SOCCER: Chief executive Garry Cook led the sombre return of a defeated Manchester City delegation back from Milan last night with the words of jubilant AC Milan owner Silvio Berlusconi ringing in their ears.

While City officials could offer a wry smile at the Italian Prime Minister, whose club were perfectly willing to sell their favourite son at an estimated price of £90million, they will have to start getting used to the sly chortles at an audacious move that did not quite work out as planned.

"We offered the player the chance to consider the offer and make himself a fortune, but he has higher values," said Berlusconi. "He is staying with us, there are things which are more important than money: we are happy.

"When I heard he would prefer to stay, that he didn't think he would be missing a great opportunity and he prefers the values of our flag, the values of closeness and friendship, the warmth and the affection that all the fans have shown him in these days, I said 'hooray' and we hugged. Kaka is staying at Milan."

In conceding a first-round defeat, Cook acknowledged it was always a long shot to persuade Kaka he should join the City revolution.

Without managing to meet the 26-year-old face to face, Cook was forced to deal with Milan officials and Kaka's father Bosco Leite.

And it soon became apparent there were too many parts of the deal, almost certainly involving get-out clauses for the South American, that made it pointless to continue.

"Whilst Manchester City Football Club has an obvious interest in world-class players of the quality of Kaka, we owe it to our fans that such a transfer must work on every level; commercially, financially, in terms of results on the field and within Manchester City's broader community," Cook told www.mcfc.co.uk.

City have made it clear that having missed out on Kaka, they will not be turning their attention to stars of a similar status, such as Barcelona's Lionel Messi.

It means Blues supporters will have to be realistic in the players manager Mark Hughes adds to his squad this month following yesterday's £14million arrival of Craig Bellamy.

Twelve months ago, such a transfer would have represented a club record. But now it feels almost like an anti-climax.

However, Hughes has worked with Bellamy twice before and knows the value he can add, providing the Wales striker can keep his combustible temper in check.

And, as Bellamy correctly pointed out, these are exciting times for the club.

"It is going to be incredible here over the next couple of years," he told www.mcfc.co.uk.

"It's not just for me, you speak to anyone in the Premier League and they would want to come to Manchester City. It's rare for that to happen outside of the top four but I think there are a lot of players who would like to come to this club.

"There are so many things happening here that are out of this world, it was an offer I just could not walk away from."

Hughes feels Bellamy's rapid pace is an asset City have been sadly lacking this term, as is the midfield strength another target, Nigel De Jong, will bring provided he agrees the switch from Hamburg.

Unlike Dutch midfielder De Jong, who has played in the competition for his present club Hamburg, Bellamy is free to play in City's Uefa Cup campaign this term and once West Ham stated a transfer to local rivals Tottenham was a non-starter, it took barely any time for negotiations to be concluded.

As it turned out, the same was unexpectedly true of Kaka, only not in the manner City wanted.