Tevez walks out on City as Clichy and Nasri head north

Manchester City may have won the FA Cup and can offer not just Champions League football but also the kind of wages that make your eyes water, but that is not enough for Carlos Tevez, who has declared that he wants out of Eastlands.

The man around who Roberto Mancini built his team has decided that he has had enough of Manchester and said as much in a statement late on Monday. In it, the Argentine striker declared: "It is with great regret that I have to inform Manchester City of my wish to leave the club."

He said he needed to move for family reasons. His two daughters have been living in Argentina for the last year

He wished the Citizens well and said he was proud of his achievements in light blue. He added: "I hope I have done my bit to help City continue their progress towards their ambition to be champions of England and to advance in the Champions League."

Those ambitions may be what attracted Arsenal defender Gael Clichy north to Manchester, and his arrival on Monday may offset some of the gloom at Eastlands over the apparent departure of Tevez.

But if the doomsayers are correct then the grreat Gunners exodus has begun, and Clichy is just the first of many heading for the Emirates exit door this summer.

The 25-year-old French defender joined the Gunners in 2003 was one of the few players at the club who could remember when there were cups in the trophy cabinet. Now he can reminisce about those days with his old team mates Kolo Toure and Patrick Viera after moving to Eastlands in a £7m deal.

Next up is expected to be Samir Nasri who could also be on his way to the blue half of Manchester in a £20m deal. The Daily Mail suggests that the Nasri deal could be concluded as soon as this week.

Meanwhile one of the players tipped to fill the growing void at Arsenal, midfielder Blaise Matuidi, will not be heading anywhere for less than €15m after French club Saint Etienne revealed the size of his release clause.

The tough tackling midfielder is also wanted by Newcastle and Liverpool, says the Mail.
 
More bad news for Gunners fans comes from Spain, where Karim Benzema appears to have decided to pledge his troth to Jose Mourinho and Real Madrid.

The French striker had been linked to Arsenal, but his agent Karim Djaziri told Spanish newspaper Marca: "The idea is to keep Benzema at Real Madrid to fight and improve... I do not know that Madrid want to sell and I'm not negotiating anything with Arsene Wenger."

Meanwhile Liverpool are turning their attentions to Newcastle full-back Jose Enrique after missing out on Clichy, according to the Mirror.

Kenny Dalglish made a bid earlier in the summer but it was rejected by the Magpies who then put a £15m price-tag on the player. That prompted Liverpool to turn their attention to Clichy, but now he has moved to City, Enrique is back in their sights.

Finally, the fight to sign Brazilian wonderkid Neymar is hotting up after the president of his club Santos confirmed that Real Madrid were one of five clubs courting the player. One of the other four is thought to be Chelsea who have been after the striker for more than a year.

However Santos president Luis Oliveira is confident that the star player will go nowhere. "We want to please Neymar and we will offer him whatever he needs to stay in Brazil and not go to Europe," he told Spanish TV.

"Florentino Perez [president of Real Madrid] called me, but if he had not done that, he would be a president without a vision for football." ·