Thaksin hope for Ronaldinho
17 Jun 2008 - 07:22:44
Manchester City owner Thaksin Shinawatra claims the club remains hopeful of persuading Ronaldinho to move to Eastlands.
The ambitious Shinawatra has made the acquisition of the Barcelona and Brazil forward his main summer transfer priority and remains confident of landing his man despite reported interest from AC Milan and Chelsea.
The appointment of 2002 World Cup winning Brazil coach Luiz Felipe Scolari as Chelsea's new manager has left the Stamford Bridge club favourites to land the former world and European player of the year.
"We are still trying to convince him to join the club every day," said Shinawatra.
"The new manager is courting new players for the team. The football is going well."
Meanwhile, newly-installed manager Mark Hughes has spoken of his desire to make his mark on the squad inherited from predecessor Sven-Goran Eriksson.
He told the club's official website: "We have got less than a month now and there are a few issues we need to address.
"It's a bit difficult at the moment because people are away and the training ground is not working as it would do during the season anyway.
"We will have to wait a little bit to see who does what, which door opens into where and how we can make the way things will run as smooth as possible.
"There have been a lot of meetings, a lot of introductions but it's exciting and I can't wait to get started properly.
"In a way it is a bit of a shame that there are still a couple of weeks until the players come back, but it will come around very quickly and then we can get stuck in."