Loyalty has no price Man. City can afford

A week ago, Manchester City, the richest football club on earth, did everything possible to lure Brazilian ace Riccardo Kaka away from Milan.

City's bid, which was never made official, was apparently too good to be true for both Milan and Kaka himself. Following several hours of negotiations, Kaka said he had turned down the transfer and pledged his loyalty to the San Siro giants. The Rossoneri fans were elated.

Kaka's move was commendable... there's no price for loyalty. But the feeling is that we, football followers, will never really come to know what was going behind the scenes in this protracted deal worth millions and millions of euros.

In recent weeks, several top-notch players have reportedly refused a transfer to Eastlands.

Oil-rich Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan has vowed to put his immense financial resources behind the building of a super-team since taking full control of Manchester City last year.

But many reckon City have been adopting the wrong approach in their recruitment exercise because all the world class players they have tried to sign this month, including Kaka, have so far snubbed them.

Milan were tempted to offload Kaka and they can't deny this because had it not been so, there was no point then in the club officials meeting the City representatives last week.

Even Kaka's father and agent, Bosco Leite, seemed to be in favour of the deal for obvious reasons.

From a business point-of-view, it made good sense for Milan to part with Kaka. The transfer fee they would have got could have put Milan in a strong position to sign other top-notch players.

Way back in 2001, Juventus were faced with a similar dilemma.

Eventually, the decision was taken to transfer Zinedine Zidane to Real Madrid. With the funds generated, Juve signed goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon (Parma), defender Lilian Thuram (Parma) and midfielder Pavel Nedved (Lazio).

Talking from the comfort of hindsight, Juve reaped rich dividends from that move as they went on to win back-to-back titles in 2001/02 and 2002/03 and also reached the Champions League final in 2003.

Last week, the true football lovers were overjoyed that Kaka had opted for loyalty instead of mega-rich deals. The sport needs more players of Kaka's qualities both on and off the field of play. One admires Kaka for sticking to his guns and stay at the club that fostered his career and made him the player he is today.

However, one asks what would Kaka's stance be if a similar offer comes from the likes of Real Madrid?

Serie A statistics

1st positive result for Torino after seven away defeats as they came from behind twice to share the spoils with Lecce 3-3 away. Lecce, who led 2-0 at one point, seemed on their way to beat Torino at home for the first time since May 7, 2000 (2-1) when they regained the lead 17 minutes from time. But Cesare Natali's equaliser completed Torino's comeback to interrupt his team's away jinx. Lecce have not recorded a home win since the 2-0 success over Cagliari on September 28.

3rd straight defeat (vs Lecce 1-2, Milan 0-1 and Juve 0-1) for Fiorentina who went down in controversial circumstances to a Claudio Marchisio first-half strike on Saturday night. This was Juve's sixth win in their last seven games. Cagliari continued to show signs of improvement as they demolished Lazio 4-1 in Rome. The Sky Blues could not have aspired for a brighter start as they took an early lead. But their advantage was short-lived as the Sardinians scored four times before half-time to record their first win in the capital since November 28, 2004 (3-2). Cagliari's second away win of the term coincided with Coppa Italia semi-finalists Lazio's third home upset of the term (the previous two coming vs Napoli 0-1 and Inter 0-3).

3rd away win of the season for rejuvinated Milan as the Rossoneri came from a goal down to interrupt Bologna's nine-match positive run. David Beckham scored in Milan's fourth successive victory in Bologna whose most recent home win over Milan goes back to March 10, 2002 (2-0). Napoli had their unbeaten home run interrupted by Roma as the team from the capital scored twice before the break and added one in the second half to enhance their chances of making a top-four finish.

4 winless games in a row (a draw and three defeats) have seen Sampdoria sliding towards the relegation zone. On Sunday, the Coppa Italia semi-finalists were edged by Inter who are still three points above Juventus and six over Milan. To find Samp's most recent victory in Milan, one has to go back to December 15, 1996 (4-3).

6 penalties were taken last weekend. Marco Di Vaio gave Bologna the lead against Milan but then Ricardo Kaka equalised for the visitors from the spot. Robert Acquafresca scored from a penalty for Cagliari against Lazio. Later on in the same game, Lazio were awarded two penalties. However, Tommaso Rocchi shot wide on the stroke of half-time and just after the break, Mauro Zarate saw his spot-kick stopped by Federico Marchetti. Elsewhere, Fabio Quagliarella's effort from the spot hit the post as Udinese were floored by Palermo. Matteo Ferrari (Genoa), Fabio Firmani (Lazio), Federico Balzaretti (Palermo), Carlos Carmona (Reggina) and Gabi Mudingayi (Bologna) were red-carded. Inter coach Jose Mourinho was also ordered off his bench.

30 goals were scored on the 20th day: 12 coming from the hosts and the remaining 18 from the visitors, who managed four victories. Foreigners contributed with 19 goals while there were 17 first-half goals. Total number of goals scored so far amount to 498. Four players - Kaka (Milan), Fabio Simplicio (Palermo), Gianni Munari (Lecce) and Jeda (Cagliari) - grabbed a brace each. Vincenzo Italiano (Chievo) and Antonio Di Natale (Udinese) came on as substitutes and scored. Marco Di Vaio still leads the scorers' list with 15 goals. The Bologna hit-man is closely followed by Genoa's Diego Milito, with 13 goals.