Manchester City insist they will not let their large cast of unwanted fringe players leave for nothing despite knowing that if they cannot find buyers for players such as Craig Bellamy, Wayne Bridge, Emmanuel Adebayor and Roque Santa Cruz they will lose millions of pounds in "dead money" via the extraordinary salary structure at Eastlands.
The planned exodus began on Monday when Dynamo Kyiv confirmed they had agreed a £3.9m deal for Vladimir Weiss but City are having substantial problems shifting the other players who are now so far out of Roberto Mancini's plans that they train alone and are not even required to attend matches.
Many of those players will have to take huge pay cuts if they are to revive their careers but Adebayor's proposed transfer to Tottenham Hotspur sums up the problems facing City, with the forward determined not to lose the £150,000-a-week salary he earns for doing nothing more than a few gentle workout sessions at City's training ground.
Those figures are prohibitive for Spurs and, with City extremely reluctant to subsidise any part of the deal, the move is at an impasse as Adebayor, signed from Arsenal for £25m in the summer of 2009, continues to be excluded from the rest of Mancini's first-team squad.
The issues regarding these players can largely be traced back to the early part of the Abu Dhabi United Group's ownership when transfer targets recommended by Mancini's predecessor, Mark Hughes, were offered huge salaries to join the club. Those players have subsequently fallen out of favour under Mancini but their wages put them out of reach of potential buyers.
Bellamy earns a weekly figure of £95,000 and Celtic are the only club to have held significant talks about signing the striker before the transfer window closes at the end of the month. Bellamy, like Adebayor, has said he will not accept a lower wage and, unless something changes, could conceivably be left in the wilderness at City – paid millions of pounds but not even welcome to join in on the practice pitches.
Wayne Bridge is in a position of even greater uncertainty. The former England international left-back earns £90,000 a week yet is rarely seen at City these days. Apart from an inquiry from Newcastle United earlier in the summer, there has been virtually no interest from other clubs. Bridge could conceivably have to slash his wages by more than 50% to tempt any potential buyers.
City can expect to receive only a fraction of the fees they paid for these players but Mancini says the club will not contemplate letting them leave for free just to reduce their wage bill. "All these players have a cost," he said. "They are good players and, if there is a club that wants one of them, they must pay. I don't understand why we should have to pay a lot of money for them and others don't."
Shaun Wright-Phillips is a slightly different case on the basis that he is still allowed to train with Mancini's squad and his contract was agreed under the days of Thaksin Shinawatra's ownership, shortly before the Abu Dhabi takeover. Nonetheless, he still has a handsome £60,000 weekly salary, which potentially puts him out of the range of the clubs trying to sign him.
Bolton Wanderers have agreed a £2.5m fee and Wright-Phillips has already visited the club's training ground to have a look at their facilities but, again, it would require him taking a substantial drop in wages. Stoke City, Queens Park Rangers, Wigan Athletic, West Bromwich Albion all want to sign the winger, and Lazio have also contacted City.
Santa Cruz, who has earned around £8m in wages but started only eight matches, scoring four times, since signing from Blackburn Rovers for £18m two years ago, has attracted offers from Real Betis and Rayo Vallecano, both newly promoted to the Spanish top division.
The availability of the defender Nedum Onuoha has brought him to the attention of several Premier League clubs, including QPR, and he has employed Carlos Tevez's adviser, Kia Joorabchian, to help him find another club. Joorabchian has also become involved with the Dutchman Nigel de Jong, a key player who has just rejected the terms on offer for a new contract.
