Nikola Zigic will not be allowed to leave Birmingham City to join Real Mallorca on a free transfer.
The La Liga side are keen to lure the Serbian international back to Spain and have spent several weeks in discussions with Birmingham's owners regarding a deal. But any hopes they harbour of Birmingham being prepared to let the striker leave for nothing, to save on his £50,000-a-week wages, look doomed.
Zigic has two years remaining on his existing deal at St Andrew's and acting chairman Peter Pannu is refusing to plunge the Championship club into further financial worries by sanctioning the deal Mallorca want.
Mallorca are thought to be unable to match Zigic's current salary and the striker's representatives are looking for a substantial pay-off on what is left of his contract at Birmingham to cover any shortfall in the proposed deal with the Spanish club.
Mallorca's director of football Llorenc Serra Ferrer insists his side remain in the running to lure Zigic back to Spain, where he enjoyed spells with Valencia and Racing Santander. But he has been applying the pressure warning Blues that he cannot "wait forever" for a deal to be struck.
"Zigic is deciding whether to come. All that remains is to resolve the economic situation between him and Birmingham City and we have set a time limit for that to happen," he said.
Zigic has made no secret of the fact he is settled in Birmingham and happy to remain with the club. And Pannu is determined to ensure the 6' 7'' giant will stay unless Mallorca are willing to pay a transfer fee which will offset any payments owed on his contract.
