Manchester City boss Mark Hughes has again insisted that he has no plans to sell Robinho to Barcelona in January.
The former Real Madrid forward has been linked with a move to Camp Nou in the transfer window, and there have been reports that officials from the two clubs are set to hold a meeting this week to finalise terms on a loan deal until the end of the season.
The speculation continued to grow when Barcelona’s technical secretary, Txiki Begiristain, was quizzed about Robinho and admitted to AS that they will be happy to strengthen the squad in January.
However, Hughes has reiterated that there is “no chance” of Robinho being allowed to leave.
“I am quite clear and Robinho should be quite clear that his future is very much with City,” he said. “There is no reason to think that will change any time soon. All those stories do not originate from anyone from City. It is people on the outside taking a view on the situation with Robinho, which they have no real insight into.”
Robinho has been out of action since September with an ankle injury he picked up on international duty, and Hughes feels his lack of game time has contributed to the current speculation.
“At the moment, Robinho is not fit, but people still want to talk about him because he is a high-profile player,” he added. “They have not had the opportunity to talk about him playing on the pitch. From their point of view, the next best thing is to speculate about his future and there are a number of people out there who are making mischief.”
City are currently in Abu Dhabi for a training camp during the international break and Hughes is optimistic about Robinho’s chances of taking part.
“We are hoping that he is going to train with the group while we are over here,” he said. “He trained with the first team, just for part of the session, before we came out here. Now it is a case of stepping up his training.
“Hopefully we will get some game time into him, even if that means arranging something behind closed doors. Hopefully he will be an option very soon.”
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