City eyeing up another sticky battle over £25m Toffees star

Manchester City are preparing to make another controversial summer swoop on Everton with a bid for Mikel Arteta.

City boss Roberto Mancini, who is hoping to take his spending close to the £100million barrier with a £25million offer for Aston Villa’s James Milner this week, will follow that up by asking Everton to name their price for Arteta.

The Merseysiders, who lost a battle to keep Joleon Lescott out of City’s clutches last year when the England defender moved to Eastlands in a £24million deal after a bitter war of words between the two clubs, are already braced for a City bid.

Boss David Moyes does not want to lose the gifted Spanish midfielder.

But last year he blamed his side’s poor start to the season on Lescott’s protracted departure.

Moyes rates Arteta as an even more important player – so it will take a City bid in excess of £25million to take the former Real Sociedad and Rangers playmaker away from Goodison.

City have already spent close to £70million landing Jerome Boateng, Yaya Toure and David Silva.

Everton believe the Blues proved they are prepared to pay a premium to get that trio and that City set the standard by lashing out a huge sum on Lescott.

Moyes has been told he does not need to sell, but that any money he can generate will be reinvested in new arrivals.

Mancini, meanwhile, will be faced with telling several players that they are surplus to requirements when City’s non-World Cup players return for pre-season training tomorrow.

Lescott, Emmanuel Adebajor, Craig Bellamy, Stephen Ireland, Micah Richards, Nedum Onuoha, Pablo Zabalata, Wayne Bridge, Adam Johnson and Michael Johnson will be amongst those reporting back.

So will big-money misfits Jo, Felipe Caicedo and Valerei Bojinov, who all spent last season away on loan at Malaga, Galatasaray and Parma respectively.

City spent almost £50million on the trio and are prepared to take huge hits on all three to get them off the payrole before the new season with Mancini only able to name 25 players in his Premier League squad.

Mancini accepts his squad is too big and while City will have to cope with the demands of tilting at the Premier League title as well as appearing in the Europa League, the Italian boss will be keen to reduce numbers to a more manageable level.

City will not want too many senior players, with little chance of appearing in their first team, hanging around Eastlands.