Thursday gossip

Who would have thought, as City toiled against York and Lincoln back in the day, that there would come a time when the cream of Europe would complain they couldn't afford to pinch a Blues star?

How times have changed in barely a decade. Here's Marco Branca, Inter Milan's sporting director, wishing the giants of Italian football could afford to even think of nicking Carlos Tevez.
The Guardian's Danny Taylor is among those reporting Branca's comments as the Tevez "will he, won't he?" saga sails serenely on through a sea of intrigue and speculation this summer.
He writes that Tevez's "hopes of finding a new club are rapidly diminishing after Internazionale categorically ruled out a move" and that his options "now look severely limited beyond staying".
Dan reports: "'Tevez is a great player, a great character, but absolutely no,' Inter's sporting director, Marco Branca, told the BBC. 'His salary means it is out of the question. The market is crazy at the moment and it is hard to compete.'"
The Guardian man rates Tevez "the highest-paid player in the Premier League, and that appears to be well beyond Inter's reach, particularly when factoring in a transfer fee in the region of £50m".
He adds: "Branca ... is confident Wesley Sneijder will remain at San Siro but money issues have also led to the Italians pulling out of the bidding for Alexis Sánchez's signing from Udinese, leaving City in a straight contest with Barcelona."
Over at the Mail, they've ferreted out a fresh City target. The Blues, they report, "are interested in powerful Lyon left-back Aly Cissokho, 23, who is rated at £20million.
"The France international made his name at Porto before transferring to Lyon two years ago. The Senegalese-born player has also interested Liverpool."
The Mail also cottons on to City's decision to pull out of the Premier Reserve League this season with the advent of the Europe-wide NextGen Series revealed on the website yesterday.
Laurie Whitwell makes full use of Acadamy head Mark Allen's detailed interview in explaining the decision "to bridge the gap and prepare them for a better standard of football".
As you might expect, Laurie loves this quote: "It will prepare them for those balmy nights we'll hopefully have in the Champions League as the club moves forward. Who knows, we might be seeing the new Lionel Messi on a Thursday night at Hyde.'
With Barca first up in September, who knows indeed?