Robinho heading for the exit .../

[Mike J]

he's gonna be going, i think people should get used to that. no matter what hughes and cook have come out and said. theres no smoke without fire. at the moment there is an awful lot of it. would be gutted to lose such a talented player but the way he has gone about it isnt right.

[Vhero]

There is still one thing bugging me, Robi still hasn't come out and said that he is staying!

Whats bugging me is people lapping this shit up like baileys icecream. Honestly I think its a tabloid story gone out of control the club have said he is going nowhere. The fact he ain't playing right now is going for them but he's back from injury now and hopefully will shut the tabloids up on the field.

[Slim]

I will believe he is gone when he is holding up a Barca shirt. We should treat this crappy speculation the same way we treat the signing of players to City.

[salford city]

Would I be sorry to see him leave? - Yes, of course I would. Talented player without a doubt but never really happy playing anywhere other than at COMS. He WAS City last season and that all anyone ever mentioned. We're moving towards being more of a team now and maybe that has influenced his thinking- who knows?

I think all the posturing & the quotes from within our club over the past couple of days are to make it clear that there's no way he's going out on loan in the January window and that the only consideration will be a cash payment for his services. I expect us to return from AD with Robi in tow only to find out that his ankle injury has flared up again and then for him to go in January without playing another game for us.

The problem that he's got and any club that takes him on, is that there is a clear pattern with his attitude. He has the talent but the dummy has already come out of the pram at Real and IF comments are to be belived, here as well. Where do you go after Barca because from what I can see, you're not guaranteed a regular berth in that team

[Bluez]

The Hounds will be out in a minute.

They are so touchy about anything that suggests Hughes is the problem.

Where does it suggest Hughes is the problem? Perhaps the reason everyone is so touchy is because you make everything out to be Hughes' fault?

If the club have denied it then that's enough for me. This is getting more boring than when tranaldo was constantly linked to Real.

here...

but the manager may have contributed to Robinho's unhappiness by disbanding the small but influential group of Brazilian players that he regarded as cliquish and undermining his authority.

Ireland has stated that Elano did not want to put the effort in even though the training wasn't riduculously hard, just more professional. Do you think we should have kept him anyway as a companion for Robinho?

[Goaters 103]

He glaringly wants to go, its coming from too many different places and the player himself hasn't said a dickey bird to stop the speculation.

Having likely accepted this the club are doing the only thing they can, in trying to state he will stay in order to get the best deal possible. If Ya Ya Toure isn't on the table from Barca, then £32m better had be otherwise I'd politely inform them to stop wasting our time. A loan deal? Do me a fu*king favour.

City need a decent player exchange from Barca and not to be palmed off with squad trimmings they dont want, otherwise its straight readies as Arthur Dailey would say. If they can't come up with it, then he sits on his arse and waits for the summer or mans up and sees out the season which is the least Robinho owes us considering he's contributed very little since the turn of the year despite trousering a kings ransom in salary and been feted by supporters and the club alike.

[Chinners]

I will believe he is gone when he is holding up a Barca shirt. We should treat this crappy speculation the same way we treat the signing of players to City.

Amen

[pepsi_dave]

Something that sits quite uneasy with me is the amount of people on here who are having pops at robbie because he has publicly said he wants to leave. I haven't heard or read anything of the ilk from robi's mouth. I have however read journoi's rehashed quotes and cleverly assembled stories that would imply that such a thing has been said. We all don't believe a single word in the papers, so why are all of sudden taking it as gospel now? The club have officially denied he's going, so that should be enough for now. I would hope robi says something soon, otherwise the words of messers cook and hughes will be meaningless and this whole saga will continue and no doubt drag out right until the end of january.

[Alex Sapphire]

name one brazilian that actually likes playing in the prem? because its too physical for them and its too cold!!!

[Beeks]

name one brazilian that actually likes playing in the prem? because its too physical for them and its too cold!!!

Juninho enjoyed it

[Slim]

name one brazilian that actually likes playing in the prem? because its too physical for them and its too cold!!!

Juninho enjoyed it

Awww, so close...but look up.

[Beeks]

name one brazilian that actually likes playing in the prem? because its too physical for them and its too cold!!!

Juninho enjoyed it

Awww, so close...but look up.

Ah bollocks haha

[Alex Sapphire]

didnt like to say

[Rag_hater]

The guy who wrote this article is a bit of Taggart lover and a dirty red so I wouldn't be suprised to discover his motives for writting a shit stirring piece like this was to cause a bit of unrest amongst us blues.
He can obviously see like the rest of us what a difference a fit and healthy Robson would make to us and have the feeling he is trying to stir things so a hate campaign builds towards Robson.
Like Tranny was so important to them I think he can see that Robson will be as good for us and wants to do his best to unsettle him before he settles and becomes one of the best players in the world playing for us.

[mcfc1632]

The Hounds will be out in a minute.

They are so touchy about anything that suggests Hughes is the problem.

Where does it suggest Hughes is the problem? Perhaps the reason everyone is so touchy is because you make everything out to be Hughes' fault?

If the club have denied it then that's enough for me. This is getting more boring than when tranaldo was constantly linked to Real.

here...

but the manager may have contributed to Robinho's unhappiness by disbanding the small but influential group of Brazilian players that he regarded as cliquish and undermining his authority.

Disappointed in you Soc - your anti Hughes stuff is normally several levels above the gutter that the small minority wallow in

The question was - where does it say it is Hughes's fault?

The quote given is entirely different speaking of contribution - well so are many things - but would you as a CITY fan believe that we should play elano, jo, berti and tom, dick and harry just to make one player feel at home? would you do that if you were the manager?

Even if there is credence in the Guardian article which is mainly just rehash - now that would be something that was Hughes fault if it had been allowed.

'Cos then what - should we only make a polite request for a game when the sun shines - only train indoor at health spas etc - because then that would be really Hughes fault

Of course the answer is no - because that would be just pathetic - but no more than pathetic than trying to use this non-story to bash Hughes

Some of the anti Hughes crowd on here are just pathetic muppets clearly more out of personal games than debate - don't lower yourself to their level mate

[feedthegreek]

graham hunter so called spanish expert as been on talk sport, and said barca manager guardiola
does,nt want him and he wont be going to barca robi that is.
he also said guardiola wants david silva.

[Mase]

Surely Robbie not saying anything means it's a defo??
Didn't Terry keep his mouth shut for months before saying he "loved Chelsea"?

[Original Dub]

MAybe he just won't buy into it....

The reaction has been understated, to say the least. When the plane carrying Manchester City's players touched down at Abu Dhabi airport there was no welcoming committee as such. No television crews, no autograph hunters, nobody flashing cameras in the players' faces, no police escort to whisk them to the seven-star opulence of the Emirates Palace hotel. A scattering of locals were there to see them train for the first time last night – but only a scattering.

They are here for a training camp, to get away from the Mancunian climate and play a friendly against the United Arab Emirates national team tomorrow night in what will eventually become an annual fixture at the Zayed Sports City, certainly as long as the sheikhs of Abu Dhabi's ruling Nahyan family, the richest men on earth (sitting on 9% of the planet's oil reserves) are bankrolling the club.

The ground will be full, the last of the 26,000 tickets being distributed on Monday, but the players have been able to walk unnoticed through the vertiginous shopping malls that line the eight-lane highways here and, at times, it has evoked memories of when Manchester United tried to crack the United States in 2003, a tour notable for Sir Bobby Charlton being introduced to the crowd as Bobby Carlton, games being interrupted for weather reports and the announcement of disallowed goals, and being told at the New York Giants Stadium that Ryan Giggs had won 486 caps in his 32-year career.

The difference, of course, is that City are not here to crack Abu Dhabi because, quite simply, they already have enough zeros in their bank account. It is about getting some warm weather on their backs and maybe, too, some team bonding among a newly assembled group of players who have been fragmented by cliques during the more troubled moments of Mark Hughes's 17 months since replacing Sven‑Goran Eriksson as manager.

It has been a difficult process for Hughes, removing the players he felt were undermining his authority and it has led to the situation where Robinho, without Elano Blumer, Jô and Gláuber Berti, is now telling his advisers he feels so isolated and unhappy he cannot tolerate staying in Manchester beyond January. The Brazilian has not disrupted the club's sunshine break as spectacularly as the trip to Tenerife in January when he flew to Rio without informing his employers, but it is still an issue that suggests there is a long way to go before Hughes has fostered the sense of togetherness he craves from his players.

Stephen Ireland remembers the dressing room as being "cliquey" in Hughes's first season in charge, and that the manager took "some time to get a grip of the club". Elano, who was so close to Robinho they have been described as "long-lost twins", was a key agitator. He, Jô and Robinho were all fined for various indiscretions.

"He [Hughes] had it tough," Ireland recalls. "Some players didn't want to be there. Some players just didn't want to buy into it. Elano and Jô, they didn't want to put in the extra effort and it wasn't like it was that hard. It wasn't like you were being run like a dog, just that it was more professional and more based on team spirit, and these players didn't want to get into that stuff."

Elano was subsequently sold to Galatasaray. "Under Sven, Elano got away with anything," Ireland continues. "It was Elano's world, to be honest. The gaffer came in and there were massive changes, and Elano couldn't adjust. He's a great guy, a nice guy, I got on great with him, and he's a very talented player, but he could have added a lot more to his game and been a lot better than what he is."

"It was a shame because I am sure they [Elano and Jô] will look back and regret it. Even with Elano, he didn't play too often last year but when he did play, he did improve. He might not say that himself, but he added an awful lot to his game, which I think was down to the gaffer – but I don't think Elano would admit that or even realise it."

Ireland fits very much into the pro-Hughes camp. "He had to come into a club that had been damaged down the years, with players not having a winning mentality, people accepting defeat, accepting losing away from home, accepting things that just weren't right. Mark Hughes came in with his own staff and worked to make that right. The first meeting the gaffer ever had was about what we [the management] are going to offer you [the players] and the advice was to get on board. They said: 'If you do, you won't have problems, but if you choose not to you will find it very tough'."

A recent training session began at 2pm but Ireland found himself arriving for work at 11.20am. "You feel you just want to be there. Sven was a lovely guy, a very good person, I got on great with him, but for where City are aiming to go, you definitely need a manager like Mark Hughes. With Sven, you would turn up at 9.25am, train at 9.30am and be gone back home at 11.30am; you just wanted to get back as quickly as possible."

This is the disappointment for Hughes: that Robinho is not, it seems, willing to buy into the new regime when he believes there are greater adventures to be had at Barcelona. He was the first player to sign up to the Abu Dhabi revolution but when the sheikhs take their seats in the royal box tomorrow he will be missing because of his injured ankle and, despite the denials, there is every chance this fixture will have to get used to going ahead without him in future years.

[MaineRoadMemories]

....but would you as a CITY fan believe that we should play elano, jo, berti and tom, dick and harry just to make one player feel at home? would you do that if you were the manager?

We tried that with the Georgian’s and it ended up getting us relegated in '96.

[ant london]

Manchester City executive chairman Garry Cook has admitted the Blues have lost their way since that stormy Premier League win over Arsenal in August.

City started the campaign in fine form, winning their opening four games, including that one against the Gunners, and challenging for the Premier League leadership.

However, a run of five successive draws coincided with Emmanuel Adebayor's return from a three-match ban for his attack on Robin van Persie.

Although the £25million Togo striker has since returned from suspension, and a subsequent hip injury, he has not found the form that saw him score in that quartet of early victories.

And with City's defence struggling as Joleon Lescott tries to cement a centre-half partnership with skipper Kolo Toure and gaps appear in both full-back areas, so wins have been harder to come by.

"There was a buzz about the place when we played Arsenal. Everybody's expectations were high but we got disjointed a little bit," Cook told The National.

"We lost Adebayor for a little bit and then international games broke our momentum up.

"Since then we have had a couple of games where we thought we could have probably come away with a better result but that is the way it works."

City have another big game against Arsenal looming, on December 2, when a place in the semi-finals of the Carling Cup will be at stake.

Before that the Blues must visit Liverpool on November 21, before taking on Hull a week later, a match remembered last season for Phil Brown's controversial half-time on-pitch team-talk.

City fans will expect a win in the latter game and, given the poor form of Rafael Benitez's side, who will also be slightly distracted by their Champions League encounter with Debrecen the following week, at least a draw at Anfield.

If they can cement that last four berth as well to maintain hopes of an appearance at Wembley on February 28, it would still represent a pretty positive start to a season of so much promise following the £120million summer investment.

"Overall, we are quite pleased with our progress," said Cook.

"If someone had said at the beginning of the season we would be fourth after 10 Premier League games and in the quarter-finals of the Carling Cup, we would have taken it.

"We have gone through many years at this football club where survival has been the order of the day. Today it is about success."

Today also appears to be about Robinho.

The Brazilian is due to link up with his international team-mates later today in Qatar after spending the last two days with City.

He will have his ankle assessed, with the likelihood that he will then return to Abu Dhabi for the remainder of City's stopover.

Despite all the speculation about his future, rumours of discontent and a possible January move to Barcelona, Mark Hughes said the South American was going nowhere.

It is a stance Cook is happy to endorse.

"One of the things we always say to Robinho is that there seems to be a lot of people claiming to represent him," he said.

"But we only speak to his father, who Robinho himself says is his only representative. His father is not here, so we assume everyone else is up to their tricks.

"Categorically, there is nothing on anyone's agenda, whether it is the chairman's, mine, or Mark's."