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The early evening here in the UK brought new developments regarding the transfer of Wilfried Bony. Bony is heading out to join his Cote d'Ivoire team-mates ahead of their African Cup of Nations participation but the Sky Sports News team managed to grab a few minutes with him before he jetted off.
Rather than a brusque 'no comment' from Bony he was happy to stop and chat and was, well, rather candid about the whole deal, saying that discussions were 'going on', that he wanted to test himself at a club like City and that 'everyone' would want to play in the Champions League.
Bony then gestured to his agent, Francis Kackou, saying that he was the man who would know the details. And sure enough, Kackou provided us with the following:
"Talks are going on but we hope that something will happen soon," said Kackou.
"It looks like it's going to happen. It is (Manchester) City, there are rumours about other clubs but at the moment it is just City.
When asked what was holding things up, Kackou replied: "It's about small details, about money, but I think it will be done in a few days.
"I'm flying with him to Abu Dhabi and lets see what will happen."
Whether Bony's participation now with the preparations of Cote d'Ivoire will impact on the speed of concluding any deal is unknown but it is clear that negotiations are fairly far along. I'm sure though that the City hierarchy would have preferred that matters were not played out quite so much in the public eye.
I wonder if the 'small details, about money' quote from Kackou relate to the structure of the fee. We have seen between £25-£30 million quoted as the price City will pay but how will this be structured? Don't forget, City are hamstrung to a degree by FFP limitations and although they may recoup some money from the sales of the likes of Matija Nastasic and/or Scott Sinclair is it that the initial deal will be a loan, with a commitment to complete the deal in the summer (as we have seen with Alvaro Negredo's move)?
We should have the answer soon enough.
