"I didn't cry... I only told the truth": The strange and confused day Manchester City signed 'the new Pele'
straight to your inboxWhether or not Manchester City sign Lionel Messi this summer, they can reflect on a much more professional approach than they managed when they bid for him in the frantic hours after they were taken over in 2008.As manager at the time Mark Hughes tells it, while he and his staff were on the golf course so frenzied were the bids for a marquee signing that when one club director remarked to a colleague about how messy the situation was it was misinterpreted as an instruction to sign the Barcelona forward and a bid was duly sent off and rejected.Dimitar Berbatov and Franck Ribery were also considered before an incredulous Real Madrid president picked up the phone on the evening of a momentous day for football on September