After signing Wayne Bridge, Craig Bellamy and Nigel de Jong but losing out on Kaka, big-spending Manchester City were linked with several more players yesterday from Chelsea's Didier Drogba to Barcelona's Thierry Henry.
Several papers suggested that City might bid for Drogba, who is unhappy that he is not starting regularly at Chelsea, and might also try to hire Blues goalkeeper Carlo Cudicini, who spends most of his time on the bench as backup to Petr Cech.
City's repeated bids for Blackburn striker Roque Santa Cruz have been turned down and the club has also been linked with Newcastle goalkeeper Shay Given. There was also speculation it might go for Henry although not until the end of the season.
No one at City made any response to the latest newspaper reports but manager Mark Hughes said he was keen to see one of the stars already at the City of Manchester Stadium, Brazilian striker Robinho.
On the day AC Milan star Kaka turned down a move to the Premier League club, Robinho left the team's Tenerife training camp on Monday to fly home to Brazil to deal with personal issues and Hughes said yesterday the striker had questions to answer when he returns to Manchester this weekend.
"Robbie left without permission, he felt that he had personal things that he needed to attend to," Hughes said. "He made the decision to leave the camp, and go back to Brazil. That was not with my permission, and the situation at the moment is not really practical to get him back here with time differences and length of flights, so he will be back at the weekend ready to train when we are back in Manchester at the first available opportunity.
"Once he is back, I will sit down with him and explain my feelings, and decisions will be made after that. He has rung me, and he understands that we need to address this - and we will. Then we will move on."
Hughes took his players to Tenerife because City, knocked out of the FA Cup by underdog Nottingham Forest, does not have a game this weekend. Its next match is in the Premier League against Newcastle on Wednesday (28 January) and Hughes expects Robinho to play alongside new teammates Bellamy and De Jong.
Hughes said there was no suggestion that Robinho flew home to Brazil because the Kaka deal has fallen through
"He has already said that himself, and he was on a plane back to Brazil when the Kaka deal was dead and buried," the City manager said. "People trying to link the two are trying to cause a little bit of mischief.
"He obviously felt that there were certain things that he needed to address back home, and so, wrongly, he made that decision to go back to Brazil. But he will be back at the weekend, then we will make sure that he knows my feelings and I am sure we will get a more detailed explanation from Robbie."