Taylor issues Kaka warning

Kaka: World-record transfer?

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Gordon Taylor has issued a stark warning to Manchester City as they bid to pay a world record fee for AC Milan's Kaka.

City are engaged in discussions with Italian counterparts Milan over a fee that is reported to be in the region of £108million, while the player could receive an astronomical £500,000-a-week in wages.

Taylor, who is the chief executive of the Professional Footballers' Association, believes such figures may come back to haunt City; of the opinion they may be held to ransom by the spiralling demands of other selling clubs and incoming players.

"The fee is in the realms of getting stratospheric," Taylor told Sky Sports News.

"Whilst he is a quality player, it may well be a rock around Man City's neck in pushing up prices up elsewhere.

"The other players will be wanting to play with him and that would be a real honour for them.

"But the fact is that from Manchester City's point of view, it is going to have all the players thinking the gap is too much between my wage and his.

"If things go well then there is no problem but if not then there will be problems."

Huge kitty

City's owner, Sheikh Mansour, has pumped millions into the club since he took over last year.

Manager Mark Hughes is thought to have a huge transfer kitty to spend this transfer window but Taylor believes the Welshman should act cautiously given the current global financial crisis.

"I'm worried that as a game it looks as if football has no worries," he said.

"In the magic roundabout of football, the game is in danger of being accused of being as reckless as the banks have clearly been in causing massive problems economically in the world.

"It is not a time for any industry to be spending in a cavalier fashion.

"There's a serious problem with the world and finance. This was perfectly illustrated by the banks.

"They were doing fine and then there was suddenly cavalier spending and it has brought a lot of problems for ordinary people and I don't want that to happen to football.

"It looks as if it is immune from the world financial crisis and the fact is that supporters don't want ticket prices to go up as a result of this."

Academy worry

While City's finances have enabled multi-million pound moves for Robinho, Vincent Kompany and Pablo Zabaleta, the club's academy graduates still feature prominently in Hughes' first-team squad.

Stephen Ireland, Micah Richards and Shaun Wright-Phillips (now back at City via a move to Chelsea) have all risen through the ranks at Eastlands and Taylor is worried about the effect City's spending will have on the future of current academy players trying to break into the first team.

"I worry about the top-class academy that they have at Manchester City that has produced the likes of Stephen Ireland and Micah Richards," he said.

"It is a heck lot of money going out of our game.

"At this time I'd feel a lot more comfortable if that money would stay within the game."