Mancini so relieved to get Robinho off his hands

Posted Wednesday, September 01, 2010 by

Exactly two years ago he arrived in a British record £32.5million move to launch Sheikh Mansour's reign at Manchester City in spectacular fashion.

But yesterday Robinho left for AC Milan as one of the most expensive flops in Premier League history.

The Brazilian misfit cost City an estimated £45.65million in transfer fee and wages over his two-year Blues career.

The striker scored 16 times in his 53 appearances at a whopping £2.85million a goal and £860,000 a game.

Despite making a hefty loss to wash their hands of Robinho, City are relieved they are finally rid of him.

They have done well to cut their losses and they have recouped £22million in his transfer fee to Milan plus they will save around £22.5million in wages and bonus payments he would have been due over the last three years of his contract.

City can argue Robinho made the desired impact when they outbid Chelsea to make him Britain's most-expensive signing and the football world sat up and took notice of the new Premier League power.

Roberto Mancini will be relieved Robinho is gone and he did not want him hanging round the club until the transfer window re-opened in January.

Robinho caused Mancini's predecessor Mark Hughes problems and he became a bad influence in the dressing room with his poor attitude in training.

After scoring nine goals in his first 14 games, including a great free kick against Chelsea on his debut, his performances tailed off in 2008 as winter set in and he rarely performed away from home.

With Elano, he also became a rallying point for anyone with a grievance at City and Mancini wasted little time in shipping him off to Santos on loan in January when he succeeded Hughes.

Robinho, 26, is relishing his fresh start in Serie A and told fans when he arrived in Italy yesterday on a private jet that he aims to win the Scudetto with the Rossoneri.

He is particularly looking forward to teaming up with his compatriots Ronaldinho and Alexandre Pato at the San Siro.

"I'm very happy and I hope that all goes well and that I can enjoy success with Milan," he said.

"I want to play with Milan because they are an excellent club. I want to win the Scudetto and become a champion with Milan.

"I hope I can show our attack will be strong. I haven't spoken to Alexandre Pato or Ronaldinho. I'm very happy and I hope that all goes well."

Robinho, who has signed a four-year contract, arrived in Milan before the clubs had agreed the exact details of his transfer and deal was only finalised an hour before the deadline when the Rossoneri caved in to City's demands for a permanent move.

Milan had proposed to take Robinho on loan with a view to making his transfer permanent next summer.

But City, who have also agreed to make midfielder Adam Clayton's loan move to Leeds permanent, refused to budge and they will receive £18million up front with another £4million in add-ons.

Robinho will not be joined in Italy by Roque Santa Cruz and his loan move to Lazio with a view to a permanent £6.5million switch fell through yesterday.

The Paraguayan striker and his agent failed to show in Rome for talks yesterday morning and it is believed the move broke down over his wage demands.