Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Hughes - Robinho staying put

Hughes - Robinho staying put

Manchester City manager Mark Hughes has told Robinho to forget about leaving the club.

European champions Barcelona are circling around the Brazilian superstar, who has confirmed his interest in moving to Catalunya.

However, the 25-year-old - who joined City in a British record Ј32.5million deal in August last year - has been told his future is firmly at Eastlands.

"I am quite clear and Robinho should be quite clear that his future is very much with City," said Hughes.

"There is no reason to think that will change any time soon.

"All those stories do not originate from anyone from City.

"It is people on the outside taking a view on the situation with Robinho which they have no real insight into."

Fitness

Hughes insists that speculation about Robinho will end once he is back playing again.

"At the moment Robinho is not fit," said Hughes.

"But people still want to talk about him because he is a high-profile player.

"They have not had the opportunity to talk about his play on the pitch. From their point of view the next best thing is to speculate about his future and there are a number of people out there who are making mischief."

Robinho has travelled with the rest of the Manchester City squad to Abu Dhabi, as they prepare to take on United Arab Emirates in a friendly on Thursday.

"We are hoping that he is going to train with the group while we are over here," he said.

"He trained with the first team, just for part of the session, before we came out here.

"Now it is a case of stepping up his training.

"Hopefully we will get some game time into him, even if that means arranging something behind closed doors.

"Hopefully he will be an option very soon."

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