Monday gossip

It's back to work for the players this week, but of course behind the scenes the wheels have never stopped turning - even if the New European Prudence is taking an effect.

Michel Platini may not be the Iron Chancellor, but his strict financial restrictions governing participation in the Champions League have made Roberto Mancini begin to think differently.
The Independent's Ian Herbert, not an easy man to convince, thinks so anyway. He writes that "Mancini has acknowledged for the first time that Uefa's financial fair play (FFP) regulation is impacting on his club's transfer-market business this summer".
Herbs believes that this is "a marked change in personal perspective which had seemed for weeks to be at odds with his club's desire to rein in spending".
He tells readers: "Ahead of a week in which loaned players the club badly needs off its payroll are due back at Carrington, Mancini said 'financial fair play is for everyone' and that City would therefore not 'do what everyone thinks we will and pay £10m more than other clubs' for players.
"Mancini ... appears to have been persuaded of the realities of the new financial landscape by his chief executive Garry Cook, who knows better than any at City that 2011-12 brings the start of the three-year monitoring period of FFP, during which clubs may post no more than £45m aggregate losses.
"Extra commercial income will also help the long job of driving down City's £121m losses. A stadium naming rights deal had not, as of yesterday, been signed but such an agreement is a vital part of the commercial landscape ahead."
It appears the Indy man is drawing on that wide-ranging Italian interview mined by the Mail yesterday, seeking his own unused nuggets: "Mancini ... made it clear he considers himself the leading force in the summer transfer negotiations. 'I am the ultimate authority,' Mancini said."
Ian also has news of Craig Bellamy, who "wants his £90,000-a-week contract written off, freeing him to resume his career elsewhere, but that is unthinkable to City, whose balance sheet does not need a £14m write-off.
"Blackburn Rovers may possibly be willing to take on Bellamy's pay demands but ... buying clubs' awareness that bargains will come near deadline day may mean those City players who want out will still be around at the start of the season."
Bellers might be gone though. The well-connected Stephen McGowan, who writes for the Mail north of the border, says Celtic will ask City to name their price for the "Welsh firebrand striker".
He says: "Parkhead chief executive Peter Lawwell is awaiting the return from holiday of key management figures at the FA Cup holders, while Bellamy himself is due to return from a charity trip to Sierra Leone.
"The Scottish Cup winners want a 12-month loan deal similar to that struck with Newcastle for Bellamy in 2005."

that's why the clichy and nasri deals look great.

i think our biggest problem is the wages of the unwanted players.

The likes of Adebayor, Bellars, Onuoha, Bridge, Jo, SWP, RSC are about £500K per week whilst we would be lucky to get £30M for them.

Sorting these guys out could make a £55M difference in our pockets.