snatched a point in the closing stages when Zaki headed over from three yards after Lee Cattermole’s header onto the crossbar left goalkeeper Joe Hart stranded.
REFEREE: Lee Mason (Lancashire) 5: Had a shocker. As soon as he dismissed Dunne, the inexperienced official lost the plot.
MATCH RATING: **** A real thriller at Eastlands, but only because of the failings of both teams.
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