David Silva happy to let Manchester City sweat in his quest to gain parity with club's £200,000-a-week top earners

David Silva is holding out for a contract that would put him up alongside Manchester City’s £200,000-a-week top earners before committing to a new long-term deal at the Etihad Stadium.

David Silva happy to let Manchester City sweat in his quest to gain parity with club's £200,000-a-week top earners
Sitting pretty: David Silva wants parity with his high-earning colleagues at City Credit: Photo: EPA

City and the 26-year-old midfielder’s advisers have yet to reach an agreement on new terms, despite discussions between the two parties stretching back to June. Senior figures at City insisted that there were no concerns over Silva’s future and that they remained hopeful of a deal being struck to secure the Spain international to a long-term contract at the club.

But negotiations are now likely to continue into the new season following the failure to thrash out an agreement with Silva, who has excelled at City since arriving from Valencia in a £24 million transfer in June 2010.

Speaking after his involvement in Spain’s victorious Euro 2012 campaign, Silva suggested that discussions with City were close to reaching a conclusion, saying at the time: “My agents are negotiating a new deal with City and I think it’s likely we will close it in a very short time.”

Having signed a £130,000-a-week deal at City when he arrived from Valencia, however, Silva’s emergence as a key figure in Roberto Mancini’s team has left the player and his representatives looking to secure parity with the likes of Yaya Touré and Carlos Tévez.

City shelved contract talks with Dutch midfielder Nigel de Jong last summer because of a failure to meet the player’s wage demands, but it is understood that negotiations with Silva and his representatives will continue.

Silva, who has admitted he has struggled to adapt to the Mancunian climate, is open to extending his stay at the club, despite sources in Spain claiming that he has been identified by Barcelona as a long-term successor to 32-year-old playmaker Xavi.

Having adopted a policy of not opening contract negotiations during a season, and with Silva’s deal not expiring until June 2014, City are prepared to continue talks until they reach a successful conclusion.

Meanwhile, City are to send striker Sergio Agüero for a second scan on his right knee in an effort to discover the full extent of his injury suffered during Sunday’s Premier League victory against Southampton.

Agüero tweeted that he had escaped a “significant injury” to his knee on Sunday evening following a preliminary scan at a Manchester hospital.

City are optimistic that the player faces weeks rather than months on the sidelines. However, the club’s medical staff are waiting until the swelling subsides on the knee before sending the 24 year-old for a more definitive scan.

City hope to have Agüero available again following next month’s international break. Despite the potential loss of Agüero, last season’s leading scorer at the club, City captain Vincent Kompany insists that the squad are strong enough to cope in his absence.

“Any team which loses a player like Sergio will have to deal with a blow,” said Kompany. “But I remember last season that we had to miss out on Carlos Tévez for a long time and we managed to cope. I hope Sergio won’t be injured for long but I just go back to last season when we had to cope with these kinds of issues.”

City remain in the hunt for Roma midfielder Daniele De Rossi, who has announced that he will hold a press conference in Rome this afternoon to clarify his future.

Mancini failed to lure De Rossi, who can also play at centre-half, to City in January, but attempts have been made to tempt the Italy international to the Etihad in recent days.

Roma’s £28 million asking price for the 29 year-old had proved prohibitive for City, but with interest in Liverpool’s Daniel Agger having subsided and Athletic Bilbao’s Javi Martínez edging close to an agreement with Bayern Munich, interest in De Rossi has resurfaced in the past week.

City's top earners

  • Yaya Touré: £200,000/week
  • Vincent Kompany: £200,000
  • Carlos Tévez: £198,000
  • Sergio Agüero: £190,000
  • Emmanuel Adebayor: £165,000