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MANCHESTER CITY have been offered Monaco’s Radamel Falcao for around £55m (€70m) and are trying to make the deal happen within the constraints of Uefa’s financial fair play system before the transfer window closes at 11pm today.
Manuel Pellegrini wants to sign the striker but the sense at the club is that time could run out. City are allowed a net spend of £49m and have around £24m at the moment after Jack Rodwell, Javi García and Gareth Barry departed.

City would need to more than double the money available to them and would be willing to sell Álvaro Negredo, Micah Richards, Matija Nastasic and Scott Sinclair to close the gap. There is interest in Richards from Sunderland but his wages may be an issue.

Negredo is the prime asset among those and has been interesting Real Madrid, their neighbours Atlético, and Valencia. He is valued by City at £25m but has just taken the cast off an injured metatarsal, meaning potential suitors may try to reduce his price. It is unclear whether the Spaniard could pass a medical. The prognosis is that he can return to action at the start of October.

One option that may be explored by City is a loan deal for Falcao, 28, with the option of buying him in January or next summer. He has been available for loan at about £20m, covering a fee to Monaco and wages. It is thought that Txiki Begiristain, the City director of football, discussed the potential transfer with Monaco during Thursday’s Champions League draw in the principality.

Falcao’s camp have been pushing to get him to Real Madrid but have encountered unexpected resistance from the decision-makers at the Bernabéu, although they have not given up hope of concluding that transfer. Falcao deleted a tweet on Saturday that indicated he was moving to the club. He claimed his account had been hacked.

Madrid, as well as having Negredo and Falcao as options, are understood to be in talks over taking the Manchester United striker Javier Hernández on loan. Tottenham’s Roberto Soldado is another on the Spanish club’s radar. — The Guardian