Manchester City will take their spending in the January transfer window past the £40 million mark this weekend by acquiring Shay Given from Newcastle United, but it emerged last night that they failed with perhaps the most audacious bid of all — an attempt to recruit John Terry from Chelsea.

The Times has learnt that Garry Cook, the City executive chairman, spoke to Peter Kenyon, the Chelsea chief executive, this month to make a firm inquiry about Terry’s availability. As with the pursuit of Kaká, who chose to stay at AC Milan, City planned to make an offer that neither club nor player could refuse, but, despite questions over Roman Abramovich’s long-term financial commitment to the West London club, Kenyon dismissed the inquiry out of hand, saying that the England captain is not for sale at any price.

Terry is aware of the approach from City — and that Sheikh Mansour, the Manchester club’s owner, would have been willing to increase his £135,000-a-week wage to make him by far the best-paid player in British football — but he was pleased to hear of Chelsea’s decision to declare him off limits.

Having enjoyed leading Chelsea throughout the Abramovich era, the centre back is understood to have little appetite for taking on a similar challenge at City at the age of 28 and is eager to spend the rest of his career at Stamford Bridge, where he is driven by the desire to win the Champions League after the bitter memory of defeat by Manchester United in last season’s final.

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Terry is the latest name on a list of high-profile targets that Mark Hughes, the City manager, identified, having been encouraged by Sheikh Mansour to try to sign the best players in each position. The bid to sign Kaká was well documented — and came closer to fruition, according to Cook, than many are willing to accept — while there were also bids for Gianluigi Buffon, the Juventus goalkeeper, Yaya Touré, the Barcelona midfield player, Lassana Diarra, who joined Real Madrid from Portsmouth, and David Silva and David Villa, the Valencia pair. City were staggered when Valencia told them that the price for a combined deal for Silva and Villa would be £135 million.

City have also been frustrated in bids for Kolo Touré, the Arsenal centre half, Joleon Lescott, the Everton defender, and Roque Santa Cruz, the Blackburn Rovers forward, any of whom could be the subject of a renewed bid before the transfer closes on Monday evening.

One signing close to completion, however, is that of Given, the Newcastle goalkeeper, who was given permission yesterday to begin discussing personal terms with City even though a transfer fee has yet to be agreed. The fee is likely to be in the region of £7 million, with Given eager to become City’s fourth signing of the month after deals for Wayne Bridge, Nigel de Jong and Bellamy.

“The situation with Newcastle is that we put a bid in for Shay Given,” Hughes said yesterday. “I’ve said before that I’m looking to bring in an experienced goalkeeper. We also put in an improved bid for Roque Santa Cruz, which was rejected. We now have to make a decision on that. We have time if we decide to do that. No other bids are on the table.”

City have encountered criticism from Steve Bruce, the Wigan Athletic manager, over their alleged conduct in the deal that took Wilson Palacios to Tottenham Hotspur. Bruce claimed that City had acted in collusion with Tottenham over Palacios so that the North London club would leave the way clear for City to sign Craig Bellamy from West Ham United.

Hughes played alongside Bruce for Manchester United, but there is no love lost between the two. “I’m not sure what he’s talking about,” Hughes said. “I think Steve himself said we were interested. We didn’t publicise that. That was down to him. He was a good team-mate. We’ve moved on.”