Manchester City manager Mark Hughes has said Brazil star Robinho has apologized for leaving the Premier League club’s warm weather training camp in Tenerife without permission.
He also dismissed reports Robinho would be involved in a transfer window swap deal with Chelsea’s Didier Drogba.
Robinho flew home to Santos on a private jet and has since claimed he had to deal with a pressing family matter.
That has cut little ice with City officials who say the forward will be disciplined on his return to the club — Robinho rejoining the training camp has been ruled out because of the time-difference and travel constraints.
Hughes was adamant the 24-year-old’s walkout was in no way linked to the collapse of the deal to sign Robinho’s fellow Brazil star Kaka and a feeling the club’s grand ambitions are unlikely to be realized.
Robinho, City’s leading scorer this term after arriving at Eastlands in a British transfer record £32 million (US$44 million) deal in September from Real Madrid, is set to rejoin the squad upon their return to Manchester at the weekend.
He will be in contention to play for lowly City against Newcastle United on Wednesday, although by then he could have been fined a couple of weeks’ wages, worth around £200,000.
“He has apologized that he left without permission,” Hughes said. “He needs to be able to put his side of the story. I will put mine — and we will move on.”
City’s aborted bid for Kaka was preceded by failed attempts to sign Gianluigi Buffon, Thierry Henry and the Valencia pair David Villa and David Silva, it emerged on Thursday.
None of the moves got as far as the attempt to sign Kaka, with the players’ current clubs all quoting exorbitant prices in an attempt to make the most of City owner Sheikh Mansour’s personal fortune.
“We’re not anybody’s fool,” City’s executive chairman Garry Cook told reporters.
But any suggestion City do not overpay for players looks debatable.
This month they’ve spent a total of £40 million on Wayne Bridge, formerly Chelsea’s reserve left-back, Craig Bellamy, who has managed only five goals this season, and Nigel de Jong, who was their third choice for a new holding player behind Barcelona’s Yaya Toure and Lassana Diarra, who opted to join Real Madrid.
Shohei Ohtani and Clayton Kershaw on Friday joined their Los Angeles Dodgers teammates in sticking their fists out to show off their glittering World Series rings at a ceremony. “There’s just a lot of excitement, probably more than I can ever recall with the Dodger fan base and our players,” manager Dave Roberts said before Los Angeles rallied to beat the Detroit Tigers 8-5 in 10 innings. “What a way to cap off the first two days of celebrations,” Roberts said afterward. “By far the best opening week I’ve ever experienced. I just couldn’t have scripted it any better.” A choir in the
After fleeing Sudan when civil war erupted, Al-Hilal captain Mohamed Abdelrahman and his teammates have defied the odds to reach the CAF Champions League quarter-finals. They are today to face title-holders Al-Ahly of Egypt in Cairo, with the return match in the Mauritanian capital, Nouakchott, on Tuesday next week. Al-Hilal and biggest domestic rivals Al-Merrikh relocated to Mauritania after a power struggle broke out in April 2023 between the Sudanese army and a paramilitary force. The civil war has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced more than 12 million people, according to the UN. The Democratic Republic of the Congo-born Al-Hilal
The famously raucous Hong Kong Sevens are to start today in a big test for a shiny new stadium at the heart of a major US$3.85 billion sports park in the territory. Officials are keeping their fingers crossed that the premier event in Hong Kong’s sporting and social calendar goes off without a hitch at the 50,000-seat Kai Tak Stadium. They hope to entice major European soccer teams to visit in the next few months, with reports in December last year saying that Liverpool were in talks about a pre-season tour. Coldplay are to perform there next month, all part of Hong Kong’s
Shohei Ohtani, Teoscar Hernandez and Tommy Edman on Thursday smashed home runs to give the reigning World Series champions the Los Angeles Dodgers a 5-4 victory over Detroit on the MLB’s opening day in the US. The Dodgers, who won two season-opening games in Tokyo last week, raised their championship banner on a day when 28 clubs launched the season in the US. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts shuffled his batting lineup with all four leadoff hitters finally healthy as Ohtani was followed by Mookie Betts, then Hernandez and Freddie Freeman in the cleanup spot, switching places with Hernandez. “There’s a Teoscar tax to
RSS