Should Roberto Mancini Backtrack on this Defender?

The loss of Vincent Kompany has made things difficult this month, but I think we have coped pretty well without him.  Youngster Stefan Savic has come into the team and before yesterday was generally doing OK, he had a torrid time against Wigan but kept a clean sheet,  he did give away the penalty against Liverpool but had a decent game otherwise.   Throughout the first half yesterday his confidence seemed to be growing even more, but then, in the 2nd half his frailties were sadly exposed and I fear it could have a pretty big effect on the Montenegrin.  


His woefully misjudged header that allowed Jermaine Defoe to half the arrears at Eastlands seemed to break the man, from that moment he was all over the place and looked like an accident waiting to happen.  That accident nearly did happen right at the death as his dwelling on the ball let in Bale who's cross should really have been turned in by Defoe.

This leaves Mancini with somewhat of a quandary.  At the time of writing we are waiting for a decision on Joleon Lescott's ridiculous forearm smash into the face of Younes Kaboul, but even if the Englishman is cleared of any wrong doing, would it be wise to go into the vital League Cup semifinal second leg against Liverpool with Savic at the heart of the defence?


Many have said all along that the ideal solution would have been switching Richards into the centre, and personally that is what I would have done, but it looks as if this is something Mancini isn't prepared to do, there is someone however that could fill the gap well, that man is Nedum Onuoha.

Clearly the academy graduate has never been flavour of the month with the Italian boss, their relationship deteriorated further when he spoke out against his manager on Soccer AM a couple of years ago.  He spent last year on loan at Sunderland where he performed really well and it would appear City tried their best to find a buyer for him this Summer only to come up short, that fact could now be a real blessing.


It appeared towards the back end of last week that he was on the verge of signing for QPR, this never came to fruition though despite everything appearing to be in place.  There has been suggestions that the player would prefer to stay in the North West with murmurings that Everton could be showing interest.  What of the 3rd option however, the defender has been on the bench for our last 2 outings and he got a few minutes playing time at the end of the Wigan game.

Obviously one reason for that could be a lack of any other options, however we do have youngsters to cover that position Reece Wabara and Karim Rekik for example could do an adequate job if they had to be called upon.  Onuoha's presence must suggest that he is doing something right in training, as well as a slight thawing in the relationship between manager and player.


The ultimate question is this, would you rather see Savic on Wednesday night or Neds?  I am not saying Savic is a poor player, I genuinely believe he has the potential to be a really good defender but at the moment his confidence looks somewhat shot and even during his better performances I have not been entirely comfortable with him in there, there was always the feeling that there was a big mistake just around the corner.  

I personally would love to see Onuoha brought in for a few games just to see if he could do us a job until the end of the season.  Granted this could all be irrelevant as he could be an Everton or QPR player at any time, but if Mancini was willing to back down, I for one would be happy with that decision.

Sunday Rumour Mill & Internationals Roundup

Well its an international break, yawn, so not a massive amount going on to be honest, England somehow beat Spain yesterday without touching the ball more than about 12 times, is this incisiveness or just luck? I personally can't make up my mind on that one.  Of note to City supporters were solid performances from Joe Hart, James Milner and Gareth Barry when he came on, but perhaps most pleasingly was a superb game from Joleon Lescott who other than one mistake, read the game perfectly and managed the Spanish attacks very well, he has clearly learnt a huge amount under the tutelage of Roberto Mancini.  David Silva played the first half and was replaced at half time, he was reasonably assured without being overly breath taking, to be honest I was just pleased to see him withdrawn as to not risk injury.

Away from England, Sergio Aguero suffered a recurrence of the injury he first had against Blackburn, it doesn't look like being too serious and he is now unlikely to feature for Argentina at all on this break, hopefully he will return to Manchester soon.  Edin Dzeko didn't have the best time with Bosnia only drawing 0-0 at home to Portugal, they play the reverse leg on Tuesday night and I can't see them getting much. Things weren't much better for Aleksandar Kolarov who saw red when he was playing for Serbia, Stefan Savic also had an unenjoyable evening as Montenegro lost 2-0 to the Czech Republic in their World Cup qualifier it really was a mixed bag for the City boys.  

One of the real bright sparks though was Super Mario hitting his first goal for Italy in their 2-0 victory over Poland, it was a bit of a stunner and can be seen here.

Away from international football and onto more important matters there are a few City stories doing the rounds today, I suppose it would be best to get Carlos Tevez out of the way first.  As we all know he has fled back to Argentina to see his family, a strange notion since his advisers claimed his family were settled happily in England about 10 days ago, but oh well!  It is The People covering this one today so I suggest you take all of this with a pretty large dollop of salt.  They reckon that the Argentine will remain in his home land and risk being sued rather than return to Manchester.  I am fast losing interest in this story, the sooner he is out of the club the better, the paper reckon that Inter Milan are readying a £30million bid in January, my fingers are crossed, good riddance Carlos!

Whilst Tevez is hardly a forgotten man (hopefully he soon will be) Nedum Onuoha certainly is.  I have never been entirely sure what Bobby as got against Neds but he clearly doesn't rate him, the only thing I can come up with is his attack on the manager on Soccer AM last year...an Italian never forgets.  Whilst I don't think Onuoha is good enough for a team at the top of the table, I think he has enough to be a member of the squad.  It does sadden me slightly that his career at City never came to anything, he is a true blue, but the writing has been on the wall for a while.  According to the Manchester Evening News, QPR and West Brom are queuing up to resurrect his career with both sides linked to £3.5million moves.  It would appear a near certainty he will be on his way soon and I wish him all the best and hope he can find that form and ability he demonstrated early in his career.

Finally today we are dealing with reports of a player coming in, and an exciting one too.  The Metro are covering the clubs chase for German international Marco Reus.  The player has been in prolific scoring form in Germany for his club Borussia Monchengladbach and this has lead to a call up to the national side. He has scored 8 times in 10 appearances so far this season and there is thought to be keen interest in the player from Arsenal as well as City.  Mike Rigg, the clubs technical director spoke to German newspaper Bild saying:

"I know Marco, because I like him a lot...He is one of the most talented players you have in Germany and we have watched him very often.".

The Metro claim that Arsene Wenger has already been in contact with the players club after being tipped off by Jens Lehmann.  It is believed that because of a clause in the players contract he could be available next Summer for £15million, it has also been suggested that should Monchengladbach show willing to sell Bayern Munich will enter the race for his signature as well.  There is no certainty in this story, but he is a top prospect and just the sort of player that we should be linked with.

Has Mancini Scored A Bit Of An Own Goal?

Firstly I should point out that I am a fan of Roberto Mancini and I have always given him the benefit of the doubt, I do feel he has made some mistakes, but who doesn't?  He has made less mistakes than many of our previous managers so we shouldn't complain, that doesn't take away from the fact that I think he has just made a bit of an error of judgement.


I suppose the expected thing would be for me to write about our new awesome, yet gaudy aircraft, or the new name for our stadium which everyone will continue to call Eastlands no matter how much is spent to make us call it otherwise.  On reflection, that statement makes it sound as if I am against a stadium name change, which I definitely am not.


It is however our managers decision to sideline some members of our squad that is bothering me, I think the impact it could have potentially could be pretty difficult to deal with.  The MEN has a bit of a none story this evening, it merely confirms what we already know and that is that some of our players will not be allowed to train or travel with the rest of the squad, and I am not sure that is a great idea.


The sidelined players are Craig Bellamy, Emmanuel Adebayor, Wayne Bridge and Nedum Onuoha (they also list RSC, but fail to mention his absence is down to him playing in the Copa America, top quality journalism), now clearly the majority of those players aren't good enough for our team, but surely taking them to America and getting them fitter makes them more salable assets.  Unless there are moves in the offing for all of those players that can take place before the players return from their USA tour, it serves no purpose to not take them.


I suppose the counter argument could be that they could instill some negativity in the camp, but they have all been away from the team for so long I am unsure as to how destructive they could actually be.  Clearly the papers were full this morning of negative words from both Bellamy and Adebayor, but I think a lot of the motivation behind those quotes was probably because they were sidelined by the clubs coaching staff.

The other issue is that I still believe a couple of those players could offer us something.  If Tevez is to leave, Emmanuel Adebayor could have his uses unless we replace the Argentine quickly, and even though I wrote recently that I felt Onuoha wasn't necessarily good enough for Manchester City I still felt he could offer some decent backup if he impressed over pre-season.


Clearly the thinking behind the 'ban' is to keep morale up, but part of me worries that by taking these actions we are not only taking the players out of the shop window, but that we might also inadvertently damage morale.  Let's not forget there are no stories about Jo being banned, but Adebayor, oh yeah, it makes sense to keep him away from the team....

Who Is Stefan Savic and What Could His Signing Mean?

It seems that transfer activity will finally begin this week at Eastlands with the possible signings of both Gael Clichy and young defender Stefan Savic.  We know all about the former but who is Stefan Savic and what sort of player are we signing?

Talking to the media in Italy today his signing was more or less confirmed by Roberto Mancini, the 20 year has been courted by many teams across Europe and is lauded as one of the rising stars of European football.  This appears to be further evidence of the club looking to the future and attempting to sign future stars securing the teams well being for years to come.

The central defender was born in Montenegro and began his career playing for BSK Borca in Serbia, he spent two seasons with the club before he moved onto bigger things and signed for Partizan last Summer.  It was during that season that he began to demonstrate his immense potential and clubs around Europe began to notice.

At 6'1 the defender is a commanding presence in the air and he has good strength that will help him adapt to English football relatively quickly, his pace has also been praised and he is surprisingly pacey for a taller defender.

Savic is expected to cost the club around £7million, a figure that seems acceptable when you consider the supposed potential that he possesses.  He has previously been on trial with Arsenal and in fact he claimed that a deal was in place that would have taken him to the Emirates, but this proposed transfer never came to fruition, it was reported at the time that Arsene Wenger was unwilling to part with the required money to secure him, where have we heard that before?

Chelsea and Tottenham have also been linked with swoops but it now appears that City have won the race.  So what does this signing mean for the rest of the squad?  I would imagine that at just 20 years of age it is unlikely that he will be a regular in the first team, and he may even spend some time playing with the reserve team initially to get used to a new country.  I would expect that we will begin the season with Lescott and Kompany at the heart of the defense with Dedyrck Boyata offering cover and with the return of Kolo Toure in September it seems unlikely that we will be in the market for any more defenders if this deal proves successful.

The 2 players who could really lose out are Nedum Onuoha and Jerome Boateng, although whether the latter would view a move away from Manchester as 'losing out' is clearly questionable.  Savic is comfortable playing at full back as well as centrally so with him providing cover for Richards, Zabaleta, Kolarov and potentially Clichy you can't see there being much of a future for Neds or Boateng come the start of the next season.

I hope this deal goes through in the end, I have always been keen for us to move for future talents rather than taking the Real Madrid approach to transfers.  Earlier in the Summer we were linked to a huge move for Gary Cahill a transfer that would have cost us £17million and when you consider United recently paid £16million for Phil Jones, the money we might pay for Savic could really make it a massive steal and a fantastic piece of business.  On the other hand he could be dross, but lets not worry about that for the time being....

It May Be a Refreshing Attitude, But Is He Good Enough?

Nedum Onuoha was the 'next big thing' for a long time, great things were expected of the young academy graduate, but he never really reached the level that many people expected him too.  His athleticism is there for all to see and the teenage sprint Champion certainly uses his speed as his best asset, but other parts of his game have let him down.

It seemed highly likely that his future at Eastlands was all but over after he was farmed out to Sunderland on loan last season, and it appeared probable that the move would be made permanent.  In recent time though suggestions of a transfer to Wearside have gone strangely quiet.  In fact moves to Bolton as part of a deal for Gary Cahill have been more likely, today though we see a refreshing show of determination from the player.  Too many footballers would rest on their laurels and just wait for a move, but City supporting Onuoha claims he is ready to fight for his place, is he good enough though?

I have never been entirely sure what Ned's best position is, his pace from right back is clearly a good asset, but his technical ability is somewhat lacking and his distribution has always let him down.  Not to say there aren't flashes of ability, the goal he scored for Sunderland against Chelsea was sublime.  At centreback his distribution is less important, but in this modern day players in all areas are expected to be comfortable on the ball, and that is never the impression that I get from the defender.

I suppose one defense of Onuoha could be his injury record, up until this season he has never managed a run of games in a settled team.  He has been permanently hampered by niggling injuries and clearly these will have impeded his development, I am not claiming he is up there with Paul Lake in the 'What Could Have Been' stakes, but I think he would definitely have been a better player than he is.

The other thing that should be addressed is how likely is he to get games, if we assume that Jerome Boateng will be shown the exit door after his recent outburst, we currently have Kompany, Lescott, Toure, Boyata, Richards and Wabara who are all capable of playing at the heart of the defense.  I suppose if you argue that we are best to loan out Wabara and Boyata for a season then there are still 4 players comfortable playing in the centre of the defence, does that leave any room for Onuoha?  Then imagine if we sign a new defender as has been widely reported, opportunities seem limited.

With the upcoming Financial Fair Play rules we need to be bringing in as much money as we can, and the sale of the speedy defender would probably bring us about £5million and that is money that could be extremely useful.  Another key issue it would be important to remember is his attitude towards Roberto Mancini, he said some pretty damning things when he first moved to Sunderland and we shouldn't forget that.

Obviously a lot of us would love to see him stay at the club, he is home grown, he loves the club and he shows passion, but does that make up for a slight lack of ability.  Onuoha is a top half of the table defender, but he isn't a top 4 defender.  I will hold my hands up and say I am impressed with this show of determination, but it doesn't get away from the fact that I just don't feel there is room for him at the club, nor do I feel he is good enough.

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.