Any fan of Revista de La Liga – Sky Sports’ coverage of Spanish football hosted by Scott Minto in a rather quaint-looking shed – will know Graham Hunter well; he’s the bald Scottish chap with the constantly flickering eye-lids and slightly patronising, know-it-all vocabulary.
That being said, Hunter does know what he’s talking about. He’s reported on La Liga since the 1990s and lived in Spain since 2002, working for ESPN, BBC Radio, TalkSPORT, Sky Sports, UEFA.com and FourFourTwo magazine to name a few.
And the Scot’s latest declaration of exclusive insider knowledge is that Manchester City are plotting a spectacular summer bid for none other than back-to-back Ballon d’Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo – formerly of local rivals Manchester United.
“I know that the players at Manchester City were talking very, very firmly that they believed there was a successful move coming from that club over the last couple of weeks,” said Hunter, as reported by Sky Sports.
“Whether that makes it true or not, I wouldn’t like to say.
“What we know is the mega clubs, with petrodollars, there’s never been a better time to say: ‘Well, would you like to cash in on your chips?'”
Having remained remarkably coy on his future at 2014’s Ballon d’Or ceremony, now 30 years of age and amid a slight blip in form since the turn of the year, the summer would be as good a time as any for Real Madrid to sell.
Not that the European Champions have ever been much of a selling club – and would Ronaldo really join the rivals of a team he represented on 292 occasions, winning three Premier League titles and the Champions League in 2008?
Hunter insists the speculation is genuine, but also believes the ultimate decision will fall upon the Portugal international; “It will always be down to the player. When you are No 1 in the world, he will decide. I don’t think he has decided to leave yet.”
Watch this space chaps and chapettes.
Why on earth would we even contemplate this, granted he may fall into the “crack” player category that Pell is talking about, but he is also 30 years old and as everyone keeps pointing out we already have an ageing squad. Much rather sell some players (Kolarov, Dzeko, Jovetic, Sinclair – though should have been given a chance, Toure, Sagna, Caballero and the massively frustrating Navas, all the Pace in the World….going sideways, and i think that Milner will leave and as we know, Lamps will be going to NY) and bring in a mixture of quality younger players (Sterling, Clyne, Depay & Kane to name but 4) and promote some youth as well (Barker, Lopez, Denayer, Rekik). The only way to find out if our younger players are any good is to give them a go. Plus we would save close to One Million Pound a Week on Wages for those players we sell/release alone.