City set to miss out after Milan close in on Pounds 16m Ronaldinho

Manchester City's chances of signing Ronaldinho disappeared last night after a day of intense discussions in which the Brazil international agreed to join Milan. The Italian club will complete the deal today, subject to a medical, even though they offered far less in terms of both transfer fee - City bid 25.5m - and wages for the 28-year-old former world player of the year.

Milan released a statement last night: "Milan and Barcelona have reached an agreement in principle over the transfer of Ronaldinho. The player will be in Milan tomorrow to undergo a medical and sign a contract that will keep him at Milan until June 30 2011."

The news will be a severe blow to City but will come as no surprise to the club, given that they have never rated the likelihood of the Barcelona playmaker agreeing to join them at higher than "50-50", even if they did make an impressive and concerted attempt to sign him.

Yesterday the Rossoneri increased their bid to around 16m, plus performance-related bonuses, which could amount to double the initial 10m they were prepared to pay. Milan are also willing to meet the wages he currently receives in Spain, even if that is less than City were prepared to pay.

A meeting is understood to have taken place in Barcelona yesterday between the Bara president, Joan Laporta, and Milan's vice- president and chief negotiator, Adriano Galliani, to thrash out a deal, leaving City powerless to intervene.

Recruiting Ronaldinho will not, as has been previously claimed by Galliani, end Milan's interest in signing the Arsenal striker Emmanuel Adebayor. Despite their claims to the contrary, the Italian club are understood to have the funds to complete a 25m deal for the Togo striker, although, ironically, they will continue to face stiff competition from Barcelona for Adebayor's services. However, like Ronaldinho, Adebayor is thought to prefer a move to Milan and the chances of that happening have been increased by Arsenal agreeing to lower their initial asking price of 30m.

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