Manchester City To Offer £50m For Barcelona's Eto'o?

The rumour mill continues to churn them out, with the latest reports revisiting Samuel Eto'o's link with cash-rich Manchester City.

Sport claims that the Cameroon ace will be offered a mindboggling £12 million-a-year (€12.5m) deal at Eastlands, so long as Barcelona accept the £50m (€52.1m) bid which the Mancunian strugglers are preparing.

The striker has less that 18 months left to run on his current contract, so such an offer would surely please the Catalan giants, despite the increased impact Eto'o has had this term.

City are said to have informed the Spanish club about their intention to bid this month.

However, reports have also suggested today that Barça president Joan Laporta is keen to hang onto the player, who will be offered a new contract before any bids are tabled.

Elsewhere - at Ewood Park specifically - Blackburn Rovers are waiting on an offer from City for Roque Santa Cruz.

Although some of the Citizen's targets thus far have been more modest and sensible than Eto'o, the Blues were apparently close to signing Brazilian Ronaldo in the summer in what would have been a massive gamble. This showed that manager Mark Hughes is as prone to the super-signing bug as anyone.

Plus, one suspects that the club's new head honchos had more to do with the capture of Robinho from Real Madrid in the final hours of the summer market than anyone else. Perhaps now, though, Hughes will reject mega signings, which won't seem as fun with the harsh reality of a relegation battle staring him in the face.

Greg Ptolomey, Goal.com