Roberto Mancini is ready to admit defeat in his attempts to take Javi Martinez, Daniele De Rossi and Daniel Agger to Manchester City.
The Italian has already missed out on two other major summer transfer targets - Eden Hazard, who joined Chelsea, and Robin van Persie, who left Arsenal for Manchester United.
Now Athletic Bilbao's Spain international Martinez is on the brink of moving to Bayern Munich, and De Rossi and Agger, who appear likely to remain at Roma and Liverpool respectively.