Manchester City said farewell to Rolando Bianchi yesterday as Sven-Göran Eriksson, the manager, trained his sights on a new striker. While Bianchi joined Lazio on loan only six months after signing for City, Eriksson is thought to be ready to test the resolve of Real Zaragoza to keep Diego Milito, their highly rated Argentina striker, before the transfer window closes a week today.

Eriksson has identified Milito as one of his leading targets, but although there remains a chance of the City manager lodging a formal bid for the player in the coming days, Zaragoza’s reluctance to lose their captain and talisman in mid-season is likely to dictate that the Barclays Premier League club wait until the summer before making a move.

Contact has been made between representatives of the clubs and Zaragoza are thought to have indicated a willingness to allow Milito to leave once the Spanish season has finished in May, albeit for the right price. That is likely to represent a stumbling block, with Zaragoza valuing Milito at about £18 million, while the fact that the Spanish club have just appointed Javier Irureta as coach, after Ander Garitano resigned on Tuesday citing personal reasons, could also prove to be a complicating factor.

Milito is thought to have a buyout clause of about £22 million in his contract, but Eriksson has made it clear that he will not be forced to pay too high a price and even armed with funds from Thaksin Shinawatra, the City owner, the Swede is unlikely to be prepared to pay so much for a player who turns 29 in June.

Milito’s intentions are unclear, although his high wage demands could also hamper the deal; he earns about £2.2 million a year after tax.

Nonetheless, the Argentinian, who briefly attracted interest from Rafael BenÍtez last summer when it appeared as though the Liverpool manager might not be given the money to sign Fernando Torres, ticks the right boxes as Eriksson looks to strengthen an attack that has mustered only four goals in the past six matches. Milito is widely considered to be the best out-and-out striker in Spain after Ruud van Nistelrooy, of Real Madrid, and Samuel Eto’o, of Barcelona.

Fast, powerful and with a keen eye for goal – he has scored 51 league

“ goals in 93 appearances since joining Zaragoza from Genoa in 2005 and finished as the Primera Liga’s second top scorer behind Van Nistelrooy last season with 23 goals. Milito is also widely regarded as one of the best headers of the ball in Europe.

Milito’s attitude and workrate also count strongly in his favour and in many ways he is not dissimilar to Roque Santa Cruz, the Blackburn Rovers forward whom Eriksson tried to sign this month, even if his goals ratio is much better than that of the Paraguayan.

Eriksson has other targets as well and with the clock ticking, may have little alternative but to sign a striker on loan, possibly with a view to a permanent move, to plug the gap, but Milito has the hallmarks of the world-class forward that Bianchi did not possess.

City paid Reggina £8.8 million for Bianchi last summer, but even though the former Italy Under21 striker struggled to make his mark in the Premier League, the club will recoup most of that cash when the player signs a four-year deal with Lazio at the end of the season.

“I want to thank the City fans from the bottom of my heart,” Bianchi, who scored five goals in 24 appearances, half of which came from the substitutes’ bench, said. “They have welcomed me with open arms and made me feel like one of them. I will take in my heart their passion and their attachment to the team.”

City are keen to offload other players, with Georgios Samaras, Andreas Isaksson, Ousmane Dabo, Paul Dickov, Danny Mills and Matthew Mills seemingly surplus to requirements. Together, those six players account for about £5 million of the annual wage bill and could fetch £5 million in transfer fees.