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Manchester City chief executive Garry Cook present at Udinese-Lazio to watch Alexis Sanchez
Chilean wizard, coveted by numerous European clubs, watched by Eastlands club during 2-1 home victory over Lazio, as speculation about his departure grows
Manchester City chief executive Garry Cook was present at Udinese's 2-1 victory at home to Lazio in Serie A this afternoon to watch in-demand forward Alexis Sanchez, Goal.com can reveal.
The Eastlands executive witnessed the match at the Stadio Friuli in Udine together with City's European Scout Barry Hunter and Football Administrator Officer Brian Marwood.
Sanchez has developed into one of Europe’s most explosive talents over the past few years and caught the world’s attention last summer with a series of electric displays for his country at the 2010 World Cup.
Manchester United and Inter have been long-term admirers of the 22-year-old - with the soon-to-be-dethroned European champions seeing a big offer rejected in January - but numerous other European giants have been linked with the speedy frontman including Barcelona, Juventus, Chelsea and Man City.
Although Hunter and Marwood have scouted Sanchez before, this is the first known sighting of Cook at an Udinese game featuring the 22-year-old. The chief executive's presence will undoubtedly increase speculation that the nouveau-riche English outfit are preparing a big bid for the attacker.
Earlier this week an Udinese source told Goal.com that the club would not consider selling their star man for anything less than €30 million, and added that should Udinese qualify for next season's Champions League then Sanchez would not be leaving the club.
Udinese's victory sees them move above Lazio into the fourth Champions League spot with just two Serie A games remaining.

OTHER BOLLOX
Portuguese club Benfica have blocked Bolton's bid to keep 20-year-old forward Rodrigo Moreno Machado on loan at the Reebok Stadium. Daily Mirror

Atletico Madrid striker Sergio Aguero, 22, has turned down offers from Manchester United and Chelsea because he wants to see out his contract at the Estadio Vicente Calderon. Metro

Chelsea are planning a £70m double swoop for Tottenham's Gareth Bale, 21, and 28-year-old Rafael van der Vaart as they plan their Premier League campaign for next season. Caughtoffside.com

Defender Christopher Samba, 27, could leave Blackburn after refusing to commit his future to the club beyond the summer. Daily Express

Sir Alex Ferguson, 69, says he has no intention of stepping down as Manchester United manager after closing in on his 12th Premier League title following the 2-1 win against Chelsea. Daily Express

Blackpool midfielder Charlie Adam, 25, has said his challenge on Gareth Bale, which resulted in the Wales international leaving the pitch on a stretcher with an ankle injury in the 1-1 draw at White Hart Lane on Saturday, was not intentional. talkSPORT

West Brom are set to offer a new contract to leading scorer Peter Odemwingie, 29. The Nigeria international has netted 14 goals this season for the Baggies. Daily Express

Michael Owen has had a light-hearted dig at fellow Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney's receding hairline. The former England striker said on social networking site Twitter: "Your face looks like a 12-year-old's but your hair looks like a 60-year-old's!" Daily Mirror


more BOLLOX later ....

Great Scott! Cook spotted looking at Sanchez? I certainly hope he won't muck this potential transfer up.

http://www.sport.ro/anglia/gardos-se-in ... ardos.html

Romanian press bollox, the article that is everywhere for almost a month: The translation is this: Liverpool and Bayern are preparing to bid for the young romanian defender, Florin Gardos who is currently valued at 7 million euros. Gardos who last year played in the Romanian second division, made a huge leap forward last summer, when he signed for the giants, Steaua, for a 200.000 euros. Only in six months, the lad became one regular in the Steaua squad and the romanian national team and after Arsenal tried to buy him this winter, the transfer was refused by Steaua.
Roberto Mancini is rumored to be also interested in the player, after a talked with his former player, Cristian Chivu who suggested Mancini the young defender to be one of his best at this position, in the world, at his age. Damien Comolli, the scout for Scousers was seen in 5 matches that Steaua had this spring, observing the youth. His fate is fixed to be decided this summer, where his future team is almost certain one that plays in Premiership, after Van Gaal left Bayern.

Sanchez wasn't great yesterday. I've seen half a dozen Udinese games this season that was one of hir poorer games. Saying that, the whistle was blown every thirty seconds or so for a dive or foul and it was pretty hard for anyone to shine.

Avalon wrote:Great Scott! Cook spotted looking at Sanchez? I certainly hope he won't muck this potential transfer up.

I can understand a scout being at the game, but how is Cook going to decide if a player has the gift we need to purchase?

He doesn't, as he knows nothing about football. He's a person we need to get rid off, as to me, he adds nothing to the club. Look at the Kaka debacle. Not that I expected us to sign him, nor wanted him, but Cook was quick to turn blame off himself by saying they "bottled it."

Oh, let's not forget his comments about Thaksin: "Is he a nice guy? Yes. Is he a great guy to play golf with? Yes. Has he got the finances to run a club? Yes....Whether he’s guilty of something over there, I can’t worry too much about....Morally, I feel comfortable in this environment".

And let's not forget his howler with Uwe Rosler...

What a clown, he needs to go.

Obviously Cook is there to talk money because we're interested in signing one of the players, not as a scout, you tools.

I think the tool is Cook himself.

I don't know if anybody had ever read this before, but somebody had changed his wikipedia page to something... slightly more funny:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?tit ... =333139069

Cookie makes some gaffes but on the whole I quite like the fella

*yawn* read the article and it says Marwood was also there.

Bale and VdV = £70m! That's some mighty big bollox.

Avalon, your views on the Cookster are way outdated.
He would be the first one to admit that he made a horlicks of his first few months in charge and maybe was lucky to keep his job at that time but he has grown into the job impressively and is now an asset to the club.
He made a great impression on the Swinton Blues last week at their meeting (details on bluemoon site) and I think you should take a fresh look at the job he's doing.
His speciality is the corporate and financial side and he handles that extremely well, I believe.

Cook is a good guy and i feel has the best interest of the club at heart.he knows about running a business and that is what he is payed for.

Lee posted [urlnp=http://www.mancityfans.net/mcfnet/viewtopic.php?f=119&t=38373&p=297156&hilit=cook#p297156]THIS[/urlnp] thread a week ago and the general opinion of Cook was good. He's had a quiet last 12 months, which was needed, and in my opinion he is perfect for the job

Needless to say, as others have already pointed out, he certainly would not have been there on a scouting mission

Ted Hughes wrote:Obviously Cook is there to talk money because we're interested in signing one of the players, not as a scout, you tools.

So if the money man is there, why send the scout..?? I am not being anti Cook, but can't understand why a money man would go with a scout. If we have decided to make a bid for a player, it is now too late to decide how good he is, if we are still trying to decide, then it should be talant and not finance that we should be looking at.... The 2 parts of the deal need to be handled seperatly

sweenyuk wrote:

Ted Hughes wrote:Obviously Cook is there to talk money because we're interested in signing one of the players, not as a scout, you tools.

So if the money man is there, why send the scout..?? I am not being anti Cook, but can't understand why a money man would go with a scout. If we have decided to make a bid for a player, it is now too late to decide how good he is, if we are still trying to decide, then it should be talant and not finance that we should be looking at.... The 2 parts of the deal need to be handled seperatly

the scout is there to look at a player or 2 and Cookie is there to broker a deal for them to be our feeder club

or maybe cook was there to start discussing the money side, and they gave him a ticket for the match whilst he was there, watch the game, then retire to the boardroom to dot the I's and cross the T's