Blues close in on Silva
June 24, 2010
City have agreed a £30m fee for Spain’s World Cup star David Silva with his club Valencia.
But now the hard bargaining begins for the Blues, as they have to persuade the brilliant playmaker to forsake Champions League football next season and join the Eastlands revolution.
Blues boss Roberto Mancini will now try to sell his vision of a bright new City future to the 24-year-old ace, as well as dangling a five-year deal which would make Silva one of the highest-paid players in the Premier League.
Valencia are drowning under a tidal wave of debt and have always indicated they would sell their best players to the highest bidders – having sold David Villa to Barcelona for £35m last month.
The City sticking point appears to be Silva’s reluctance to move to a club not involved in Europe’s elite club competition.
But talk from the Spain camp in South Africa suggests he may have been given a different impression of City by Liverpool players Fernando Torres and Pepe Reina, and former England-based stars Xabi Alonso and Alvaro Arbeloa – who have marked out City as a team of the future.
The fact the Blues are also in the advanced stages of a £25m deal for Barcelona’s midfield linchpin Yaya Toure will also have made Silva sit up and take notice.
With City still pondering an improved bid for Aston Villa’s England starlet James Milner, Mancini appears intent on a total re-build of his midfield next season.
Martin Petrov was the first casualty of that overhaul, after being released and signed by Bolton and Stevie Ireland and Craig Bellamy’s positions at the club will also come under scrutiny if Silva signs.