Inter Milan are prepared to offer Brazil right-back Maicon to Manchester City in part-exchange for wantaway Carlos Tevez.
City have been linked with a swap deal that could see Samuel Eto’o moving from the San Siro and fellow striker Tevez leaving the Etihad Stadium after two years.
But it emerged last night that Inter president Massimo Moratti is ready to put the rampaging Maicon on the table instead.
The Italian giants appear to envision a one-for-one swap, with no actual cash changing hands, but City only value Maicon at around £15million, leaving Inter at least £25m short of the Argentine striker's asking price.
Inter will be reluctant to pay that much but City, having already signed Sergio Aguero to take Tevez's place in the squad and with no cash limitations, are not going to be forced into a deal they do not want.
Although Micah Richards performed well for City at right-back last term, Maicon would bring an extra dimension to Roberto Mancini’s side.
The 30-year-old - whose full name is Maicon Douglas Sisenando - has been at Inter for five years after two seasons with French club Monaco.
Ironically, it was Mancini who signed him for Inter and made him a fixture of the side that dominated Italian football both under the now-City chief and successor Jose Mourinho, with whome he won a Treble of Serie A, Coppa Italia and Champions League in 2010.
New Inter coach Gian Piero Gasperini has told Moratti the club - having already signed another Brazilian right-back, Jonathan, from Santos this summer - should cash in on Maicon while they can still get a decent fee for a player who has just one year left on his contract.
Despite being blown away by Tottenham's Gareth Bale in last season’s Champions League, Maicon is widely acknowledged as the best attacking right-back in the world.
Although he is in direct competition with Barcelona’s Dani Alves for a place in the Brazil team, Maicon has 66 caps, scoring six goals - including a stunner against North Korea in last year's World Cup.
Inter’s willingness to consider letting him go in order to fulfil their ambition of acquiring Tevez increases the prospect of another statement-sending move by Mancini as he beefs up his squad for a title push and City’s first ever Champions League campaign.
Tevez - who seems keen to move to Italy now his hopes of a transfer to Real Madrid appear to have fallen through - is now due back at City on Monday after an extended break following his Copa America exertions.
Eto'o pleads with Inter chiefs to sanction Man City move after fallout with boss
Samuel Eto'o has asked Inter Milan to see if Manchester City are really interested in signing him after falling out with coach Gian Piero Gasperini.
City coach Roberto Mancini is a big admirer of Eto’o, 30, but the Cameroon star has a track record of stringing City along and they are wary of being used again.
Inter remain interested in Carlos Tevez and that will fuel talk of a possible swap, but City value Tevez higher.
City also expect Emmanuel Adebayor’s future to be decided over the next few days with the 27-year-old pushing for his dream move to Real Madrid.
Meanwhile, City full back Ryan McGivern, 21, is joining Crystal Palace on a short term loan. Stoke defender Andrew Davies is also joining Palace on loan.
Mancini lines up £2m move to make Sorensen Hart's deputy at Manchester City
Stoke keeper Thomas Sorensen is line for a shock move to Manchester City.
Roberto Mancini is on the lookout for a deputy to Joe Hart after selling Shay Given to Aston Villa and is preparing a £2million bid to bring the the 35-year-old Denmark international to the Etihad Stadium.
[Talks over a move are expected to continue after Stoke play their Europa League tie with Hajduk Split on Thursday, and Sorensen is understood to be receptive to a switch after losing his place in Tony Pulis’s side to Asmir Begovic.
If the transfer goes ahead, Pulis is likely to move for Wigan’s Chris Kirkland as a replacement. Wigan, meanwhile, are keen to offload Kirkland’s £30,000-a-week pay packet off their wage bill and could grant him a free transfer.
Forest chase Manchester City pair
NOTTINGHAM Forest are plotting a double loan swoop for two of Premier League giants Manchester City's young starlets.
Reds manager Steve McClaren hopes to ease a summer of transfer frustration by bringing in Swedish U21 international striker John Guidetti and Gai Assulin, a winger who has played for Israel.
McClaren outlined his eagerness to add to his squad before the kick-off of the new campaign this weekend, with the visit of Barnsley.
It is understood the club is working to secure a deal for the highly-rated duo, possibly before then.
Guidetti played five times for Burnley on loan in the Championship last season, scoring once. It was reported that the Clarets were keen to extend the deal beyond the initial month but Roberto Mancini instead recalled the 19-year-old and drafted him into the club's Europa League squad.
He is yet to make his Premier League debut but he did play in the 2-1 Carling Cup defeat at West Brom last September.
He began his career with Brommapojkarn in Sweden, but played only a handful of games before moving to Manchester as a 15-year-old. He is a prolific goalscorer for his country, scoring 14 goals in 20 appearances at U17, U19 and U21 levels.
He also scored three goals in eight appearances for former club Brommapojkarn during a loan spell last year – and is regarded as an outstanding prospect at City, where he has produced a steady flow of goals for the reserves.
Earlier this summer he was believed to be close to joining McClaren's former club FC Twente, after becoming frustrated at his lack of opportunity.
Assulin, 20, became the youngest-ever Israeli international when he played against Chile in 2008, 14 days before his 17th birthday.
But he has struggled to make the breakthrough into the first team at City.
Assulinl, who can operate on either flank or through the centre, came through the ranks at Barcelona, scoring 13 goals in 67 appearances for the Nou Camp B team.
But he was injured after being promoted to the senior squad and was allowed to move to City, once compensation had been agreed with the La Liga club, last December.
A move to Forest may appeal to Mancini, as he looks to monitor Assulin's progress.
Sunderland assistant quiet on link with Man City’s Wright-Phillips
ERIC Black was staying tight-lipped last night about any interest Sunderland might have shown in Manchester City discard Shaun Wright-Phillips.
The former Chelsea wideman has become a peripheral figure at Eastlands and manager Roberto Mancini has indicated the England man will be allowed to leave this summer.
Though Sunderland are reported to have made an enquiry over Wright-Phillips, Black was unwilling to speculate on any interest: “That’s for the manager and the board to look at,” he said.
But when pressed he admitted that the club might still be looking in another quality signing in addition to the nine new arrivals so far this summer.
“You are always on the look out for players and I think it has been widely publicised that we’ve reached the stage where we need to sell before we buy,” said Black.
“But with Steed Malbranque’s move to St Etienne finalised and George McCartney and Marcos Angeleri also possibly on their way, that will free up a lot of wages potentially.
“The manager has always said that if he gets money made available to him he will look to strengthen, so we have to wait and see what develops in terms of players going out and what that means in terms of players we can bring in.”
Manchester City hero Uwe Rösler why the English game is so special
Former Manchester City favourite has battled life-threatening illness to begin his quest to one day manage in the Premier League.
From Bloemfontein to Barcelona, from the green grass of Wembley to the corridors of Zurich, rarely has our national game entertained so many of its own insecurities.
The failure of England teams at all levels and the pessimism over our style of play has convinced many that the term ‘English football’ is almost an oxymoron.
But if we peer outside our fug of introspection, there are those beyond our shores who still revere the English game as the expression of all that is good in football.
Many were here as players. Some, more improbably, have returned lower down the pyramid as managers.
Rösler was a hero at Manchester City, where he played over 150 games in a four-year career, and remains Germany’s joint highest Premier League goalscorer (with Jürgen Klinsmann).
He left England after a spell at West Bromwich Albion in 2001, but a decade later he has resurfaced, in the relative backwater of League One Brentford.
Rösler is one of a fresh tranche of foreign managers whose yearning to work in England is so strong that they are prepared to drop a few divisions to do so.
As well as Rösler, Paolo di Canio at Swindon and Dietmar Hamann at Stockport are also former Premier League players who have decided to start their managerial career at the bottom.
But what is it about English football that draws the likes of Rosler out of their luxury penthouses or television studios and into a world of driving rain and Ginsters pasties?
“I’ve always said that English football is honest football,” Rösler says.
“English football is passion, it’s tempo, it’s action. Like a boxer, you look in front of you and show what you have.
In other countries, there’s a lot of tactics. Especially coming from Germany, where there was a lot of man-marking, playing in the back, and you as a striker make your moves, never get the ball and get p-----d off.
In England it was attack, attack, attack. It’s exciting to watch.”
It has been Rösler’s ambition to manage in the Premier League ever since he retired in 2003.
The trouble was, though, that all his managerial experience so far has been gained in Norway, most recently at Molde, where he was employed on a short-term contract until last November.
“I don’t think any manager who comes from Norway can look at Premier League level or Championship level,” Rösler admits.
“I felt that the best chance of getting myself a job was League One or League Two.”
So after leaving Molde, Rösler relocated to England, doing a little coaching work at Manchester City’s academy whilst sifting through lower league managerial vacancies.
His diligence paid off in June when Brentford owner and former professional gambler Matt Benham took a punt on a man with no managerial experience in England.
At Rösler’s first press conference, one reporter tried to trip him up by asking him how much he knew about Brentford’s Carling Cup first round opponents Hereford United.
“Hereford — yes, I saw them last season against Port Vale,” Rosler answered without missing a beat. A realisation dawned that he was probably the only person in the room who had.
During his months in Manchester, you see, Rosler had been cunningly applying himself to watching as much League One and League Two football as he could.
“I concentrated specifically on these two leagues,” he says.
“I’m definitely not starting from scratch. Even before I started in Molde, I would go over to Manchester twice a week and watch a lot of games.
"You only have a chance to be successful when you commit yourself 100 per cent.”
Accordingly, Rösler’s family will stay in the north-west, and he will only visit them when Brentford play away games in the north.
It is hard not to be impressed by Rösler’s single-mindedness once he has a goal in mind, a resolve hardened by a two-year battle with lung cancer in 2003.
The illness brought a premature end to his playing career, but after receiving chemotherapy, he made a prompt and complete recovery.
“It changed me in terms of putting things in perspective,” he says. “To understand what is important in life, having that crystal clear. That changed after I got ill.”
His voice lowers almost to a whisper. “My time was not yet. He decided to give me another chance.”
Not all Brentford fans were as eager to give Rösler a chance. Many were underwhelmed by his appointment, but a strong pre-season, including a win over Stoke, as well as an impressive string of summer signings, has helped to win them over.
Rösler is keen to manage expectations, but recognises the kernel of a promotion-winning side in the squad he has inherited.
“The club has now been in mid-table twice,” he says. “The distance is not so big — four or five places, or 10 points.
"I won’t say we are favourites — there are other clubs with much higher budgets, the league is tough — but my big aim is that we always have a chance to be in there.
"Bournemouth last year showed clubs like us what can be achieved with a smaller budget by getting into the play-offs.”
But whether Rösler achieves promotion this season or not, his presence will enliven the division, standing as a glowing testament to the vitality of English football.
For while there are few foreign stars prepared to drop down to the third tier to undertake their managerial apprenticeship, there are even fewer countries whose third tier could so enrapture and enthral a star like Rösler.
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