Studs Up

Here’s a quote from Manchester City chairman Gary Cook over the breakdown of the Kaka deal:

”The agenda we thought we were on was about Kaka coming on a journey with this club but at the end the only journey they were on was a fiscal one,” added Cook.

Sorry, they thought Kaka might have gone to Manchester to fulfill his childhood dream of helping a club he’s barely heard of fight relegation? Could City possibly have been the only ones on the planet who thought the deal was about anything other than money?

No, of course not. The deal wasn’t about money, because there is no way in hell Kaka and his advisors felt that 35 million in cash plus a few hundred grand a week was insufficient. They turned it down because Kaka, and anyone who has read up on him will know, is actually a footballer with character. One with strong religious beliefs and a sense of loyalty and duty.

Basically, he is not Craig Bellamy.

City needed Kaka to open the floodgates, to tell the rest of the world’s top footballers “Hey, come join the fun.” So this is a huge blow, but it’s not like there aren’t a few dozen Andrei Arshavin’s and Dennis Lachter’s just waiting to gobble up that oil money.

Cook and his cronies simply went about it the wrong way, which is unforgivable given the perfect case study they could have followed in the form of Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea. Build the foundation first, then maybe start sprinkling in some superstars.

If City had gone and signed a good squad of talented players in the summer and ignored the glory boys who were out of reach, Kaka may have had been swayed. But no one wants to be first in the door of a rebuilding project, not when you’ve spent your whole adult career at AC Milan.

Of course, there’s always next summer.