Mark Hughes is weighing up whether he should leave out Robinho from Manchester City's game at Arsenal on Saturday. The City manager is sufficiently concerned about Robinho's form and attitude that he has raised the matter with the club's owners in Abu Dhabi and has been promised their backing whatever he decides to do with his most expensive player.
Hughes is now toying with the idea of tinkering with his usual 4-2-3-1 formation to implement a new 4-3-3 system that would see Stephen Ireland take the Brazilian's usual place on the left side of attack. Shaun Wright-Phillips would play on the right although Hughes's plans have been undermined by Craig Bellamy, the spearhead of his forward line, suffering a knee injury and being ruled out of Wales's game against Germany tonight. Bellamy is heading back to Manchester to be assessed by the club's medical staff.
A final decision will not be taken until Friday when Robinho and Elano return from Brazil's World Cup qualifier against Peru in Porto Alegre and Hughes can assess any injury news before his squad travel to London for their overnight stop. Hughes is aware that dropping Robinho would be a controversial move and could possibly damage his already fragile relationship with the club's £32.5m signing. However, he and his coaching staff have been discussing for some time whether Robinho deserves to keep his placeconsidering his poor away form throughout most of the season. Their conclusion was that he did not. Robinho, indeed, would have been dropped before now had Martin Petrov, the club's left-winger, not been injured.
Often exhilarating at home, Robinho's disappointing performances on the road have already led to several largely unreported clashes behind the scenes. One source close to the Brazilian described him this week as finding Hughes "sharp" and "distant". Hughes, however, feels he has bent over backwards to accommodate the former Real Madrid player.,repeatedly offering him public support despite being exasperated by his apparent inability to bring out the best in the most costly footballer in the English game.
City have won only one away game in the Premier League this season and that came in their first match on the road, against Sunderland in August. Over the last few weeks Hughes has been analysing Robinho's statistics from the team's away games and has found that the Brazilian is routinely his least effective performer when, conversely, he is often among the more impressive when City play at home.
Of greatest concern to Hughes is that a case can also be built up against Robinho not particularly trying in certain matches. Hughes is in twice-weekly contact with the club's chairman, Khaldoon Al Mubarak, in Abu Dhabi, and the dissatisfaction at Eastlands is at such a level that the club are open to the idea of using Robinho in a possible player-plus-cash exchange for one of their main summer targets.
One is John Terry, the England captain, whose public statements about wanting to stay at Chelsea for the rest of his career differ vastly from what City have been told. Several messages have strategically reached Hughes and the club tried unsuccessfully to sign him in January. Chelsea, however, would vigorously try to repel any further advances and Robinho's dismal performance when City lost 1-0 at Stamford Bridge three weeks ago also counts against him.
Another target is Franck Ribéry, Bayern Munich's France international, who plays in Robinho's left-sided position. Thierry Henry can also fill that role and City's executive chairman, Garry Cook, has already been in touch with the former Arsenal striker's agent, Darren Dein.
Of more immediacy to Hughes is arresting the team's dismal away form and, with that in mind, he is considering packing the centre of his midfield against Arsenal with the combative trio of Nigel de Jong, Vincent Kompany and Pablo Zabaleta.
There are also concerns about Robinho's fitness after such a gruelling long-distance trip and, if he is dropped, Hughes intends to cite this as a significant reason. The manager is keen not to upset a player who could still be useful to him before the end of the season. However, City have decided not to send a private jet to accelerate his return to the club, as they had done earlier this season.
City, meanwhile, have beaten off competition from a host of other English clubs, believed to include Manchester United, to sign Loris Karius, the Germany Under-16 international goalkeeper, from Stuttgart.
"We had many offers from England and Germany," Klaus Gerster, the 15-year-old's agent, said. "Seventy per cent of the Premier League sides wanted Loris. Loris has great talent – if he didn't, there wouldn't have been such massive interest in him."
