More City stars to jump on Ireland's pay-off bandwagon
Published 23:00 14/08/10 By Simon Mullock
Manchester City face a multi-million-pound time bomb just to get rid of the players Roberto Mancini wants to ditch from Eastlands.
Sunday Mirror Sport can reveal that Stephen Ireland’s £2million demand to go to Aston Villa is just the tip of a financial iceberg.
He is asking for the kiss-off to make up for the shortfall in wages he will suffer if he joins Villa as a makeweight in the £25m deal that will take James Milner to City.
But now Robinho, Craig Bellamy, Jo, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Roque Santa Cruz and Felipe Caicedo are six big-money buys that have also been deemed surplus to requirements by the mega-spending Blues.
City are finding it impossible to find buyers who are willing to pay the asking price in transfer fees and also match the incredible wages that those players bank in Manchester.
City want £25m for Robinho, who cost a British-record £32.5m when he joined from Real Madrid two years ago on a £160,000-a-week contract.
So far, Besiktas and Schalke have lodged an interest in buying the Brazilian for £20m, but neither club is willing to go close to matching his wages.
The 26-year-old does have the option of going back to Santos on loan – but while the Sao Paulo club will honour City’s wages obligations, they would only pay a nominal fee to take him back for the season.
City face similar problems with Bellamy with Celtic and Tottenham interested in the £95,000-a-week Welshman, but only if they can take the £14m striker on loan.
Liverpool and Arsenal are willing to meet City’s £6m asking price for Wright-Phillips if he takes a hit on his £65,000 a week wages.
It means City must take a huge hit on the £82.7m investment they made in transfer fees for those players - and subsidise their future earnings with huge pay-offs.
