Eto'o on his way to Manchester City?

Manchester City were last night edging closer to the player they believe will be the stellar domestic signing of the summer - a spectacular deal for Barcelona's Samuel Eto'o that could cost £70million.

Quite how the striker will react to the prospect of making his debut away to Blackburn at a compact Ewood Park remains to be seen, but the size of City's staggering purse will surely help overcome any doubts he may have.

City will pay a transfer fee of just under £30m, but will need to match Eto'o's wage demands of £192,000 a week AFTER TAX over the four-year-deal, making him the most expensive arrival in British football. Having Eto'o on the pay roll will cost in excess of £320,000-aweek (£16.6m a year), more than twice as much as leading Barclays Premier League stars such as Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard.

Barcelona sources say the deal, which Sportsmail exclusively revealed this month, is almost complete. It represents outstanding business for the Spanish champions as the 28-year-old has only one year left on his contract, and he would have been able to leave on a free transfer next summer.

Last night City denied they must lose Robinho to gain Eto'o. Executive chairman Garry Cooke said: 'Robinho has always been a highly valued member of our team and that continues to be the case. Reports suggesting he will leave, either on loan or on a permanent deal, are absolutely untrue.'

City want to pair Eto'o with Robinho to steal Manchester United's thunder after they lost Cristiano Ronaldo to Real Madrid in a world-record move.

City have signed Gareth Barry from Aston Villa, but want to flex their muscles as manager Mark Hughes sets them a target of gatecrashing the Champions League and Eto'o, who scored 36 goals last season, would certainly be a Hollywood-style capture.

His wage demands were considered unreasonable by Barcelona president Joan Laporta who said: 'We would like to renew his contract but not at any price.'

City are looking to bring in up to six more players and chairman Khaldoon al Mubarak said: 'Key for us is that we trust Mark and any acquisition is based on his view.'

He added that some figures quoted to City have been 'a joke' and confessed: 'I'm frustrated with people assuming we're going to throw crazy money at deals, that we won't understand true values and we can't negotiate or get value for a player. There are situations where a £10m player will be offered to us for a "City price" of £20m. We just leave because at that point there's no point arguing.

'Look at City owner Sheik Mansour, he's a very shrewd businessman. I'll defend the value of every deal we've done. Look at our Robinho deal. If he went in this transfer window for the same price [£32.5m] it would be a steal.'

Source - Exclusive by Simon Jones And John Edwards - Daily Mail.