Selling Boyata Would Be A Huge Mistake

Rumours have flown around for a while suggesting that Roberto Mancini will move for England and Bolton defender Gary Cahill.  Firstly I question why we need another central defender when we already have Lescott, Kompany, Toure, Boyata, Boateng and potentially Micah Richards and young Reece Wabara that can play there.  If you ignore whether we need him however, there are other issues about this deal that worry me.

It is reported that there is a get out clause in Cahill's contract set at £17million and it is the Mirror that are today suggesting that we are ready to trigger that clause and make him our second Summer signing after Denis Suarez.  Firstly I can't help but feel that this is a huge sum of money, and quite clearly we will be paying more based on the fact that he is English, I have written before about Jan Vertonghen who plays for Ajax, and whilst I still don't feel we need more players in that area, the Belgian would represent much better value for money.

The other troubling part of the deal for me is the inclusion of other players as part of our offer.  It has been widely reported that City are going to throw in one or both of Nedum Onuoha and Dedryck Boyata.  Now ideally I would like to keep both of these young defenders within the squad, but if I had to pick one to definitely keep it would be Boyata.  I really think the 20 year has huge potential and I think moving forward he could go onto become a vital part of our team and squad.

The Belgian who broke into the first team during the 09-10 season has impressed when given the opportunity and nearer the start of this season he was so highly regarded by Roberto Mancini that he was picked ahead of Joleon Lescott.  The Mirror do point out that the City manager would prefer to keep both players, as he see's a bright future for both of them, hopefully this can remain the case.

I do fear that the writing is on the wall for Onuoha however, as much as I rate him and think that he could be an important squad member at the club I just feel he will get more regular football elsewhere, and despite the newspapers claims, I don't think the Italian manager fancies him.  Boyata however has time on his side and I think he is showing all the signs that he could develop into a top defender and personally I think Mancini would be mad to let him go whether it meant the Cahill deal fell threw or not.