Cook gives a more detailed account in todays MEN. Posted below the MEN article is Milan's version of events, via the Mail. This is set to rumble on and on. There are alwys two sides to every story.(supposedly)
Milan's take on events.
Kaka: Seven days of drama
Chris Bailey
21/ 1/2009
ONE of the most enduring qualities of a City fan is the ability to laugh at themselves and their club.
Over the many barren years they have accepted, mostly with good grace, every barb and joke that has been arrowed their way.
There may be some Blues out there who currently feel that the club is once again a laughing stock after the Kaka transfer saga ended in tears.
But they would be totally wrong.
City made a genuine, sincere and well thought out £91m bid for the Brazilian superstar that was scuppered for two simple reasons.
Firstly, Milan put the deal's goalposts on wheels and then gave them a hefty shove.
Secondly, the Italian club totally underestimated the strength of public feeling against the deal.
Money became the overriding interest of those at the heart of the talks. And even when you have more cash at your disposal than any other club in the world, there is a limit as to how far you are prepared to go before walking away.
While Milan and Kaka's advisors acted like Oliver asking for their bowls to be filled a little more, the Blues requested something in return.
Outcry
That wasn't forthcoming and with a deal rapidly becoming more take than give, they decided to walk away.
It could have all ended quietly and diplomatically had the Milan club not chosen to reveal details to their media outlets and so set off a chain of events that eventually saw them besieged and bothered by the public outcry. There is a tendency in this country to think that we are always in the wrong, but apart from caving in to a list of demands, it is hard to know how else City could have handled the events that turned sour after looking so sweet seven days previously.
Not once did they make any public comment, save to confirm what Milan had let out of the bag - namely talks were taking place.
City never once spoke of figures either in terms of a fee or wages for Kaka.
Garry Cook and the City team went to Milan four times in a bid to make the deal work. They were confident they could persuade Kaka to swap the San Siro for Manchester and there was an air of expectation amongst fans during the 1-0 win over Wigan.
Presentations were prepared and the Blues thought they had quickly come to an arrangement with their Milan counterparts. But in the end even the best laid plans were not enough, leaving the Premier League club's board shocked, but far from embarrassed.
"We are extremely proud that we have a seat at football's top table," declared Cook after returning from Italy.
Expectations
"There are many clubs who would have liked to have been in our position trying to bring Kaka here on our terms - and it had to be our terms.
"Contrary to many an opinion it is harder for us to do business because the expectations are so high. People look at our financial resources as the ticket to success but that is truly not the ticket to success.
"Of course there is a mixture of disappointment and frustration that the Kaka deal did not go through. I think the initial intention from AC Milan was clearly to sell their player and Manchester City's intention was clearly to bring him here.
"There are only a few clubs who could even attempt to bring a player like Kaka to their football team.
"Milan wanted to do the deal and they were ready to do the deal, but they were under political pressure from the owner and the media.
"You could see it, you could smell it and to be honest they were scared. I think they bottled it, simple as that."
Cook and the Blues felt that preliminary talks with Milan had laid the foundation for a world record deal to be concluded and they flew back after an early visit a week ago more than hopeful that Kaka would sign.
They were prepared to sell the 26-year-old Brazilian a vision of the future and put him at the hub of the club's renaissance on the pitch.
But they were never really given the chance as the discussions gravitated more and more towards cash.
"We chose not to say anything about our interactions with Milan whilst the Italian club chose a very different plan," said Cook.
"Interestingly Milan say that Kaka turned us down and what I would say is that it is very difficult to turn down something that you've not been offered.
"We've heard everything that has been said in Milan and there's been a bit of mud-slinging, but we're going to choose not to get into that.
Stunt
"It would have been great to have had Kaka at this football club, the Premier League would have benefitted, football would have benefitted and we were willing to make that investment on rational terms. Unfortunately, the behaviour that they showed was not what we had expected nor had we anticipated."
Cook also railed at those who claimed the Kaka bid had somehow been devised as publicity stunt.
"We visited Milan four times and the delegation on Monday involved three lawyers that represent the legal counsel for Manchester City football club," revealed the executive chairman. "It also involved a board member who had flown half way around the world from Abu Dhabi, me and one other senior executive.
"We were confined to a room, with no food or drink, and we asked some questions of the Milan and more importantly we asked some questions of the representatives of the player and they simple could not answer the questions.
"What they wanted to talk about was; `how much are you going to pay him?' We chose not to get into that and we didn't make an offer to the player.
"People perhaps don't understand the complexity of deals like this. There are all kinds of stages to deals with when it comes to players of the stature of Kaka. One is the transfer fee, the second is the commercial terms and Kaka has seven separate sponsors who all have clauses in their agreement with regard to where he plays football. You have to work through all that before you even get to personal terms.
"When those start they are related to basics and bonuses and all three stages are complex in their own right. They require legal and financial counsel and they require counsel from executives of the club.
"In some cases you can phone up a club, ask if a player is for sale, meet with him and his agent put in an offer, agree terms and it can all be done in 24 hours.
"When you are talking about players of Kaka's ilk it doesn't work like that. I think what has disappointed us that the circus that took place around this deal was created by AC Milan.
"That is the disappointing part, but we have always said we will walk away from deals that are not right and we are not anybody's fool."
Milan's take on events.
Money-bags City don't have a clue: Bemused Kaka lifts the lid on slipshod transfer talks
Manchester City target Kaka intensified the war of words between England and Italy as the Brazilian accused the Premier League club of 'not having a clue'.
A bitter war of words has broken out between City executive chairman Garry Cook and Milan after the proposed £100million deal crumbled at the last minute
Cook has insisted the deal failed because the Italians and Kaka were 'too greedy' and he accused them of being ignorant.
But according to media reports in Italy Kaka told his team mates at training: 'There was a total confusion. Not one of them had a clear idea of what was going on. I have taken a weight off my mind.'
Italian media also reported how the negotiations were 'stop-start'' after Cook and his party insisted on going into a side room during meetings to discuss aspects of the transfer between themselves.
Corriere Della Sera said that during the meeting between Kaka's agent father Bosco Leite and Adriano Galliani there was a disagreement with City over the Brazilian player's image rights.
Top selling sports daily Gazzetta Dello Sport also reported the fall out between City and AC Milan and splashed across its front page the headline: 'City so many errors.'
Kaka's agent Diogo Kotscho also hit back at City and said: 'We can see that he (Cook) knows very little about how a football player's head works.
'If Kaka was thinking only about money then he would have chosen Manchester City but there are more important things that money just cannot buy.
'Now we are more convinced than ever that we made the correct decision.'
Gazzetta's report only added deeper to the whole mystery surrounding Kaka's transfer.
It quoted an insider close to the negotiations as saying: 'The truth is that in six hours of talks with Manchester City they only asked questions and didn't make an offer for Kaka.
'How on earth did they think they were going to buy him? It's one thing buying a property or a company but completely another when you are trying to charm one of the best players in the world.'
Gazzetta revealed that the negotiations had taken place in the law offices of Milan firm Izzi-Tognazzi and were stop-start as City were constantly ''asking for time outs.''
The paper said that Kaka's agent Bosco was getting fed up at the fact that City's Cook and Simon Pierce were just asking questions primarily on the player's image rights.
It was also claimed that at 10pm on Monday night City, after 'consulting with the sheik said they would make an offer via email the following day'.
The report said: 'At that point Bosco and AC Milan vice president Adriano Galliani looked at each other and asked to call off the talks. Cook tried to change direction but it was too late as Galliani had already called Silvio Berlusconi.'