Shaun Goater will not be pushed out of Manchester City and forced to accept a deal that he is not 100 percent happy with, his agent declared last night.

Mark Georgevic, the man at the centre of negotiating Goater's future, said although the Blues had accepted a bid from First Division Reading for his services, a transfer was still some way off. And he revealed that there was still a chance that the striker would see out the remainder of his contract with Kevin Keegan's side.

Ambitious Reading are understood to have offered in the region of ?500,000 for the 33-year-old Premiership talisman, but Goater, who last night was part of the City squad who played Dutch giants Feyenoord in Denmark, has yet to speak with their manager Alan Pardew or discuss the matter with his family.

Speaking exclusively to ,Georgevic, currently on holiday in Bermuda, said: "Clearly, this move would be a huge one for him and his family. He has been very settled now for over five years in Manchester.

"He has built up great friendships, as has his wife. They are very settled there, and it certainly will be a big disruption for the family to move to an area (Berkshire) that I doubt they know a great deal about."

Georgevic said there was every chance negotiations would continue with Reading but said the player "would wait until the time is right" to make a decision one way or the other.

"It may be that he stays at Manchester City for the time being - he has got one year on his contract and the deal has to be right for him," he said.

Georgevic said he believed there was pressure being placed on his client from within Manchester City to ink a move away.

"I think the pressure is probably coming from Kevin Keegan," he said.

"Certainly, it was from the Manchester City end that the story came out (about Reading). I think that Kevin Keegan has decided that the time is right for Shaun to move.

"Now, whether Reading is the right move for him we will find out over the next few days when he considers the offer and any other offers that are on the table."

Georgevic denied that, if what he said about Keegan was true, Goater's position at City would become untenable.

"No, Shaun is a very strong character and he knows that if he delivers the goods by scoring goals a manager can't afford to leave him out," he said.

The agent went on: "I think Shaun has always said he wants to play. He wants to play at Manchester City but the arrival of a high value, celebrity player in Robbie Fowler has made things much more difficult for him. Kevin wishes to re-ignite his (Fowler's) career and that means that Shaun is further down the pecking order than he previously was.

"However, that being said, football is a funny old game as Jimmy Greaves once said and Shaun has that innate ability to put the ball in the back of the net. Apart from Ronaldo there is only one other player that scored three goals against Manchester United last season and that was Shaun Goater.

"He was able to do that against the champions and I know all the Manchester City fans know that Shaun Goater can score goals. And it may be that he is still at Manchester City next season - it is still very early days as far as discussions are concerned."

The agent said it was not beyond the realms of possibility that Goater would wait until the time he could leave the club on a free transfer.

"At the end of the forthcoming season he would be available on a free transfer and would be free to negotiate with whoever he liked," he said. "At the moment, because there is one year left on his contract, any deal has to be sanctioned by Manchester City because they have his registration."

The scenario, where a player accepts a limited role in the club until such time that he can facilitate his own move, is not unusual, but Georgevic inferred that wasn't the route Goater wanted to take in an ideal world.

"He is not that type of individual because he actually wants to play football," he said. "But the deal has to be right for him in order for him and his family to up sticks."