Bit gutted about this tbh.
If the loyalty bonus was the problem then i see no reason we haven't paid it. Considering we've spent £14m on Bellamy and £12m on Bridge you can hardly class it as a waste of money. Now i know people are saying 'well done City for pulling out' but to me it seems very bizarre that we have done so on the day where we release a statement calling for patience. Makes us look a little bit silly imo.
Surely it makes sense to leave this one on the back-burner and persue other targets in the meantime. By publicly pulling out we haven't really achieved anything other than send out a message that we won't be fucked about and we won't pay over the odds. Now i have no problem with that but i also feel you have to judge each case by its merit. Eto'o is a phenom of the modern game, regularly scoring 25+ goals per season. He works his arse off and has an amazing appeitite to win. Taking the moral high ground on such a player seem a little bit silly when we're likely to invest similar time and money into our second option (whoever that may be). Obviously nobody knows exactly to what extent we have been messed about but i just find it ironic that on the day we call for patience, we pull the plug less than 24 hours into the 48 ultimatum.
My other point is the 'we won't pay over the odds' point that we seem to repeatedly be making. It's ok saying that but you also have to action it. I'll try - 'i'm Cristiano Ronaldo, but oh wait, i'm not wearing hot pants and i'm not rolling around the floor like a baby' But i must be right? I've just said it...
So when we say we're not going to pay over the odds, what do we do? How about spend a combined £40m on Bridge, Bellamy and Santa Cruz who altho good players, they've not played a great deal of 1st team football due to constant injury/Ashely Cole.
I just feel this is the wrong deal to finally show we're not going to be messed around. Eto'o would be the difference between Europa League and Champions League. That margin is probably also the difference between Robinho staying and Robinho leaving. If that happens, we're sending out a very bad message to all future signings.
Sorry for moaning, i just feel it was all there. Eto'o wanted to leave, his agent declared he'd be delighted to join us, Barca wanted to sell, yet we pulled the plug. Like i said before, nobody knows exactly why. If eto'o was making the wrong noises about joining us, then fair play to Cookey et al, but if it was just the loyalty bonus and Eto'o genuinely wanted to come then i fear we have dropped a major bollock.