We baulked at Hazard because his agents were asking silly monies on top of the fee we had agreed with his club.
There was also an element that they wanted to include his brother in an additional 'kick back' deal at a later date.
Added to the lad also having a real preference for London, Chelsea becoming European Champions, we sort of knew we were on a loser.
He would have also chosen United if Chelsea had not won it.
Re Van Persie, again, from what I understand, City's board refused to go beyond £15m for Van Persie, we had met with his agent Kees Vos plenty of times in the run up to the end of last season.
We were prepared to reconcile his age and wages only if we could get him for £15m, Mancini just expected it to get done, regardless.
Arsenal wanted more. Juventus, like us, were offering phenomenal money, but not in addition to the £30m Arsenal were holding out for.
United were unclear where they also stood in the bidding process but had a mandate to win at all costs.
De Rossi, was just farcical from beginning to end and is solely the fault of Mancini, certainly not Marwood.
Three times he continued in his belief that De Rossi was prepared to join us and it was just a question of us ponying up.
In the final days of the window, again, Marwood and the owners tried to appease Mancini and made a £25m offer for Stefan Jovetic, but the lad felt rushed into making a decision and that was that.
Mancini spent the previous summer in a similar mode, at odds with Cook and Marwood over how much was enough.
