Brazil striker Robinho said on Tuesday he has no dispute with Manchester City and is ‘committed’ to helping the team become a force in the English Premier League.
Robinho left the club’s training camp in Tenerife on Monday, sparking reports that he had walked out for good. But Robinho said the club knew he was going back to his homeland for family reasons.
Robinho, who moved to City from Real Madrid last year for a British record transfer fee, left on the same day that AC Milan star Kaka turned down a world-record move to City.
“I feel it is important to underline that I did not return to Brazil because of the Kaka deal,” Robinho was quoted as saying by the BBC.
“He is one of my good friends and it would have been great to see him at Manchester City, but it had nothing to do with his decision to stay in Milan. I am committed to helping Manchester City become the force the owners assured me they will become.”
A statement posted on Robinho’s website says the striker is happy at Man City and will return to the club in a few days.
“I had made Manchester City aware that I needed to return to Brazil because of a family matter,” Robinho said, according to the BBC. “I will return to the club and hope to sort this out as soon as possible.”
Robinho’s departure from the training camp could still land him in trouble with City, however.
“I do know Robinho is not at the training center in Tenerife,” executive chairman Garry Cook said on Tuesday. “If he has left the training ground it is a breach of club discipline. I am waiting for a full debrief.”
City stunned the football world when they beat out Chelsea to sign Robinho in the final minutes of the transfer window in September, paying Madrid a British record transfer fee of £32.5 million.
While he has scored 12 goals for the club, City are still in the bottom half of the standings and only four points above the relegation zone. The team were knocked out of the FA Cup by League Championship club Nottingham Forest.
Robinho has not been afraid to criticise his teammates in public or advise manager Mark Hughes about who he should be signing.
“They are content with just finishing fifth or sixth,” Robinho said last month. “They are content with little, thinking just a draw might be good enough. They lack the mentality of champions. I have learned that being second is worthless so I want to inspire a winning mentality.”
Since those comments at the start of December, City have picked up only eight points from a possible 18 in the league – prompting the team to pursue new players in the January transfer window.
Kaka topped that list and City pursued him in a blaze of publicity to help Sheik Mansour’s Abu Dhabi United Group achieve its ambition of turning City into a global force.
City were offering about £100 million to lure Kaka away from the 2007 Champions League winners to a club without a major trophy since 1976. But the deal collapsed late on Monday when Kaka said he was staying at Milan, turning down a reported weekly salary of nearly £500 000.
“We had entered into a confidentiality agreement (with Milan) weeks ago but, in my personal opinion, they bottled it (backed out),” Cook said. “We had gone through a three or four-stage process in which Milan made it quite clear Kaka was for sale and we made it clear we intended to bring him to Manchester City.
“As we got to the next stage there were questions they could not answer and I think the political and public pressure made them change their conditions.”
City did sign injury-prone Craig Bellamy from West Ham on Wednesday for about £14 million – twice the price it took the Hammers to bring the Wales striker from Liverpool in July 2007.
In 18 months at Upton Park, the 29-year-old Bellamy has appeared in just 24 league matches and scored seven goals.Source: supersport.co.za
Pic: newsoftheworld.co.uk