Where Cristiano Ronaldo and Harry Kane transfer mayhem leaves Man City

The more impatient Manchester City fans have been angry at the clubs failure to bring in a striker - but out of mayhem could arise opportunity.

In the end, it was a transfer that some Manchester City fans - especially the Mancunian core - wanted just for giggles.

The prospect of Cristiano Ronaldo running out in sky blue was, in the end, little more than a Red herring, a smart tactic from his agent Jorge Mendes to stampede Manchester United into making an offer of their own.

For local Blues, the prospect of reprising the infamous Carlos Tevez “Welcome to Manchester” billboard on Deansgate was just too tempting - and 30million euros of someone else’s money would have been a small price to pay just to wind up United fans

How far City got with their interest is a matter of conjecture - sources at the club indicate that Mendes was driving the possibility from the start.

Using City as a springboard for any player you want to shift has become a well-worn ruse in the last 13 years, hence the vast number of players whose name gets linked to the Blues on a weekly basis.

There is little doubt that City looked at the prospect, and no doubt investigated the figures, but it quickly became apparent that they did not want Ronaldo if a fee was involved, and they would have baulked at matching his £500,000-a-week salary.

He was a possibility, nothing more, and the Blues hierarchy were not entirely sold on the idea - and given Ronaldo’s known dislike of City from the days when he was twice sent off playing against them, and the dubious state of the relationship between the player and Pep Guardiola, any deal looked like a marriage of convenience.

The manager said any prospect of a deal for Ronaldo was “far, far away” and hinted at what was about to happen by saying that the Portugal star is one of the select few players on the planet who choose their next club.

Ronaldo wanted to go back to United, and his agent bounced him into Old Trafford by successfully cultivating the idea that he was heading to City - and getting the Blues sufficiently interested to add serious credibility to the notion.

To those City fans who have never experienced the reality of City’s darker days, it seemed like a kick in the teeth - on Wednesday the death of any move for Harry Kane was announced, and then the fleeting possibility of Ronaldo as a replacement signing also bit the dust.

But City remain the same, plus Jack Grealish.

There is an element of being spoilt amongst those City fans who, in a summer when they smashed the British transfer record to bring in one of the brightest attacking talents on the world stage, think that it has been a bad window.

The fact is that there was no chance of taking Kane, with Daniel Levy adamant from the off that he would not negotiate. Short of hiring some mafia muscle to force him to the table, it is difficult to see what else Txiki Begiristain could have done.

And any anger aimed at the City bosses for not getting Ronaldo done is playing into the hands of the player, his smart agent and United.