Manchester City's audacious bid for Kaka looks to have failed after the Brazilian said today that he “wants to grow old at Milan”.

The news will be a major blow for City's Abu Dhabi-based owners who sent a high-powered delegation to Italy this week armed with an open chequebook.

They wanted to pay the 26-year-old midfielder an astonishing £500,000 per week and hand over £100million to AC Milan in order to get their man.

But it seems that the lure of Serie A and potentially playing in the Champions League again next season means more to Kaka than money.

“I want to grow old at Milan,” he told Italian TV station MediaSet, which is owned by the club's president Silvio Berlusconi. “My aim is to become, at some point in the future, the captain of this team,” he added.

“I know there is a pecking order, with (Paolo) Maldini at the front then (Massimo) Ambrosini, but after that, who knows.

“I have already turned down some major offers.”
The player's agent Diogo Kotscho had already warned City that Kaka would not just do a Robinho' by signing for the cash with no guarantees about the future.

He said: “Kaka wouldn't do anything based on money. He would never do something like Robinho, who, just to earn more, contented himself with a solution that was not a winning one.”

Chelsea were convinced Robinho was going to sign for them before they were gazumped at the last minute with an irresistible offer from Eastlands.

But now it seems that Sheik Mansour's billions may not be enough to tempt the world's top stars to City — who have not won a major trophy since 1975 — although Kotscho did add that he could not rule out Kaka moving in the current transfer window.

“It's not impossible,” he said. “But I think it will be very, very difficult to have a deal.”
Manager Mark Hughes may now have to turn his attention back to domestic target Craig Bellamy for whom he has already had a £9m bid turned down by West Ham.

It has been suggested Kaka's name and the prospect of playing with him has been used as a bargaining tool in other transfer discussions although, as yet, the club are remaining tight-lipped.

A spokeswoman would only say today: “We have been linked with in excess of 70 names that could have been coming in this transfer window.

“We are not going to be drawn into any speculation on any names, no matter who they might be.”

Amazingly, Hughes claims not to be a fan of the January transfer window.

“I don't particularly like it because you have to wait to address things that could be sorted out a lot more quickly under the old system,” he told the Manchester Evening News.

“I am sure there were reasons behind bringing in the transfer window in the first place but I cannot fathom what they were.

“There have been weaknesses in our squad for quite some time and I have not had the opportunity to address those.”

Having worked with Bellamy twice before, the City boss feels he knows how to get the best out of the striker and Gianfranco Zola's pursuit of currently injured Eastlands forward Valeri Bojinov suggests West Ham are resigned to losing the player.