Guillem Balague - Ronaldinho could sign for City !

FROM SKY - the middle section about what Ronaldinho has been told and has said makes interesting reading.



Guillem Balague told Revista that Ronaldinho's link with Manchester City is no joke - it could happen.



It's been a troubled season for the two-times World Player of the Year as injury and off the field problems have taken the toll and as he is sidelined for six weeks due to injury, Guillem Balague believes we have seen the last of Ronaldinho in a Barca shirt.


Ballague told Revista: "He's injured and will be out for at least six weeks - it's a real injury before you ask - that could be the end of him as a Barcelona player.


"I don think we will see him wearing the Barcelona shirt again unless he plans to join the team on the summer tour."


Manchester City have entered the race for the Brazilian's signature and Balague says he is certainly taking the offer seriously.


"It's well reported that Ronaldinho's brother and agent (Roberto de Assis) have met representatives of Manchester City and of AC Milan and that Barcelona have met representatives of both teams.


"What is not so well known is that Ronaldinho has had in his hands a report that shows what Manchester City plan to do this summer, a report that shows how important the fans are for the club, about the stadium, and Ronaldinho is actually said to his team-mates that it wouldn't be such a bad idea to go to Manchester City.




Serious


"We're not saying it may happen, we're not saying it is going to happen, but we are definitely saying that he is seriously considering it.


"It's important that Man City plan to pay him €20 million and when he was asked about the weather in Manchester etcetera he said 'no, that's fine, they plan to build their team around me'.


"We know that Milan will have their say and that Man City will have to pay some money to Barcelona - around €20 million.


"But the fact that his brother was at the City of Manchester stadium and the fact that Ronaldinho himself has been discussing the move with team-mates means that it's a big possibility - don't joke about it."


Our man in Spain, Graham Hunter also believes that Ronaldinho could well be playing in the Premier League next season, especially if Sven Goran Eriksson plans his team around him.



Struggle


Hunter said: "Should Barcelona reach the Champions League final Ronaldinho will struggle to be fit for it so I don't think he'll play competitively for Barcelona again.


"Moreover, last night in a nearby hotel to the stadium, the Vice President, Beguiristain (Director of Football), Roberto de Assis and also (Super agent) Pini Zahavi met to discuss this very offer from Manchester City.


"The reason it sits so well with what Ronaldinho rather than his brother wants is that maybe the time is right for him to go to a club where they need him more a little bit more than he needs them.


"That would suggest his mentality is not to get back at the top to prove that he can be the best in the World again, rather he wants to go somewhere where he will be treated like the Messiah.


"That may say he is settling for second best but Manchester City's offer is not only competitive but known to Barcelona and potentially acceptable."



Henry


Hunter also feels that Thierry Henry will head for pastures new next season after a disappointing debut season at the Camp Nou.


"In my opinion everything is looking to shape towards Henry leaving, but Barcelona will not take a heavy hit on Thierry Henry's transfer fee.


"They know he has not been playing to a standard that is expected but they also take into account that he is desperately missing his young daughter and that he is broken up about his recent separation from his wife.


"For various reasons, including physical reasons, we haven't seen the Thierry Henry Barcelona thought they were buying."

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Fucking hell its just given me a semi'on. Balague knows his stuff and has a lot of cantacts, i dont care what people say, if this is true then we have a chance, it might be small but we have a chance.

remind me who balague supports again...

OMG! IT'S GOING TO HAPPEN!

Good, not a team player, far too hyped up and not the player he once was. The top 4 should be safe from City for a good few years if he signs

Erm, Balague's "contacts" are $h!t...mostly through AS, which is The Sun of Spanish sports papers. I know this kind of news excites you, but let's just put it this way - barring a massive fallout with Milan or a vast disagreement on the transfer fee, in addition to Inter/Chelsea's directors all burying their heads in the sand, Ronaldinho is probably not going to sign for Man. City.

kas wrote:Erm, Balague's "contacts" are $h!t...mostly through AS, which is The Sun of Spanish sports papers. I know this kind of news excites you, but let's just put it this way - barring a massive fallout with Milan or a vast disagreement on the transfer fee, in addition to Inter/Chelsea's directors all burying their heads in the sand, Ronaldinho is probably not going to sign for Man. City.

Didn't you say Torres wouldn't join Liverpool in the summer?

Luis wrote:

kas wrote:Erm, Balague's "contacts" are $h!t...mostly through AS, which is The Sun of Spanish sports papers. I know this kind of news excites you, but let's just put it this way - barring a massive fallout with Milan or a vast disagreement on the transfer fee, in addition to Inter/Chelsea's directors all burying their heads in the sand, Ronaldinho is probably not going to sign for Man. City.

Didn't you say Torres wouldn't join Liverpool in the summer?

He said Villa wouldnt sign

Don't get your hopes up Goater, us and Spurs(i think) have had loads of these sort of rumours in the past and there is NEVER anything in it.

Rosicky wrote:

Luis wrote:

kas wrote:Erm, Balague's "contacts" are $h!t...mostly through AS, which is The Sun of Spanish sports papers. I know this kind of news excites you, but let's just put it this way - barring a massive fallout with Milan or a vast disagreement on the transfer fee, in addition to Inter/Chelsea's directors all burying their heads in the sand, Ronaldinho is probably not going to sign for Man. City.

Didn't you say Torres wouldn't join Liverpool in the summer?

He said Villa wouldnt sign

Good job, Torres is better

Luis wrote:

kas wrote:Erm, Balague's "contacts" are $h!t...mostly through AS, which is The Sun of Spanish sports papers. I know this kind of news excites you, but let's just put it this way - barring a massive fallout with Milan or a vast disagreement on the transfer fee, in addition to Inter/Chelsea's directors all burying their heads in the sand, Ronaldinho is probably not going to sign for Man. City.

Didn't you say Torres wouldn't join Liverpool in the summer?

No, like Rosicky said, it was Villa. And Etoo, both of whom you were banging on about all season long saying how you had a feeling one of them was certain to join Liverpool.

Yeah dont get me wrong i doubt it will happen, but its nice to be linked with such a player.

Sgoater1 wrote:Yeah dont get me wrong i doubt it will happen, but its nice to be linked with such a player.

While these sorts of rumours are commonplace, because they allow for attention grabbing headlines that guarantee newspaper sales, it's worth remembering that City have a manager and finances significantly greater than most of the teams Ronaldinho has been linked with...

Luis wrote:Good, not a team player, far too hyped up and not the player he once was. The top 4 should be safe from City for a good few years if he signs

Yes he hasnt been at his best but he has still managed 8 goals in 17 games this season in la liga. He is still a top quality player and i would love it if we signed him.

He guarenteed Torres would be signing for Man United two summers in a row. He knows f*ck all basically.

Thaksin falls for Ronaldinho dummy in agents' game

Thaksin Shinawatra's pursuit of Ronaldinho is heading towards a predictably unsatisfactory conclusion for Manchester City amid growing suspicions about the motives of the player's representatives. Sven-Goran Eriksson is among those who suspect Thaksin and his associates have fallen for one of the oldest tricks in the book.

Ronaldinho's brother and agent, Roberto de Assis Moreira, was at the City of Manchester Stadium last Saturday to see Eriksson's team play Chelsea. He was accompanied by Pini Zahavi, one of the more powerful agents in the business. Although Thaksin was in Thailand awaiting his corruption trial, the City owner sent a delegation to give Moreira and Zahavi the VIP treatment and discuss the possibility of Ronaldinho joining from Barcelona, with a weekly salary in excess of £100,000.

Thaksin, by his own admission, is new to football and learning about the way in which agents work. As such he still appeared to believe last night that there was a good chance of Ronaldinho accepting - even though Milan and several of Europe's leading clubs are also interested in a player who, despite being seen as in decline, is only 28.

As an experienced football man Eriksson has a more realistic view, namely that the chances of Ronaldinho wanting to join a club ninth in the Premier League are all but non-existent. His suspicion is that Ronaldinho's advisers intend to quote City's offer as a way of drumming up interest from other potential buyers, a list that potentially includes Chelsea. "After the game I met him [Moreira] and do you know where?" Eriksson asked pointedly. "He was outside the dressing room of Chelsea. What he was doing there I don't know."

His scepticism will not surprise City's supporters, most of whom always believed the link with Ronaldinho was too good to be true. Some fans thought the whole story had been concocted to improve season-ticket sales. Yet City, it emerged, were approached in January about Ronaldinho's availability. "The agents are not stupid," said Eriksson. "They suspect we have money to spend, so they come to us with their lists of players."

Eriksson has provided Thaksin with his own list of transfer targets and Ronaldinho's name is not present on the basis that City's manager does not believe it could ever happen. "I have a crystal clear idea of who I want," said Eriksson. "I know that one target for the owner, and rightly so, is to fill the stadium for every match," he added.

"One way to do that is to fight higher up the league. Another is to buy a big, big, big star. Ronaldinho was the No1 player in the world two years ago and he is still a very good player. If you asked any manager in the world about him, you would get the same answer every time."

Yet Ronaldinho, as Eriksson pointed out, is unlikely to want to swap Barcelona for a club that is aiming to play in next season's Intertoto Cup. The fact that Thaksin thought the Brazilian would be interested does not reflect well on the former Thai prime minister's knowledge of the sport.

Milan's vice-president, Adriano Galliani, said he is confident of signing Ronaldinho in the summer but admitted the Rossoneri might have to beat off competition from their city rivals Internazionale for the Brazilian forward.

"I believe this deal will be done," Galliani said. "I know that Inter are also very interested and it will be a tough derby in the transfer market."

He'll want European football and it doesn't look like City will even be getting UEFA, unless they go through the Intertoto.

City need a decent striker first. They may as well flog off Benjani. Predictably he's been complete shite.

Like Rivaldo with Spurs.

Parks lives wrote:He guarenteed Torres would be signing for Man United two summers in a row. He knows f*ck all basically.

Made nutwing come himself over nothing,

Balague fabricates an awful lot of stuff. He basically said that Eto'o would be leaving Barcelona last summer and a swap with Henry was a very realistic possibility.

Apparently Milan are going to offer 30m. euro for Ronaldinho.

Jaime wrote:Apparently Milan are going to offer 30m. euro for Ronaldinho.

We can match that !

Sgoater1 wrote:

Jaime wrote:Apparently Milan are going to offer 30m. euro for Ronaldinho.

We can match that !

Apparently the deal with Milan is done.

Tweedle wrote:

Sgoater1 wrote:

Jaime wrote:Apparently Milan are going to offer 30m. euro for Ronaldinho.

We can match that !

Apparently the deal with Milan is done.

Where does it say that ?

I can see him going to Milan to be honest.

It makes you wonder though, Liverpool should be in for him really. Ideal signing.

---------------Mascha---Alonso-----

Gerrard-------------------------------Babel/New Left Winger

------------------Ronaldhino-------------------------

--------------------Torres-----------------------------

Now that would be mouth-watering. Reason I say this, if he does come to the EPL, he would only really join the Big 4. And Liverpool would be the team that needs proven flair in their midfield out of the lot of them.

Those who says he's past it, are wrong imo. He just needs new motivation and CAN still recapture that devestating form, such is his talent.

I don't think Benitez goes for the big names and egos, like Wenger in a way. But you are right, he is far from past it maybe he just needs a change in his career. Milan would be a perfect place for him to get his hunger back.

If anything Liverpool should be looking for a new right winger to rotate with Kuyt and let Gerrard have his free role in the centre.

Is Alonso now staying at Liverpool? He was rumoured to be on his way out earlier this year, some of his passing was very uncharacteristically sloppy on Tuesday.

Reports today are Ronaldinho has said he wants to play in the EPL.

In contrast to that rehashed old news, new reports today also quote his brother and Galliani saying that the player and Milan have agreed a 4 year deal worth around 8 million euros a year (same as he currently earns at Barça) and Milan will soon be meeting with Barça to discuss a transfer fee of anywhere between 20-30 million euros.

kas wrote:In contrast to that rehashed old news, new reports today also quote his brother and Galliani saying that the player and Milan have agreed a 4 year deal worth around 8 million euros a year (same as he currently earns at Barça) and Milan will soon be meeting with Barça to discuss a transfer fee of anywhere between 20-30 million euros.

Well its to be expet but we wil wait and see, we still have a small chance until its confirmed.

While agents confirm a deal between Milan and Ronaldinho, Massimo Moratti insists “he won’t move a muscle before hearing Inter’s proposal.”


This week the Rossoneri – specifically general manager Adriano Galliani – announced that Ronaldinho and Andriy Shevchenko were “180 per cent Milan players.”


President Silvio Berlusconi also stated a transfer for the Brazilian could be made official before Sunday.


Agent Roberto de Assis commented: “We only want to talk to Milan. He will either go there or stay at Barcelona” and last night go-between Ernesto Bronzetti told the media “there is a deal with the player.”


However, and certainly not for the first time, their cross-city cousins have dived in to ruin the party in spectacular fashion.


“I would like to say something about Ronaldinho,” stated President Moratti in the Corriere dello Sport.


“The player and Barcelona will not move a muscle before hearing our proposal. By ‘ours’, I mean that of Inter.


“What will we do? We have taken some time out to evaluate various situations. In the meantime, though, we are receiving unequivocal signs of interest.”


Having already snatched Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Patrick Vieira and David Suazo out of their clutches, Inter are prepared to cause another shockwave in the transfer market.


It is reported that Manchester City were the first club to officially contact Barca enquiring after Ronaldinho, followed by Inter.


Milan only made the call on Thursday to have permission to talk directly to the player’s agent, but it is claimed that next week Inter have set up a meeting with both Barcelona chief Joan Laporta and agent Assis.