ABU DHABI // Khaldoon Al Mubarak, the chairman of Manchester City, has warned Carlos Tevez and AC Milan that the club will not contemplate sanctioning the sale of the restless Argentine striker unless the Italian club meet their valuation and adopt a more professional approach to transfer negotiations.
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Al Mubarak confirmed the Premier League leaders are aware Adriano Galliani, the
vice president, has held talks with Tevez and
, over a proposed move to the San Siro, despite the Italian club failing to meet City's valuation of the 27 year old, believed to be upwards of ?30 million (Dh143m).
"As things stand AC Milan isn't an option for Carlos Tevez," Al Mubarak told The National.
"Mr Galliani and his advisers have developed a misplaced sense of confidence from their premature discussions with Carlos and his advisers. If they want to be a consideration in this transfer window they would do better to stop congratulating one another and begin to look at how they would meet our terms."
City, owned by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed,
have already rejected a proposal from Milan to take Tevez on a half-season loan with a transfer dependent on performance targets. They will not approve a loan without a guaranteed end-of-season sale.
Al Mubarak confirmed talks with Paris Saint-Germain and Inter Milan have also taken place. Armed with a considerable budget from the Qatar Investment Authority, PSG held constructive talks with Manchester City and were prepared to match Tevez's wages but announced yesterday they had pulled out of the running after Tevez was quoted in Argentina as saying, "I see myself only in the red and black shirt, I am hoping for Milan."
"Paris St German and Inter Milan approached discussions with us in good faith and it is always a positive experience to deal with people with such a professional approach," Al Mubarak said.
Should the club's valuation of the player not be met, Al Mubarak said City have no intention of softening their hard-line stance.
Tevez, who is contracted to City until the summer of 2014, has been absent without leave since the second week of November.
"Carlos remains a player with contractual obligations to Manchester City for the next two and a half seasons," Al Mubarak said. "Unless we receive an offer that we deem appropriate, the terms of his contract will be enforced."
Tevez remains on unapproved leave in Argentina and has not played since the club imposed a four-week fine for a first charge of misconduct, subsequently reduced to two weeks when the Professional Footballers' Association refused to sanction the full punishment, for refusing to warm up in a Champions League against Bayern Munich.
Tevez briefly returned to training on October 13, only to return to his homeland without permission for which he has now been found guilty of gross misconduct and fined six weeks' wages. His appeal to the club's board was dismissed and he has until January 30 to make a final appeal to the Premier League.
The player's wages have also been stopped. This suspension of wages coupled with fines levied against Tevez to date are believed to total around £3.3m. When combined with the forfeiture in September of £6m worth of loyalty payments following his transfer request earlier in the year, Tevez is facing recent losses in excess of £9m.
Tevez's unauthorised break has seen him playing golf and spending time at the beach. Photographs circulated also showed him dining with Joorabchian and Galliani after a trip to Brazil.
Tevez, who was signed on a five-year deal in July 2009, has been attempting to engineer a move away from City for more than a year. In a display of apparent brinkmanship, Milan claimed they pulled out of negotiations with City earlier this month but have confirmed they are back in the race to sign Tevez.
"Tevez wants Milan? We also want Tevez," Galliani said on the club's official website this week. "We shall see, there are still seven days left until the end of the transfer window."
Discussions between Joorabchian and PSG officials did not elicit an agreement with the club, who yesterday ended their interest in the player.
"We stopped the negotiations," Leonardo, the French club's sporting director, told L'Equipe. "There was an opportunity, we have studied it, we made a good offer but failed to agree a deal. We will not pay excessively so we stop. It's over."
Inter have already had a ?25m bid rejected by City but the two parties could yet reach a deal as Inter are owed a substantial balancing payment on Mario Balotelli's 2010 transfer to City.
"I hope we can finish this quickly," said Roberto Mancini, the Manchester City manager, on Friday. "He has talked now with PSG, Inter and Milan and I hope for him that a deal can be concluded quickly. ."
* Additional reporting by Duncan Castles