Mark Hughes has described the signing of Robinho for Manchester City as “a huge statement of intent”.
It had looked like the Berbatov deal would be the main transfer to go through and the main talking point in the news papers this morning but Man City managed to steal the thunder of their Manchester rivals with the £32 million pound signing of the Brazilian forward.
“It’s a huge statement of intent. A lot of credit has got to go to Dr Thaksin (Shinawatra, the club’s current chairman and owner) for being able to bring the Abu Dhabi Company to the table and this huge investment that is going to go forward.”
“They wanted to present something to the people of Manchester and they have been able to do that.
“It’s a fantastic signing for us. If we’re going to get to the places we want to get to we are going to have to compete against outstanding teams. We have to attract world-class players and that is what we have done.
“He is an exceptional talent and opposition teams are going to fear him.”
Robinho was expected to move to Chelsea but with Real Madrid reluctant to sell to them Man City were able to take advantage of the situation. They had tried earlier in the day to do the same things with Man utd’s move for Berbatov but the Bulgarian international had his heart set on a move to the red half of the city.
