Brazilian's Real escape

Robinho's agent Wagner Ribeiro has admitted that he deliberately used Chelsea's interest in the winger to get any deal which would take the 24-year old out of Real Madrid – whether the controversial winger ended up at Stamford Bridge or not.

The Brazilian joined Manchester City in a British record deal on deadline day and Ribeiro said: 'I went to London to plot a get-out strategy with (Chelsea chief executive) Peter Kenyon.

'I filtered out the details of the Chelsea offers to the media - I was just playing according to the rules of the game.'


Ribeiro continued: 'Kenyon was desperately phoning me to find out what was happening but I'd come to the conclusion that Chelsea and Real were not going to reach an agreement so we said yes to City.'


It was very clear that Robinho was intent on leaving Real before the transfer deadline, and I think the majority of non Real fans were sympathetic to his plight. But now that his agent has come out and revealed the lengths they were prepared to go to achive their aim I am sure I am not alone in viewing the transfer antics of Robinho and his agent with distaste. Not very honourable behaviour gentlemen.

City's new Arab owners make £160,000-a-week Robinho top Premier League wage earner

Manchester City have made Brazil star Robinho the highest-paid player in the Barclays Premier League at an incredible £160,000 a week.

And the front man for City’s prospective new owners from the Abu Dhabi royal family fired a warning shot at neighbours Manchester United by even threatening a future bid for Cristiano Ronaldo.

Robinho was promised the enormous wages to persuade him to give up his dream of joining Chelsea. And the extent of City’s new wealth and ambition was emphasised when manager Mark Hughes was told he could buy the Brazilian and Dimitar Berbatov on the same day



Berbatov decided to join United but hinted that City were also prepared to push the boat out for him.

He said: ‘The red shirt is a really, really big thing for me. I don’t play for the money. If I want to play for the money, I would have accepted Manchester City’s offer.’


With Robinho now earning £30,000 a week more than Chelsea’s John Terry and £100,000 a week more than City’s second-highest earner Shaun Wright-Phillips, it would appear that the Abu Dhabi United Group for Development and Investment mean business.

On Tuesday night, Dr Sulaiman Al-Fahim, the front-man for ADUG, said: ‘I’m happy and really excited to have Robinho at this club, but we wanted both of the players. We would have had both of them if we could.

‘I’m going to see the performance in the first half of the season and then we’ll decide what we do on transfers at the halfway stage. Ronaldo has said he wants to play for the biggest club in the world, so we will see in January if he is serious.

‘Real Madrid were estimating his value at $160million (£89m) but for a player like that, to actually get him, will cost a lot more. I would think $240m (£135m). But why not? We are going to be the biggest club in the world, bigger than both Real Madrid and Manchester United.’

It was thought Al-Fahim was mischiefmaking with his comments about United, but, asked later in the day by Sportsmail about his ambitions for City, he suggested that the club’s owners have indeed set their sights on toppling United.

He added: ‘Manchester is a big city, one of the biggest for football in the UK. I can’t say we’re necessarily going to be bigger than United because every club has the right to grow and might do so, but we certainly believe we can challenge them from now on.’






Al-Fahim offered assurances on Tuesday night that Hughes and executive chairman Garry Cook will remain at the club when it eventually passes from Thaksin Shinawatra into Arab hands later this month.

The 31-year-old will meet Hughes for the first time in London on Friday morning and also seek a meeting with Premier League chairman Sir Dave Richards in order to explain ADUG’s plans for the club.

Hughes is understandably delighted at the takeover of the club he joined only in June but he has already been made aware that City must be playing Champions League football this time next year.

Al-Fahim added: ‘We will certainly not pay £40m for a player if he is only worth £10m and we must also makes sure that the club is doing well.

‘That means finishing in the top four this season and fighting for the title in the next two or three seasons.’

On Tuesday at the City of Manchester Stadium, fans queued to renew season tickets and buy first team shirts bearing the names of Robinho and Wright-Phillips, who returned to the club last week.

Robinho met Hughes in London yesterday before flying to South America for international duty with Brazil this weekend.

Hughes said: ‘With the environment we create, we help good players become better and we hope Robinho can become the best in the world. We certainly think he can be.’