A story up on The Guardian's site by Daniel Taylor suggests that Robinho has already made up his mind in that he won't return to the club following his loan spell at Santos:
The man who was supposed to symbolise City's new ambitions when signed from Real Madrid for £32.5m, is so determined to sever his ties with Manchester he has already arranged for his belongings to be shipped to South America.
He has also put his UK-registered Lamborghini up for sale and informed his landlord that he will not be returning to the house he rented last summer. The Brazilian strategically chose to rent, rather than buy, when he moved out of his first house after a neighbourly dispute about the noise at which he was playing music.
Robinho joined Santos on a six-month loan in January but Roberto Mancini has steadfastly maintained that the 26-year-old remains a part of the club's future and will return for the start of next season. Robinho, however, has other ideas, telling his representatives that he just wants to write off his time at Eastlands as a bad period in his career. His feelings were laid bare in an interview this week when he reflected on moving from Madrid to Manchester that "maybe if I had gone to another club it would have been better for me".
My own thoughts regarding Robinho's future are well know to regular readers in that I don't see him pulling on a City shirt again.
The difficulty Robinho (and the club) may well face though is finding a suitable buyer for him if indeed both parties feel it best that they part ways.
Given his largely lacklustre form over the past twelve months, how many clubs are going to be willing to stump £20 million or so (and that is with us taking a big hit) and the reported £150,000 per week wages? As talented as Robinho is, he has by and large flopped at two European clubs now.
Will there be many willing to take a risk on him being third time lucky?