The Ghost Of Nigel Looms Large At Eastlands...

A large proportion of City fans have always felt the need to single out one player as a boo boy, and at the same time that same group also have a knack of remembering certain former players in far higher regard than they should have been, this trait is currently in full effect at the Etihad and it isn't helping anyone whatsoever.

On Tuesday night aggrieved supporters were muttering quite loudly about the lack of Dutch destroyer Nigel De Jong, and suggesting that his absence was the reason for our 'poor' start to the season, quite how the Dutch man would have stopped either of the Ajax goals however is quite beyond me, but that is just the tip of the ice burg.  Clearly De Jong was a favourite at City, he was a player who always gave his all and during his stay he won a lot of plaudits.  When he first arrived I was not exactly a fan, but over time his combative displays and no nonsense attitude won over the majority, but it did take a few months for him to learn his trade in the Premier League.  Once he found his feet he never really looked back and played a huge part in the clubs upturn in fortunes over the last few years.

Then things turned slightly sour, and this is where these City fans bemoaning his absence seem to miss the point.  Nigel De Jong chose to leave Manchester City, he may not have publicly said it, but that is the uncomfortable truth.  When he aligned himself with Kia Joorabchian and began taking advice from one of the most despicable men in the game, he burnt a lot of bridges at the football club, he knew that and could easily have secured himself a longer stay with the Champions, but he chose not to.  It is widely known and accepted that a contract extension was on the table, it would have seen a hefty pay rise and a good few years tacked onto his deal, De Jong however decided to play hard ball and after speaking with Joorabchian made demands of his own and asked for wages that were supposedly ridiculous.  Throughout the majority of last season, player and club were at stalemate, ever the professional however, performances never dropped and he continued to give his best, the contract wasn't signed though, despite it being left on the table.

His refusal to sign the lucrative deal gave the club very little choice; he had to be sold this Summer in order to recoup some money as opposed to him leaving for nothing next year.  His decision to not sign on the dotted line (something that Silva, Zabaleta, Kompany, even Adam Johnson have done in recent years) was a clear indication from the player that he wasn't that bothered about the football club, and would move onto pastures new in order to secure the biggest salary that he could.  I don't blame De Jong for this, he was a great servant and played a massive part, but noone is bigger than the club, and he chanced his arm to secure himself a bumper pay day, ultimately he failed and the 2 parties went in there separate directions.

So now it surprises me that so many of our supporters blame Mancini, the club, or whoever they can for his departure, when they did a huge amount to try and keep him.  Even if you put these issues to one side, I do wonder whether he would still be as important as he once was had he stayed.  During the early Mancini days, the Dutchman was vital, we played a tight organised defence and midfield, but as the shackles came off last season the midfielder saw less game time, not to belittle his contribution but he was not the vital part of the team that he once was, his presence however did allow us to unleash Yaya Toure further upfield, something that had a massive impact on us taking the title.

There is now though a further problem, and that is the singling out of new boy Javi Garcia, a player who is getting dogs abuse for quite simply not being Nigel De Jong.  Garcia has come in and admittedly struggled during his first couple of months in Manchester, he has looked off the pace and unsure of his exact role in the team, you could say that his first month or so has been exactly the same as the first month that De Jong spent with us, but clearly that is now forgotten and overlooked.  Nigel was 'our warrior, he was our lynch pin, he was one the most important member of our team, he never struggled and was always our star'....rubbish.  Garcia has all the pedigree and potential to be a far superior player to the 27 year old, and yet there are large swathes of our support that don't want to give him that chance.

I am confident that he will come through the other side, the Spaniard has all the characteristics that the Dutch enforcer had, he is committed, hard working and loves to tackle, he can be a new fans favourite with time.  I think people sometimes overlook the difficulties of moving to a new country, a new team, a new league, it takes time for players to adapt, it took De Jong time to adapt.  On top of that has been the niggling injury that he has suffered since his arrival meaning he has missed out on a large amount of training sessions, something that will obviously hugely hinder a new player.  You only have to look at how much difference a preseason can make to a players performance level to see that Garcia is really up against it when it comes to integrating himself into the side.

Clearly if we had signed him earlier in preseason as opposed to deadline day things would have been better, but that is not the players fault.  Garcia has the chance to be a hugely important player in our side, and ultimately a better one than the player he has replaced due to his improved technical ability, but our supporters have to give him time to adapt to his new club, in the same way that we had to with De Jong.

Rumour Mill: "....You sign Shinji, we sign Hideke Ishige...."

The transfer window is shut, and therefore the rumour mill has been fairly quiet of late,  today though it has lobbed something out in our direction, and no it isn't some bizarre link between us and Nani.

In the Summer our neighbours in Stretford replaced Park with Kagawa, a move that many suggested was all about shirt sales in the lucrative Asian market, claims that to be honest are beyond ridiculous due to the fact that the Japanese international is actually a high quality player who will offer United a lot when he gets upto speed with the Premier League.  Not to be outdone it appears that we are preparing to make a splash into the same market by running the rule over the Asian Young Player of the Year, Hideki Ishige.

The midfielder is currently playing for the wonderfully named Shimizu S-Pulse in the J-League.  The 18 year old is only 13 games into his professional footballing career, but he already has some serious expectations placed on his shoulders, and we all know that doesn't always pan out positively.  There are some reports in Japan suggesting that a formal bid has already been lodged from City, but these claims appear to be someway wide of the mark; it is true however that he has been offered a trial with the English champions, allowing Roberto Mancini and his staff to run the rule over the youngster.

This isn't the first time we've brought a player in on trial, Israeli Nir Biton has spent a couple of spells with us including our preseason training camp this Summer, a bid was never formalised though despite a couple of impressive performances thus highlighting that Ishige will have to show some real signs of quality during this trial period should he want to secure a permanent move to the Etihad.

His current manager at S-Pulse, Afshin Ghotbi, has confirmed interest in the Japan Under 17 international.  Speaking to Japan's Kyodo News he said:

"If you want to build top-class players, you have to give them various experiences and opportunities to see first-hand what the world level is about…And what better experience for Ishige than to train with the first team of Manchester City and have Roberto Mancini see him first hand and train with some of the top players in the world."

That is not to say that we are a shoe in for his signature, clearly whenever a youngster is available there is widespread interest and when there is perceived to be huge amounts of potential involved, this interest is multiplied many times, something confirmed by Ghotbi.

"There is interest in him, not just Man City but many clubs in Europe and he deserves it. He's a real fantastic talent…As far as I'm concerned, he's not for sale and we want him to be a part of S-Pulse for the next few years to come. There has been no offer, City just want to see him and we are doing the same with other players with other clubs."

You would imagine that even with interest from other parties, we must be towards the top of his list should an offer be formalised.  It would be hard to imagine the player wanting to move elsewhere after getting to know the City squad and coaching staff, clearly he may not enjoy his experience at Carrington, but if he does I would imagine we would become favourites for his signature.

Nothing is concrete yet, but should the trial pass successfully it could be an interesting story to watch develop, it certainly fits into our ambition to recruit the best young talent in the game, and with the new additions of Begiristain and Sorrano it is an approach that I expect to see us stick with, after all it worked for them at Barcelona, so why can't it here?

At What Point Does European Underperformance Outshine Domestic Prominence?

To say that our performance in this years Champions League was dismal would probably be selling it short, it was worse than that.  Last year was probably just as bad, our only 2 victories in the competition coming against a team that were relegated that same season. During this same period our domestic form has been superb, having said that many would argue it has still been subpar considering the amount of money lavished on our squad.

Why then the problems when it comes to European competition?  Some will point the fingers at the players, but for me that doesn't make a huge amount of sense, this isn't a one off, how can we play so well in the league and then so badly in Europe every time we take to the field, if this was a freak occurance maybe the playing staff could be blamed but we've been average at best in the elite competition for 2 years, the problem must lie else where.

What is the root of the problem then? In my mind there can only be one, and it comes from the top, the management.  Mancini may have succeeded domestically, but his record in Europe is not just questionable, it is downright poor.  His deficiencies in the competition predate his time in Manchester, he failed continually during his tenure with Inter Milan, on most occasions going out to teams that they should have beaten.  In fact with pretty much the same squad Jose Mourinho won the same competition at his first attempt after Mancini was dismissed for failing at the highest level.  In the immediate aftermath last night Paulo Baldini, the Italian football supremo was quoted as saying:

"When you lose as many (Champions League games) as he has with teams as good as Inter and City, it's not a hex, its bad management"

To be fair it is pretty hard to disagree with that view point, Mr Mancini has done a bad job when it has come to the top competition in Europe, so surely then I can't come back from this point, surely I should want him to receive his marching orders?  Well not exactly, as I just can't justify that decision in my mind, a man that has delivered as much as he has in recent years has a pretty strong bargaining position.  It is amazing how winning the FA Cup and ending our 33 year search for a trophy now seems so long ago, but our success in the Premier League last year has outshone even that, and we are again in a good strong position this time around.  

His tinkering however could threaten to damage all of the good work he has done, I don't walk around with my head in the clouds, at some point our owners are going to want to see European success at our club, I want that too, but whilst we continue to compete and look good domestically I can turn a blind eye to these issues for the time being, but that is the key part 'for the time being'.  

It should not be forgotten that we have been dumped in 2 horrific groups, however that does not change the fact that we should have been good enough to overcome Napoli last year and qualify in 2nd place, and we should have been closer to Dortmund this time around, the less said about the defeat in Amsterdam the better!

In my mind Mancini has already bought himself the rest of this campaign and the chance to start the next, it is a worry that he doesn't appear to be learning from his mistakes in Europe, and maybe things will be no better next year, but sacking someone on the back of a Championship winning season? We aren't Chelsea...but Pep Guardiola is circling.

Is Stadium Expansion REALLY a Necessity?

We've all heard them, the boring dull lines about empty seats at City.  Whether it be referring to the ground as the Emptihad or some other equally 'hilarious' and 'witty' retort, we have heard them all, but now the jokes are looking more and more irrelevant.  Last year we managed to sell out for more or less every home game in the Premier League, and for some of those we could probably have shifted a further 10,000 - 15,000 tickets.

This is a relatively new situation; although the stories and claims about attendances at City are well wide of the mark in years gone past we have seen our average attendance drop to around the 40,000 mark, which is still impressive compared to many teams in the top flight but it was well below the levels we are now reaching.

Our success in recent times has brought people back to the club, and regrettably we probably also attract a new breed of football fan as well, people that may not even have considered themselves City fans in the past are now coming to be part of it, and although we may not be overly enthusiastic about these 'new fans' they will play a vital role in us increasing our income and therefore getting closer to the figure we need to reach in order to meet the incoming financial fairplay guidelines.  There has therefore been a clamour for us to increase our capacity, and many have claimed it is vital to our development, I personally am not so sure.

Even though we continually sell out for league games, cup attendances have been pretty poor across the board and I think it is definitely something that needs looking at before we start worrying about increasing the capacity.  We all know that the League Cup is hardly an attractive prospect, but last season just 25,070 saw us in the 3rd round against Birmingham, even the first leg of the semi final against Liverpool failed to ignite the interest of some of our fans with just 36,017 spectators present.  This year hasn't really been any better with our dismal defeat at the hands of Aston Villa watched by just 28,015.

I suppose you could argue that these figures are typical of the League Cup, a competition which is hardly treated as a particularly high priority but these lower attendances spread to European competition as well.  Our first ever appearance in Europe's elite competition was watched by around 44,000, a few thousand short of capacity, these got even worse with 42,000 watching Villareal, we did however finish on somewhat of a high with 46,000 at our meeting with Bayern Munich, probably close to capacity when you consider the amount of seats unavailable on a European night.  Attendances in the Europa League were even lower with neither games with Porto or Sporting managing to break the 40,000 barrier.  With just 2 days to go before our meeting with Borussia Dortmund there are many tickets still available and on a night where we really need a good win that is unfortunate.

So what causes these lower attendances in the cup competitions?  Clearly the League Cup just isn't overly appealing, I also feel the clubs decision to charge between £17 and £22 for adult tickets last week was somewhat farcical.  If they had capped them at £10 we could have got the stadium much nearer to capacity and I feel that was a missed opportunity.  Why though do we struggle for European games?  I suppose the extra expense on top of season tickets may put some people off, but considering we have always dreamt of sitting at footballs top table it seems a shame that uptake isn't higher.  Some say that evening kick offs are more difficult for people that come with children, but that doesn't entirely wash with me, we aren't talking about a post 11 o' clock finish.

Whatever the reason is, I think it demonstrates that there is no urgent need for stadium expansion.  Interestingly we are still to hit capacity for the Sunderland game this coming weekend, previous home games in the league have sold out weeks before hand, whether this is an impact of our less than stellar performances so far this season isn't entirely clear but I suspect it is a big part of it.  In my mind there is nothing worse than watching a game in a stadium that is too big, where there are just as many empty seats as there are occupied ones.  It is clear that we could sell maybe 3 or 4 thousand more tickets for a standard league game but with European games and domestic cup games not managing to entirely captivate our support I don't see the need for an additional 15,000 seats at this stage in our development.

Clearly there will be a time when this may be a more pressing matter, if our recent success continues I am sure attendances and clamour for tickets will continue to increase, but until that happens I think we are much better hanging fire and enjoying what we already have.

Is It Time To Reassess Our Striking Options?

Going into this season it seemed pretty clear that Tevez and Aguero was going to be our front line of choice; the understanding they demonstrated at the back end of last season was very impressive, and whilst I wouldn't go as far as to say the return of Tevez propelled us to the Premier League title, it clearly had an impact, regaining a player of that ability would be a boost to any team.  Outside of those 2 however things are a bit more unclear.

After Aguero went off early in our first game against Southampton, the 2nd striking spot become up for grabs.  It was Edin Dzeko that got the nod on that occasion and he marked it with an important goal, despite this however it was Mario Balotelli that was favoured in the intervening weeks. He started at Anfield and was largely ineffective, in fact when he was replaced by the Bosnian on the hour mark we began to look a lot more threatening.  On the back of that Dzeko started the following week at home to QPR, now despite the odd mistake he got on the scoresheet again and went very close on another couple of occasions; despite adding his 2nd goal of the season, it was the goal less Italian that was restored to the starting line up for the trip to Stoke.  Again he struggled to make an impact on the game, and even though he was only given a couple of minutes on the pitch, Dzeko was only denied his 3rd goal of the season by a miraculous goal line clearance.

It therefore surprised me going into the Real game on Tuesday evening that people were questioning the absence of Balotelli from the squad.  There was only space for 2 forwards on the bench, clearly Aguero was going to make it in case we were really in need of a forward, and therefore I ask why would the Italian be picked over the Bosnian?

I don't want it to appear like I am getting on the back of Mario Balotelli, he has demonstrated that he is a player with huge amounts of potential, and that is the key word, potential, he isn't even close to being the player he can and hopefully will be.  After an excellent European Championships where it appeared he had finally thrown away the histrionics, and where he was scoring spectacular goals on a regular basis it was pretty clear that he would begin the season as our 3rd choice, but something now doesn't seem right about that.  He simply hasn't made an impact so far this campaign, and granted it is only early days and I am not writing him off, but I do feel it is time for him to sit out a few games while Dzeko is given more of a crack of the whip.

Despite scoring 19 goals last season including one on the final day against QPR, our supporters have never totally taken to Dzeko and he has been openly criticised by some, but yet we have a tendency to worship Balotelli (17 goals) as the 2nd coming.  Obviously as supporters we do like Mario because of his antics, he's a story and he is funny, whilst Dzeko is more of an easy target because of his semi regular mistakes on the field and his somewhat questionable technical ability.  In terms of a striking comparison though the goal scoring records speak for themselves.

Whatever it is that Mancini doesn't like about Edin I am unsure, he clearly has a very close relationship with Balotelli, but i'd prefer it if he focused on what was best for the team and at this point in time it would be to field Dzeko ahead of the erratic Italian.  It is pretty evident that he is a confidence striker, he started last season like a train, but then for no real reason he found himself benched and from that point he never managed to get himself back to his early season form.  After he notched his 3rd of the season against Madrid on Tuesday I would find it farcical if he continues to be overlooked. 

There are weaknesses to his game I will hold up my hands and admit that; but he scores goals, something that at the moment Balotelli is failing to do.  With Aguero's likely return on Sunday, both forwards will be on the bench, but I hope it is Dzeko that gets a 30 minute run out as opposed to Mad Mario because he is quite simply in better form at the moment, and surely that is the crucial factor at this time.

Is The US Market Worth Bothering With?

As some of you may know I have just returned from an extremely enjoyable trip to New York, it wasn't in anyway football related, but never the less I did have some (lots of) City related thoughts when I was over there, and they helped me form this post in my mind.

Clearly the USA is a country not limited when it comes to 'mainstream' sport, and football (soccer to those crazy scamps) is not one of them.  The game we love falls behind American football, baseball, ice hockey, NASCAR, tiddly winks and competitive chess.  In a country where the competition between sports is so strong, it is not surprising that the English Premier League is pretty low on peoples sporting agenda's (in some cases though it may be higher than their own domestic soccer league, but that's a whole different blog post), but that knowledge is out there and with football mad Latin American communities in each major City there is a fan base to attract, it may be minor compared to their top bracket games, but it does exist.

During my time over there, I saw quite a few United, Liverpool, Chelsea and even an Arsenal shirt, but I saw noone representing the English champions.  Maybe that is to be expected, we have only recent become big news outside of our own country, but considering we spent 2 consecutive preseasons in the States you would think we should maybe have more to show for it.

That isn't to say there are no Manchester City fans in New York, or the country as a whole, clearly there are, in fact 'The Mad Hatter' bar in the city is recommended for all City fans that find themselves over that way, but when you consider the ties we had to the country with former CEO Garry Cooke coming from Nike, and the trips we did over there I just thought we may have had more of an influence than we seem to have.  As with all things though, continued success will clearly spread the word of the club, and these fans and more importantly their money will follow, but I am finding myself begin to wonder if the American market is even one worth pursuing?

As I mentioned, football/soccer just isn't a big deal to mainstream America, sure the Latin population and some of the Afro/Carribean communities prefer it, but if you asked the average man in the street in a small US town to name 3 Premier League teams I suspect it would be a spectacular failure, despite this, numerous clubs every year try to compete with the NFL/NBA/NHL to take some money out of the American public, and over all the years it has only ever really been met with limited success.  There comes a time where you wonder if it would be best to write off trying to 'crack' America and focus on other markets, and I wonder if that is what we are beginning to do.

The Summer of 2012 was our first preseason without Garry Cooke at the helm; and with the change in CEO, there was a change in our preseason tour.  This year the focus seemed to be more on football as opposed to marketing and that is something that I wholeheartedly buy into.  Whereas in the past players have been put through their paces in Los Angeles, this year it was done in a quiet town in the Swiss Alps, the public engagements were gone, and hard work was the focus.

That isn't to say that we didn't do any work trying to spread the brand this Summer, there was a fleeting trip to Asia to play Arsenal and a Malay XI in the birds nest stadium and Kuala Lumpur, clearly this exercise will have aided us and hopefully won us some new supporters, and for me this is a much better use of our time in preseason.  People in the far East are crazy about football, where as the majority of Americans are ambivalent.  It would be a much easier task to convert kids in China, Thailand and Malaysia into City fans than it is in Milwaukee, Des Moines and Atlanta.  

The exposure that the Premier League has in these Asian markets is huge, and although the majority of support is for our rivals due to their success there is still huge opportunities there for us to make the sort of money we need to help meet Financial Fair Play.  Clearly this is not an ideal scenario for supporters that we have in other parts of the world, but if we are cynical and view these tours as nothing more than the money making schemes that they are, then surely it is preferable to focus our efforts on markets with easier and slightly more solid gains.  

It is undeniable that if a few football teams did 'crack' the US, the financial rewards would be huge, but competing against their major sports, as well as the attitude that the majority of Americans seem to have towards football makes it somewhat of an impossible mission in my mind, where as the gains in Asia would be much easier to achieve and potentially far more rewarding.

The Invisible Man Will Return!

Just a quick status update, I am massively snowed under with other stuff because I go away this week, but normal service will resume after next weekend, thanks!

One In, One Out in Winger Switch

It is probably reasonable to say that Adam Johnson never totally fulfilled his potential at City, after being given countless opportunities to impress he has now been shown the exit door.  I doubt many City fans however would show any animosity to the 25 year old, whilst he may never have been a top performer he has played his hand in all of our successes in recent years and for that he should be thanked.  As with all transfers we have no real clue as to how much we got for the winger, but reports seem to suggest it is somewhere between £12M and £15M and when you consider we signed him with an outlay of only £7M I believe it is a good piece of business, and one of the very few times that we have managed to turn a profit on a player.

I hope that Johnson is more settled back in his native North East and that with more consistent appearances he can make a real impact for both club and country, and it clearly doesn't mean much but I do wish him all the best in his future career.

With Johnsons departure appearing a close certainty for most of the Summer, the name Scott Sinclair has been suggested numerous times as his replacement and according to reports this morning it is only a matter of time before that deal is completed.  Welsh media  outlets are suggesting that a deal of £6.5M had been accepted by Swansea, and on top of that he was not part of their squad that took on West Ham at the Liberty Stadium.  

Theoretically the deal could move just as quickly as the Rodwell one did; I have the distinct impression that this transfer has been in place for a while and that it was just dependent on Johnson sealing his move.  There could however still be issues to be ironed out, personal terms may still need to be agreed and then there is the medical meaning it could be Monday or Tuesday before it finally goes through.

So what do we actually know about Sinclair? Well here is a bit of a potted history of the 23 year old.  The winger began life at Bristol Rovers, but was soon snapped up by Chelsea where he first came to the attention of most football fans, in all truth he barely made an impact there and was instead loaned out to a string of different clubs, mostly in the Championship, where he did manage to improve his game.  His first sustained spell of Premier League football came during the 2009-2010 season which he spelt on loan with Wigan, he fared reasonably well and demonstrated his searing pace and dribbling ability without really setting the league alight.  The following Summer he moved to Swansea for around £500,000 and it was there that he really began to make a name for himself.  He fired the Swans to promotion in his first season scoring 27 goals in 50 appearances, a pretty impressive feat due to the fact that he played most of those games on the wing.  He was a regular last year for them in the Premier League, and although he was less prolific, he still managed to notch 8 goals.  His form saw him selected for the Team GB football team this Summer and he has also been capped numerous times at England under-21 level.  His last appearance (and goal) for Swansea came last weekend in the clubs demolition of QPR at Loftus Road, the same team he could make his City debut against next weekend.

What would the signing of Sinclair mean for us? It would mean a totally different option in the way we play and that can only be a good thing.  Many people have said to me on twitter than in terms of ability this isn't an upgrade on Johnson, but there is more at play here.  The main attribute that the 23 year old possesses is his pace, he isn't just quick, he is ridiculously quick and that isn't something that we really have in our attacking unit, so he gives us something entirely different.  He is equally comfortable playing on the left or the right, and is more than happy to run at defenders and that always causes panic amongst opposition ranks.  The other important factor is the fact that he has learnt his game mostly at Swansea, a club that play in a very similar style to us, that hopefully should limit any problems he has adapting to a new club.  

The other major fact is the fee, selling Johnson for £15M and signing Sinclair for £6.5M to me signifies a really good bit of business, but lets not get ahead of ourselves, he won't be an automatic starter, but he has a much better attitude, a better work ethic and will be more willing to fight for a place in the team than Johnson ever was, and on top of all of that, he's dating one of Corrie's finest, a match made in heaven!

One Mad Week All Wrapped Up In One Place!

Well its been a hell of a week really, who said it was going to be a quiet Summer?  In the space of 6 days we have one a trophy, signed a player, entered negotiations for 2 more, seen the end of the longest transfer saga of the year, and finally appointed a new CEO.

I suppose the best way to approach this is simply to take it one issue at a time, so first all, the trophy!  Now of course if we had lost to Chelsea last weekend I would be referring to the Community Shield as the over-glamorised friendly that it is, but we won, therefore I am claiming it is somewhat of an achievement.  There is no need to dissect the game in any great detail as you will all have seen it live or at least the highlights, but there were a few things of note.  I suspected all preseason that the 3-5-2 we deployed was just to make use of the players we had available to us at the time, but the fact we used it on Sunday does suggest to me that we may see it get a run out as the season begins.

Using wing-backs would certainly utilise some of our players well; Kolarov down the left is much more suited to playing that role as opposed to an out and out full back, and on the other side Richards would prosper in the position, as would Zabs and Milner.  My only worry is that we are a bit short on central defenders, if Kolo Toure is moved on we are left with just Lescott, Kompany, Savic and at a push Rodwell and Richards to fill in, so using 3 players in that area could be a challenge unless further reinforcements are sought over the coming weeks.  As an attacking unit we were dominant throughout and even if Ivanovic hadn't seen red for his poor challenge on Kolarov I am sure we would have come through to win the game, and if it weren't for a particularly awful miss from Aguero at the end it would have looked a more impressive margin than it actually was; 3-2 suggests it was a close game, it really wasn't.

On the same day as the blues decamped to Birmingham, we also made our first signing of the Summer and it came out of nowhere.  News broke late on the Saturday evening that we were making an approach for Jack Rodwell, and no more than 16 hours later it was all signed and sealed.  Now, Brian Marwood may have come in for some criticism recently (unfair criticism in my opinion), but the fact that noone got any wind of this deal in the previous weeks suggests to me that he is at least doing something right.

Some raised highbrows and suggested it was an uninspiring arrival, that certainly isn't something I agree with.  At £12M (with future incentives), it is a fairly low risk deal by modern standards, and one that is definitely worth taking.  The former Everton man has bags of potential and has been blighted with injuries, but with our excellent medical set up I am sure we can get him firing on all cylinders.  Whilst he may not be a regular at the moment, Gareth Barry is not getting any younger, Yaya Toure has the ACON again and it would appear De Jong is on the way, it was therefore an important area to strengthen and with Barry and Toure to learn from I am not sure he could wish for better mentors.

Last week I wrote about our potential signings, well the ones in the press, I was ambushed with news of Rodwell days later!  According to the papers, moves for 2 of those continue a pace, whilst the 3rd, well, the 3rd is Robin van Persie.  The Dutchman has this morning been confirmed as a Manchester United player, something that has seemingly been coming for weeks, from our point of view though there are a couple of interesting factors at play.  Firstly, I am not being revisionist, but I simply don't see that United need van Persie, obviously he is a top player and will score a lot of goals this season (should he stay fit), however I would have been much more concerned had they strengthened in areas that they genuinely need to improve such as their central midfield.  If they had gone out and spent that money on a Yaya Toure type I would be far more worried about the threat they will pose.  Secondly, is the fact that it seems we were never actually in for the player, refusing to meet the price that Arsenal put on his head; that clearly demonstrates that the club are viewing FFP as something they must deal with, as opposed to taking the PSG/Chelsea approach.

As for further in coming players, deals for Daniele De Rossi and Scott Sinclair are definitely in the offing.  The Italian has been high up on Mancini's shopping list for a long time, and I suspect he is the man the boss wants more than any other.  According to Sky Sports his agent flew into England yesterday to discuss a package that would tempt him to leave Roma, whilst the papers today reckon we are willing to pay around £27M to secure his signature.  Clearly that is a huge amount of money for a 29 year old, but if he helped deliver another Premier League title, and perhaps a Champions League at some point I am sure we can all turn a blind eye to the fee and wages.  Last week it was a bit of a pipe dream, but now it seems like an agreement could actually be reached, watch this space.

As for Sinclair, well that is a really strange one. It appeared to have gone very quiet until today when there are more reports, admittedly in the gutter press, that the English winger is closing in on a move to Eastlands.  With the signing of Rodwell, it does appear that we are focusing on acquiring young English talent, and the wide man definitely fits into that category.  The sun reckon £5M will convince Swansea to sell the youngster who has recently turned down a new deal in South Wales; at that price I think it is definitely worth pursuing, we would bring in at least triple that by selling Johnson who would become surplus to requirements and we'd be adding some much needed pace to the squad at the same time.

Well as if all of that wasn't enough, we also have a new CEO!  The man who has stepped up to replace Garry Cooke is Spaniard Ferran Soriano, who comes to City after a spell with Spanair (which went bankrupt!) but more importantly a highly successful period at Barcelona.  It seemed 12 months ago that he was ready to take on the role, but after his airline went under the club appeared to cool on him.  After further investigations though it seems he has been deemed worthy of the position, and he seems like the ideal fit to me, he saw huge success on and off the field during his time at Barca and made the club huge amounts of money, something that will be extremely useful for us with regards to FFP.  The only issue left is whether he brings in his own man to replace Brian Marwood, something that has been mooted in the press, but either way it is great to now have a permanent CEO, not to belittle John McBeath who was doing the job on a temporary basis, but it seems better to now have someone doing the job on a permanent basis.

So there we have it, its been a pretty mental week and the football hasn't even properly started yet.  Hopefully we will get off to a winning start on Sunday, personally I can't wait for the season to get underway again, and not just because it will start to put an end to the rampant rumour mongering in the newspapers, journalists up and down the country will actually have games to write about as opposed to just writing spurious claims that they hear in the back rooms of pubs up and down the country!

City Transfer Special Spectacular!

There is increasing amount of worry and fear spreading throughout the legions of City fans out there, and quite frankly, I believe they are getting themselves worked up over nothing.  That isn't to say that I believe no strengthening is required, clearly we could do with some extra cover at the heart of the defence, and someone to lessen the blow of losing Yaya Toure to the African Cup of Nations, but I do believe those signings will happen before too long, but we just have to be patient and bide our time to ensure that we only do deals that are right for Manchester City, and avoid caving into the demands of the selling club.

A whole myriad of different players have been mooted as potential signings, and the newspapers are having a bit of a field day whipping up whatever hysteria they can, so which of these have a chance of coming off, and which are just made up my the work experience kid at the paper.  My thoughts on that are below:

Scott Sinclair: It was rumoured over the weekend and into this week that the Swansea winger was close to completing a £8M move to Eastlands, these claims were quickly quashed by the powers that be at the Liberty Stadium, but it still seems a possibility to me.  Debate has raged over whether the Englishman is an upgrade on Adam Johnson, but for me that is slightly missing the point.  Sinclair is quick, extremely quick and that is something that we have a total lack of in our squad.  Whilst he may not be the first name on the team sheet, he would offer something different, and something that our other winger simply doesn't.  I'd probably prefer Victor Moses personally, but would not be disheartened if we were to make a concrete move for the former Chelsea man.  His signing would signal the end of Adam Johnson at Eastlands and that could possibly make him a key element in any chase for Daniel Agger, but more on that later.  I can see Sinclair at City, he wouldn't cost the earth and he would provide a different threat, Mancini seems keen on adding a decent winger as the chase for Eden Hazard proved, we missed out there, and this is clearly a bargain basement alternative, but for me, it's worth a go.

Transfer Likelihood: 8/10


Daniel Agger: Again this could be another case of identifying a 'cheaper' alternative to a highly desirable player.  I have made no attempt to cover my admiration for young Spaniard Javi Martinez, however with the European Championships and then the Olympics, any move to secure the Bilbao man has proved difficult.  It appears that is now dead in the water, and Agger is being viewed as the man to strengthen our defence.  Whether the Liverpool defender is better than Joleon Lescott is cause for debate, but one thing is pretty definite, he is better than Savic and Kolo Toure.  He would be a good addition to the backline, and would make us much less reliant on Kompany, currently we are one injury away from a defensive crisis, the capture of Agger would change that.  Perhaps the 2 biggest drawbacks are the fee and his injury record.  He may initially have been identified as a more affordable option than Martinez, but after seeing our £18M bid rejected that is perhaps more debatable.  Word coming out of Liverpool is that they want £27M for the 27 year old, or alternatively, £23M plus Adam Johnson.  Personally, at those prices I think we should walk away and go back to the Spanish option, but with Johnson perhaps looking surplus to requirement as time passes there could be the possibility of a deal being done here.

Transfer Likelihood: 7/10


Javi Martinez: Martinez is a classy player, and a versatile player, and at 23 he has the vast majority of his career ahead of him, that is perhaps why the asking the price for him is so high.  At £32M it would be a huge expenditure on a relatively young player and that is what is believed to have put us off.  The high price tag being placed on Agger however may push us back towards the Spaniard.  There has been no shortage of interest in the defender/midfielder, with strong links being made between player at Bayern Munich and Barcelona.  The Catalan club appear to have dropped their interest and turned their attention to Alex Song, so that could make his signature slightly easier to obtain (not that Bayern Munich won't offer hard competition).  The word coming out of the club is that not much has changed in terms of a move for Martinez, an informal offer was placed, but it was short of the desired price that his club has put on him.  Equally comfortable in midfield and the heart of the defence he would obviously offer a lot, and personally he is the player I would like to see arrive the most this Summer, sadly though, I think the chances of that are getting pretty slim, but if Liverpool refuse to play ball on Agger, you never know.

Transfer Likelihood: 5/10

Daniele De Rossi: Ah, the story that just will never go away.  Of all the players we have been linked with, the Italian is the one that Mancini wants the most.  Like Martinez, he can play at the heart of the defence, but I think the more likely scenario would see him parked in the middle of the field breaking up player and generally making a nuisance of himself.  This isn't the first time that a club has tried to bring the 29 year old to England, our neighbours tried on numerous occasions but never got particularly close to capturing him, with the money on offer from the blue side of Manchester however that could soon change. The word coming out of Roma is positive, they have publicly said that if the player wants to leave, they wouldn't stand in his way as long as they were offered what they deemed a reasonable amount.  De Rossi signed a new deal in January, the cynic in me would suggest that was a way of keeping his price as high as possible, but it would also ensure whatever deal is on the table must be a truly astronomical figure that would most likely see the battling midfielder as one of the clubs top earners.  A few weeks ago this seemed dead in the water, but things are now looking pretty positive, and with Marwood supposedly in Italy, who knows what deals are being done.

Transfer Likelihood: 8/10

Robin Van Persie: The longest transfer saga of this Summer just continues to roll on and on and is showing no sign of coming to any sort of conclusion.  If we were to believe the official words coming out of each interested party this would appear pretty cut and dry, Juventus and ourselves claim that no deal will be done, whilst that lot from the red side of the City are getting frustrated trying to get a transfer sorted.  That would suggest he is Old Trafford bound, only it's never that simple.  Word coming out of Arsenal is that they don't want to sell the Dutchman to United, supposedly they would put £5M onto their £20M asking price in order to ratify a move to their once great rivals making it a deal that the power brokers in Salford appear unlikely to go for.  Where that leaves City is unknown, I don't believe we have walked away like Mancini and others may want you to believe, but at the same time, we are quite rightly standing firm and showing that we aren't prepared to overpay for a 29 year old with a dodgy injury record.  Ultimately this move could still come off, I would suggest that it is make or break time for Edin Dzeko, if he can convince Roberto Mancini he is committed to City, I don't see this happening, if the club have any doubt, we may very well return to the negotiating table.

Transfer Likelihood: 6/10

The best of the other rumours:

Edinson Cavani: Always seemed to be the backup for RVP, but all seems eerily quiet as rumours circulate that Chelsea are considering a move.  I'd love him at the club, but seems unlikely at this point. Transfer Likelihood: 4/10

Leandro Damiao: The Brazilian forward has had a very productive Olympic football tournament and Spurs are sniffing.  We looked at him several months ago and didn't make a move, nothing has changed. Transfer Likelihood: 2/10

Cheikhou Kouyate: The Senegalese youngster has had a good Olympics and was excellent for Anderlecht last season.  We have scouted him before and shown interest, the player himself has suggested however he isn't good enough yet.  Propertied interest from Arsenal however may make us formalise an offer.  Transfer Likelihood: 5/10

We may have left it late, but I can still see a busy few weeks for us in the transfer market.  I can see 3 arriving if i'm honest, and if I have to commit to 3 names i'll go for Sinclair, De Rossi and Agger.  With my track record though, that probably means we'll end up with none of them!

The Invisible Man is Back for the new Season!

After a very brief hiatus that saw me galavanting around the South cost of France, the blog will be back up and running very soon, so expect new content in the coming days and throughout the new campaign.  Lets hope its as joyful as last time round!

Besiktas V City Report

Regular readers will notice that I never did a summation of my thoughts on the Dynamo Dresden game, so here they are now:

Right, onto Besiktas.  It is pretty reasonable to say that our 3 games in Austria have hardly set the world alight, in fact quite the opposite, the only thing they have really been suitable for was curing insomnia.  As each game as passed however, City have started to look a bit more with it, there is still a clear element of ring rust, but things are improving from a technical point of view.  Fitness wise there has been an improvement as well, during the first game no player was on the pitch more than about 45 minutes where as now we are seeing players gets over an hour on the clock, and in some cases whole games.  The initial 11 that began against the Turkish giants was:

The first half was definitely at a slightly higher tempo than previous games, but it was still a half that we didn't really come close to dominating, in fact Besiktas had the better of the it and caused us some real problems.  It is never nice to say it, but as each game passes it is becoming more obvious to me that Kolo Toure is not the player that he once was.  He was again full of willing and energy, but he doesn't seem to have the mobility that a player needs if he wants to perform at the top end of the game, he was troubled repeatedly and if it weren't for Kompany and a particularly brilliant double save by Pantilimon, City would have conceded a couple of goals.  That brings me onto our 2nd keeper who played the whole game, and for the first team in a while I am starting to think that maybe we do have an adequate cover for Joe Hart, his double save was superb, and even though it could be argued the strikes weren't the best, it was still impressive reactions for a tall man.  Granted at times he still looks a bit weak on crosses (surprising for a man with that frame), but there are definitely signs of improvement and he looks a decent backup to me.

Some passes are still going astray, and at times the first touch of some players was questionable, but that is to be expected after the break, and a problem that will no doubt be eradicated over the coming month.  Adam Johnson, after recovering from illness that kept him out of the Dresden game, was sharp and worked hard both going forwards and backwards.  Abdul Razak once again demonstrated what immense potential he possesses, he still has a knack of over complicating things at times, and he tried to ping a few 40 yard passes that didn't come off, but at other times he was neat and tidy and a good presence in the midfield.  One particular thing of note was that Yaya Toure was constantly talking to the youngster, and encouraging him and clearly passing on advice, that sort of thing is always good to see.

Lopes the youngest player on the pitch was given another 45 minute run out, and to be fair, the occasion still seemed a little too big for him.  That is not a criticism, the kid has barely played at reserve and youth level, so to suddenly be thrusted into the first team picture will obviously be a massive step.  This exposure though will only be of assistance moving forwards, playing with the likes of Aguero and Tevez will clearly help his game, and hopefully we will see more of him throughout preseason and playing for the EDS this coming season in the nextgen tournament.  

The first half goal came from the weaker left foot of Sergio Aguero, a drilled Tevez pass was cleverly dummied by Razak, allowing it to run to Aguero who calmly and cooly slotted it into the back of the net.  As I say, it was really against the run of play, and came not long after the Pantilimon double save heroics, but it was a nice move and showed that key players are starting to get back to what we know they are capable of.

The second half kicked off with only one change, Vladimir Weiss with a point to prove replacing the ineffective Lopes.  Weiss is a player that really divides opinion amongst City fans, there are some that think he should definitely be involved, and there are more sceptical people who think that he is a bit of a one trick pony, I firmly fit in the second category.  I admit that over the course of the 3 friendlies, he has been one of our better players, but I just see him as a second rate Adam Johnson.  When AJ first arrived, we were blinded to the inadequacies in his game because of his tricky feet, and I think it is the same with Weiss.  He is by no means a bad players, but I genuinely don't believe he has what it takes to be a decent player at a team with title aspirations.  He was lively again, and worked hard, but I am still not sold.

The second half was overall similar to the first, Besiktas were perhaps the better team again, but it was City that increased their lead.  Just before the hour mark, Adam Johnson played a truly superb through ball that split the defence and found the forward run of a marauding Vincent Kompany who beautifully chipped the ball over the onrushing goalkeeper, it was a brilliant goal and if it had been scored in the Premier League we'd be seeing it for years to come.

That goal signalled whole sale changes, and to be honest that killed the game.  They didn't occur in one go, but between then and the final whistle Savic, Rekik, Boyata, Helan, Mancini, Evans, Jelavic and Scapuzzi were all introduced.  Of the substitutes it was Karim Rekik that again stole the show; this youngster looks absolute class and for me he has to be involved this season, I said it after the Al-Hilal game and I say it again now, he looks twice the player Savic is and yet hes much much younger.  The 'Scapuzzi Experiment' continued and still mystifies me, I hate to criticise a young player, but I just don't know what Mancini sees in this kid, he barely touched the ball and didn't really contribute anything in the 25 minutes he was on the field.  

The only other event in the second half worth noting was an altercation between both teams towards the end of the game.  Youngster George Evans committed, what was to be fair a pretty woeful challenge/lunge on former Everton man Manuel Fernandes, the Portuguese man jumped to his feet and initiated an altercation with the City academy player that in a competitive game would have resulted in him seeing red (although the initial challenge would almost certainly have resulted in dismissal as well).  It was Aleks Kolarov that jumped in to defend his young team mate, and although we don't like to see these incidents in the game, it was good to see a senior player defending one of his young team mates, further goes to demonstrate the idiocy of people that claim there is no team spirit within the City camp.

For me it was Adam Johnson and Abdul Razak that deserve the most credit.  The Englishman was not at his scintillating best, but he got a superb assist for the 2nd and really worked hard to impress his manager.  Razak as I said earlier was at his best when he was keeping it simple, it is wrong to compare him to the imperious Yaya Toure at such a young age, but he has great potential, and if he is willing to listen to those trying to help him, he could go along way in the game.

With that our preseason in Austria comes to an end, next stop China, the Birds Nest Stadium and possibly a couple of new signings, exciting times.