City say Milan 'bottled' Kaka move

SOCCER: Kaka's move to Manchester City fell through because AC Milan "bottled it", City's executive chairman Garry Cook said today. A group of City officials spent seven hours in the Italian city yesterday trying to secure the world record transfer of the Brazilian midfielder, only for the Italian club to announce that no deal would take place.

"We travelled to Milan, clearly with good intentions, and I think they bottled it," said Cook.

"We entered into a confidentiality and good faith agreement several weeks ago. We knew there were some steps to go through and we wanted to go through those in a professional manner. We respected our partners and it turned out that it this wasn't how they wanted it to be.

"Clearly it was not about a project, it was clearly about money. We actually never met the player and the questions we asked simply weren't answered."

Milan owner and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said the deal fell through because Kaka wanted to stay in Milan.

"Money is not everything for Kaka, there are things more important than money," he said. "We offered the player the chance to consider the offer...but he has higher values."

Cook, however, said that Milan had been willing to sell. "There was no offer made to the player. The offer was made to the club, whose original intent was to sell Kaka to Manchester City, he said. "The stage that followed that, their story changed.

"We went with the intent of having discussions that would lead us to that (signing him). We haven't taken this lightly, it's a huge undertaking, it was not to be. They changed their tune."

Despite the setback, which came on the day City completed the signing of Craig Bellamy from West Ham United for a fee estimated by local media to be around £14 million, City will continue to look to spend the huge funds provided by new owners, the Abu Dhabi United Group.

"We've got clear plans, we are not going to stop," Cook said, also confirming that a fee had been agreed with Hamburg SV for Dutch international midfielder Nigel De Jong.

"This club deserves great players and the fans deserve great players and we will continue on that goal; we are building for the future," Cook said.

"There have been many speculative comments made about all the work we've been doing. We've chosen not to speak to the media about our actions. Today is the first time we've made any comment.

"The player (Kaka) was for sale, we entered into negotiations, the landscape changed, we'll move on."