Tabloid idiots continue to run with laughable Robinho to Barca tales

I guess it was too much to ask for the closing of the most recent transfer window to signal the end of some of the more outrageous transfer rumours, if only until January. Perhaps a manager categorically denying his interest in a player actually means he's launching some secret, stealth bid to sign him. A player who repeatedly states he's happy must just be telling the fans what they want to hear.

There seems to be this common school of thought that Robinho had a poor first season at Manchester City. There are certain facts that might back that up. We didn't win any silverware, no seriously, we didn't. We also 'scraped into the top half', as Hughes 'hung onto his job' despite the powers-that-be consistently giving him their public backing. The Brazilian international's 'suspect', 'below par' and 'disappointing' season saw him score 15 goals.

Now, none of us would claim he's perfect, he probably could do a bit more, certainly away from Eastlands, but his first year in England could in no way be looked upon as poor. How many big signings from abroad take the Premier League by storm in their first year? The answer is very few, and they tend to be playing in teams filled with fellow world-beaters. Stevie Ireland and SWP did well to forge good on-pitch relationships with Robinho, but our side was, by current standards at least, bobbins.

The stories that have made the papers this week, especially in the Daily Mail over the last couple of days, are absurd. The player missing a game needn't be him 'dropped' or seen as a slight on the club were there truth in him asking to be rested whilst not being 100% ahead of a massively important international game. Some weeks it will suit us to play him, some it won't. It's something that the manager will have to judge correctly but nothing that should generate headlines. Some sides will try and kick us to death, as we saw in said game, it's par for the course. Forgive the bad analogy, but you wouldn't go off-roading in a Porsche.

To suggest that we'd even contemplate selling him for £15m, or even at all, is plain daft. The boy's a special talent, a match-winner, and most importantly is the 'face' of the takeover, if you like. Moving him on would mean more than losing a top player, it would be seen, wrongly, as a move that didn't work out, us running before we could walk, and a sign that our aspirations to eventually have a seat at the top table might not be running quite as on-plan as had been hoped.

This whole thing, i'm sure, is a load of fabricated shite from a mischievous journo who'd rather run with the latest tosh some idiot on Goal.com or Tribal Football has made up in their bedrooms than go out and find a proper story. He should know better. On the off-chance that Barcelona, or anyone else, are actually looking to relieve English clubs of a good player or two, however, i suggest they look across the city, or a bit further down the M62, they've still got one or two left.