Chelsea should be applauded for not being held to ransom over the Robinho transfer saga that ended with the Brazilian joining Manchester City in a British record deal, according to former Blues midfielder and coach Ray Wilkins.
Now backed by the deep pockets of the Abu Dhabi United Group, City pulled off the coup of deadline day when they secured the services of the Real Madrid forward, who had been expected to join up with former Brazil boss Luiz Felipe Scolari at Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea had publicly pursued Robinho all summer and were confident he would join them, before being gazumped by an unexpected late entry to the bargaining table by City, whose bid was believed to exceed £32million.
Chelsea remained steadfast in their decision not to improve on their offer of £29.5million, itself certainly no drop in the ocean and with the added lure of Champions League football, while Real Madrid president Ramon Calderon felt the shock switch showed Robinho was not going to City for "sporting reasons".
While some may suggest Chelsea were left embarrassed by the final outcome, Wilkins - who started his career at Stamford Bridge as an apprentice in the 1970s and also had a spell there as a coach under Gianluca Vialli - welcomed their stance.
"I applaud Chelsea on it. They put their offer in of a fee they were prepared to pay, which was a lot of money and they were not going to be held to ransom," he said.
"Instead of Robinho coming to a club where he could play Champions League, he has gone to Manchester City.
"That would worry me a bit in terms of the player's ambition, because the Champions League is the place to be, and he has gone against that."
The Abu Dhabi United Group, fronted by Dr Sulaiman Al-Fahim, are undoubtedly ready to open their massive chequebook once more for City boss Mark Hughes to attack the January sales.
Consequently, the City manager is likely to see any interest result in hyper-inflation of a player's true value, according to former England midfielder Wilkins.
"Now Mark will face the exact same problem as Chelsea did - the inflated transfer figure - because people will know the money is there," said Wilkins, who was in London speaking at a 'Sponsored by you' event organised by England team sponsors Nationwide Building Society.
"Initially, Chelsea had to pay a lot more money than they should have paid for numerous players, and Manchester City will fall into that category now."
Although Hughes may now be able to play fantasy football when looking to reshape his squad, the decision on which players to try to bring to Eastlands must remain his alone - with an audacious bid to land Dimitar Berbatov from under the noses of rivals Manchester United also lodged during Monday's frantic last-minute negotiations.
"The manager's head will roll if errors are made, and as much finance as these gentlemen may have, they have got to leave it up to the manager to spend it wisely," said Wilkins.
"I am sure, with the superb results Mark has had in his transfer dealings so far, that they will leave it up to him."
