Samba Time In Manchester

Finally we have reached that time of year when the football transfer window is officially closed until those old winter nights in January, and there can be no doubt as to what the big story of the summer is.

Manchester City brought Robinho to Eastlands with twenty minutes left on the clock courtesy of their new owners the Abu Dhabi United Group, who are said to be worth ten times more than Roman Abramovich. Even so, the accepted price of £32.5m and a reported weekly wage of £92,000 put doubts into Man City supporter’s minds as to whether or not the diminutive Brazilian signed for footballing reasons or for the generous sum of money offered to him. The figures flying around, in this tropical financial climate in football, don’t sound like they would cause Chelsea any problems.

The west London side had the resources for the now departed Andriy Shevchenko a couple of years ago (a whopping £30m for an ageing striker) so you could be forgiven for wondering why they failed to get Robinho to sign on the dotted line. It originally  seemed that Chelsea, or any other club for that matter, wouldn’t be able to convince Real into selling the player after Madrid manager Bernd Schuster had reportedly threatened to walk out of the Bernabeu if Robinho was sold behind his back.

A change of heart it seems has allowed the deal to go through; Manchester City aren’t a threat to Real Madrid as they don’t compete in the Champions League, whereas Chelsea do. Peter Kenyon, it seemed, had the deal in the bag with constant sightings with Robinho’s representatives and the player himself declaring that he wanted to go to Chelsea a day before deadline day. To say Chelsea fans are discontented with both the loss of Robinho and Kenyon’s role in the saga would be to utter an understatement.

Madrid have tried to dig their heels in but could not risk keeping an unhappy player who was likely to under perform and who openly stated he would go to into hiding in Brazil if he wasn’t granted permission to leave. Ultimately, selling to Manchester City offered them a terrific financial reward while also irritating Chelsea, who they had accused of poor behaviour in attempting to sign Robinho.

One thing is for sure: Robinho is one of the most gifted footballers in the world. He is exciting, has quick feet, and pulls of the kind of skills that would amaze even Ronaldinho. If you were to Youtube him you would probably be glued to your PC for at least three videos (or hours)!

The Manchester City fans certainly should be excited. The Brazilian trio of Elano, Jo and Robinho brings a South American flavour to the side and along with the likes of Martin Petrov, Micah Richards, and Michael Johnson the blue half of Manchester have something to realistically look forward to…trophies.