MANCHESTER CITY chiefs have decided to take a Ј50million hit on five players.
The world's richest club will listen to offers in the January transfer window for Emmanuel Adebayor, Wayne Bridge, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Roque Santa Cruz and Jo.
Keeper Shay Given will also be made available — but for the Ј7m he was originally bought for.
All six stars were signed by Mark Hughes, City boss Roberto Mancini's predecessor, at a total cost of Ј87.5million.
But few have figured regularly this season and Mancini fears the presence of some of them is having a negative influence at the club.
City chief executive Garry Cook and chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak discussed the transfer window with Mancini before flying to Abu Dhabi to meet owner Sheikh Mansour for a board meeting.
There, they delivered Mancini's plans for the restructuring of the squad for a second-half title push.
They include landing two new strikers, with Wolfsburg's Bosnian frontman Edin Dzeko topping the list as a Ј35m target.
City will take the biggest hits on strikers Adebayor, 26, and Santa Cruz, 29.
Adebayor cost Ј25m from Arsenal but is available for Ј12m after failing to set the world alight following his move in July 2009.
Paraguayan Santa Cruz, meanwhile, was an Ј18m buy from Hughes' former club Blackburn but will be up for grabs at a mere Ј4m.
City, though, seem prepared to make losses in all areas of the pitch.
Left-back Bridge, 30, cost Ј12m from Chelsea in January 2009 but City will now accept Ј5m.
And then there is winger Wright-Phillips, 28, who returned for a second spell at City following an Ј8.5m move to Stamford Bridge in August 2008.
He spoke about his desire to see it out at City this season but talks on a new deal have stalled and the club will take Ј5m for him.
The Ј17m deal for Brazilian flop Jo, 23, was agreed by former boss Sven Goran Eriksson but completed under Hughes and City know they will now be lucky to get Ј4m.
In fact, the only player City bosses want their full money back on is Given, 34, who they bought from Newcastle in January 2009.
The Republic of Ireland stopper lost his place to Joe Hart at the start of the season and said this week he had to get a move in the New Year.
Ironically, Given will play his first Premier League game of the season away to Fulham on Sunday when he replaces Hart, who is out for a week with a back injury picked up on England duty.
What City will not do is compensate the highly-paid players if they move. The six stars in question earn between Ј60,000 and Ј130,000 a week and will struggle to get the same wages elsewhere.
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But City will tell them and their agents they are knocking down asking prices, so the players can get the moves they want - and return to action again.
In short, any make-up in wages will have to be organised with the buying club.
City have already lost just over Ј10m this year on British record signing Robinho, who was bought for Ј32.5m and sold to AC Milan for Ј22m in August.
And striker Craig Bellamy, 31, a Ј14m buy from West Ham, is currently on loan at Cardiff.
But the City hierarchy are determined to back Mancini in his plans despite outside pressures.
Mancini told the club's board in the summer it was his way or no way if he was going to continue as manager.
City lie fourth in the table after an incredible Ј320m investment in the squad in just over two years.
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Manchester City FC, Feel The Power Of The Dollar [vol.8]
