Manchester City target Fernandinho is reportedly pleading his employers Shakhtar Donetsk to lower their valuation as he seeks a summer switch to the Etihad Stadium.
The powerful Brazilian midfielder has long been linked with City but the Ukrainian club appear unlikely to want to sell for less than his £40.5 million buy-out clause.
And the 28-year-old fears his ambition to play in the Premier League will remain unfulfilled if Shakhtar don’t repay the trust he has shown in them.
“My dream is being threatened because of the high valuation,” Sky Sports reports him saying.
“The day I signed, the club’s director guaranteed me [the release clause] was normal with his players, and that in a transfer we could negotiate and reach an agreement on the price.
“I trusted them and I didn’t think about the consequences it would bring me in the future.”
Fernandinho, who joined the Ukrainian giants in 2005 and has five international caps, would seem to be undeterred by City’s upheaval of backroom staff.
Indeed, following the sacking of Roberto Mancini on Monday night and assistant David Platt’s resignation on Tuesday the club announced last night five more of the Italian’s coaches had left.
A club statement revealed fitness man Ivan Carminati, Fausto Salsano, a former coach of Mancini under Sven Goran Eriksson at Sampdoria, and defensive specialist Angelo Gregucci have all gone.
Massimo Battara – the flamboyant goalkeeping coach credited with transforming Joe Hart into one of the world’s leading stoppers – also departs.
And the list is completed by former Crystal Palace star Attilio Lombardo, who oversaw City’s disastrous showing in the Barclays Under-21 Premier League this season.
Image courtesy of UEFA, via YouTube, with thanks.
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