City transfer talk: 15 July – Micah set to stay. Robinho for Ukraine?

Mixed messages today on the future of Micah Richards, with the majority saying he’s set to stay. Daniel Taylor tweeted as much before it appeared in The Guardian and the news was also in The Sun.

With Boateng and Zabaleta, there will be considerable competition for Micah at right-back. What we don’t have is a genuine attacking right-back and there’s been plenty of speculation that Mancini wants to bring in either Maicon or Dani Alves.

Both of these are highly unlikely to join a club not in the Champions League, so maybe the manager has decided to keep faith with Micah. Gregory van der Wiel of Ajax has been touted as an alternative, but question marks remain about his defending.

Using Richards to fulfill our home-grown contingent has been suggested, but this would offer little satisfaction to the player. He’d be bound to leave in search of first team football eventually. At least we can follow his US diary for a while yet!

Rory Smith in The Telegraph believes we could be back in for Mikel Arteta if we we can’t agree a fee for Milner. Arteta has undoubted quality, but lacks Milner’s engine and could be to similar to Silva. A deal for the Villa player still looks the more likely outcome, and would save us having to negotiate with David Moyes.

The Express, among others, finally pick up on the fact that paying Craig Bellamy’s wages (they claim £90k per week) may not be hugely attractive to Tottenham. Harry Redknapp may like the player, but will Daniel Levy cough up that much for someone the wrong side of 30, with a history of knee problems that prevent him from playing twice a week?

AC Milan vice-president Adriano Galliani has dismissed reports the club are after Edin Dzeko. Galliani is hardly known for his honesty in these matters, but it’s to be hoped he’s telling the truth here.

Also in Italy, the Lazio president is still trying to auction off Aleksandar Kolarov, this time dropping Juve’s name into the mix. It remains to be seen whether City can get the price of Kolarov, Dzeko and Milner down to a sum we’re willing to pay.

There’s been talk for a while of Shakhtar Donetsk’s billionaire owner, Rinat Akhmetov, financing a major signing. The Mail has none other than Robinho as one of the targets. If he doesn’t like Manchester, then it’s even harder to see our Robi going for life in Ukraine, especially if he asks Elano for a reference.

Finally, Ryan McGivern is being tipped for a loan spell at Oldham. With Paul Dickov as their manager, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him using his City connections to borrow a few of our youngsters.