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!

Rumour Mill: City To Swoop For Long Term United Target?

Right! It is time to move on from Carlos Tevez, lets just see what happens there and move onto newer more exciting things...some hot transfer rumours!


It is pretty clear by this point that the man Roberto Mancini wanted to bring in this January was Roma midfielder Daniele De Rossi, however convincing him to leave his boyhood club was always going to be difficult.  It would now appear that the Italian international will see out the rest of his career in the capital after he signed a new contract, effectively ending our interest.  Clearly this suggests that Bobby has identified a new midfielder as being crucial to the sides ongoing development and according to reports in recent days the club are now ready to put plan b into action.

The man they are apparently looking to is Spanish international and incredibly highly regarded Javi Martinez.  The Spaniard began his career at Osasuna but never appeared for their first team, he was snapped up by Athletic Bilbao for €6million in the Summer of 2006 at the age of just 17.  The defensive midfielder became a regular in the team from his debut season and has been more or less an ever present.  


The Sun (as well as numerous other media outlets) are claiming that we are ready to offer £25million for his services, now that might sound steep but when you consider that the 23 year old already has a World Cup winners medal and that he has been courted by the likes of Real Madrid, Liverpool and Manchester United it begins to look a little more realistic.  


There are however a couple of stumbling blocks, there is the competition from other clubs, but it is thought that the presence of David Silva (an international colleague) could help persuade him to move to the blue side of Manchester.  The other issue is the price, it is said that the money men at Eastlands are unwilling to offer more than £25million despite Bilbao expecting a figure closer to £34million which is stated as the release clause in his contract, it remains to be seen whether there is any chance of meeting in the middle.

In footballing terms, Martinez would be a great addition, the box to box player would be able to take some of the strain off the shoulders of Yaya Toure and clearly he is of the very highest quality and for that reason, he would be a superb acquisition.  It is always interesting to note that this season the Spanish international has been deployed as a central defender on a fairly regular basis and that is another quality that should make him an attraction proposition.


In many ways I would prefer to have Martinez than De Rossi, he might not be as good as the Italian yet, but at 23 he has the vast majority of his career ahead of him and I believe he would have a better understanding of our style of play and for that reason I think he could be the ideal man to supplement our midfield.

January Preview

Firstly I would like to wish you all a Happy New Year, and I hope you had a good Christmas.  Things have been quiet on here, mostly because the run up to the festive period was ridiculously busy for me, and then I returned to my parents for the holiday season so didn't really have much opportunity to update the blog, now that things are back to normal, it will be a lot more regular again.


I think the best place to start is by previewing the coming month.  The importance of January can not be underestimated, we are essentially playing every 3 days for the foreseeable future.  In comparison our title rivals have a much easier month, their schedule has been freed up massively after they were knocked out of the Carling Cup by Crystal Palace, they play 4 games between now and February, compared to our 5, it may only be one game, but it could make the world of difference.  The title is often won and lost in this month and I think this year could be the same.  As we all know United still have to play many of the bigger teams away from home, whereas we only have a trip to the Emirates left, if we can end this month on top or trailing by no more than 4 points, I think we can and probably will take the title.

In terms of league competition we will meet Wigan away, where you would expect us to take 3 points with a weakened team, and then old rivals Tottenham visit Eastlands, Spurs will be a really difficult challenge as always and should they provide an upset they will be even more embroiled in the title race than they already are!


Off the field January is also highly important as well, the transfer window opened on the early hours of New Years Day and will remain that way until the end of the month, this time however things are a bit different, with FFP looming larger than ever we have to be even more responsible than windows gone by.  On that very subject there seems to be an element of tension between Roberto Mancini and the powers that be in Abu Dhabi.  The suggestions in the newspapers in the last few days seem to indicate that the Italian wanted to bring in a midfielder and a winger over the Summer but was not authorised to do so.  It wouldn't take a genius to work out that those 2 targets were probably Daniele De Rossi and Italian winger Alessio Cerci, one of those is seemingly a target for this January.

The impending departure of Yaya Toure is going to make what is already a challenging month even more difficult, and De Rossi could really make it a lot more straight forward.  The belief was originally that the club had to sell some players to buy, and it is thought that whilst not all of the incoming money would be made available for new players, some of it would be.  As far as I can see if we do manage to finally move on a certain moody Argentine striker, we will have an extra £250,000 a week in the wage budget and around £20million in the transfer pot.  Not enough to bring in rafts of new players but potentially enough for De Rossi.


It is not just big names that will be on the way, it would appear that Nedum Onuoha will finally move on for around £2.5million, Wayne Bridge could be removed from the wage bill as well, these departures would also free up some important finances.

It would be a dream to end January in both domestic cup competitions, still 3 or more points clear on top of the table, and it would be even more special if we had secured De Rossi and offloaded Tevez.  If that dream is going to become reality we will need to work incredibly hard and obviously some players will have to step up to the plate, Edin Dzeko needs to re find his form and confidence, and Samir Nasri, who personally I think has performed pretty well overall, needs to continue to develop his game and find his exact role in the team.


Things are undeniably going swimmingly, but this month could really make or break the rest of our season, so lets all get behind the team and try to make sure that the dream becomes reality!

Rumour Mill: More Chance Of Us Resigning Jo Than This Italian Enforcer...

When it comes to football websites, there are those that only deliver fact or close to it (BBC Sport), there are websites that just make up nonsense (Tribal Football, Caught Offside) and then there are some in the middle that pretend they have sources in high up places, and sometimes break a credible story but mostly just publish tosh.  This rumour is from goal.com a website that fits firmly in that final category.


The widely ridiculed footballing website has today published a story stating that Roma enforcer Daniele De Rossi is ready to make a sensational switch to England and possibly to City, they have however not just made these claims and left them hanging, they also have direct quotes from a 'source' supposedly within the club...now clearly these 'sources' are always just the work experience kid, but for some reason they think we are all fools and that we will fall for it!


The tough tackling Italian currently has a contract that runs up until 2012, and talks over a renewal have been ongoing.  According to the report he wants not only a bumper pay rise but also assurances from the clubs owners that they will be spending big money to take the team in the right direction.  If these talks don't go well, clearly the club wouldn't want to lose him for nothing next year and that is why it is claimed that an offer €23million from City would tempt them to sell.


The 'source' has 'revealed':

"Manchester City are ready to offer Roma €23m for De Rossi and can give him €9m per annum over four to five years....De Rossi is aware of Mancini's interest and his attempts to bring him to City....He wants economic and technical guarantees from Roma for him to stay. If these guarantees are not met he will not sign the new contract. At the moment, he is very uncertain as Roma have been lukewarm with him in terms of this new deal. The new owners do not want to take on heavy financial commitments before looking into all the club's accounts.".

Let's just for a minute go along with this whole story and pretend we don't think it's utter tosh.  Manchester United have courted the player for years and there is also supposedly interest from Chelsea so if he were to move on there would definitely be competition from other big clubs, whether these sides would compete with the financial package on offer from City seems unlikely so it could possibly put Roberto Mancini in pole position.

Now for the negative (realistic) viewpoint.  De Rossi is Roma through and through and it seems highly unlikely to me that he would play for another club any time soon, he has had the opportunity to move on several occasions before, with that lot from Salford generally thought to be the side closest to sealing his signature.  After all this time though he has stayed put and I don't see him going anywhere else in the near future.  It is highly likely that there could be complicated negotiations over a renewal of his contract, but the bottom line in my opinion is that this is just a ploy from the player and agent to secure more money, we are being used.

It should be pointed out that he is a top quality player and would obviously bring a lot to City, albeit in a position that we are hardly short, but I just don't see anything in this one.  Nothing about the story seems particularly convincing, the website, the 'source', and the comments, for me, nothing really adds up...