All cagey on the Eastlands 'front'

Of course this time of year (or now ANY time of year for City these days) is rife with player comings & goings. But since the signing of Fernandinho and the all-but-signed Jesus Navas, transfer activity talk has moved to the strikers in recent days.

Not arriving?

From a 'Club insider' apparently saying recently that the deal was as good as done with City (along with a Napoli official being told to 'go and have a chat with City about a possible deal'); all appears to have changed with regards to Edison Cavani.

The powerful Napoli forward is still highly likely to move SOMEWHERE this summer and Chelsea have now been linked with a move to 'muscle in' on our apparent ‘number 1’ front-man-target. Rumours are that some other top European side may also now be interested in the £54M buy-out-clause man. Could he be slipping from our grasp? Hope not.

So what happens soon after the Cavani link 'cools' a little? Speculation quickly turns to a new striker - not previously linked with us to my knowledge - in the form of AC Milan’s Stephen El Shaarawy. The young Italian was in blistering form for the Red & Blacks early on last season but appeared to take a dip in form; coinciding with the arrival of a certain Mr Balotelli.

However, as quickly as this rumour arrived – some reports even suggesting that we’d put in a bid of anywhere between £34M & £40M - the player himself was then apparently quoted as saying,

"I don't think I will leave Milan", El Shaarawy told La Repubblica. CIf City really wants me, it flatters me. But I want to stay here at AC Milan".

"I always felt total confidence from all; the club, coach [Massimiliano] Allegri and team-mates".

"It's also thanks to them that I am in the Italian national team."

Staying? Going?

Then, and not for the first time, we’re told by the Mirror that Manuel Pellegrini may well want Edin Dzeko to stay with the Blues. Of course with attacking emphasis switching to the wings [supplying the ammunition to the front man / men] in the form of Jesus Navas and links also with Angel Di Maria from Real Madrid; keeping Edin makes perfect sense.

Another City forward, however, may well be on the move. Despite reports that our new, incoming Manager also wants to talk to Carlos Tevez about him-signing a new 2-year deal, there are growing reports about him moving to another European club.

And I found this article particularly interesting:

Now this is either some very, VERY good sleuthing indeed; pesky rumour mongering or simply someone with a keen eye putting 2 & 2 together and coming up with 17.

3 is the magic number?

With continued rumours about John Guidetti being linked with a loan (or otherwise) move to Sunderland, emphasis is indeed all on our forwards at the moment. And whoever ends up arriving, staying put or going; don’t be surprised to see us at least START the season with just 3 strikers. WHAT?! I hear you say? I know…it leaves me a little bit edgy too.

But with the growing list of attacking midfielders at City (including the still-possible signing of Isco and continuous talk of this 4-3-3 come attacking 4-5-1 system); it shouldn’t really come as such a shock to most Blues.

Defence gets a quick mention too…

Amongst talk of strikers, we have been linked with 2 central defenders recently.

More than once the name Pepe from Real Madrid has cropped up and, more recently, French international Adil Rami from Valencia.

I don’t know too much about Rami. However, known by Real Madrid fans as ‘The Beast’; although Pepe looks like a very good, top-class defender indeed, he does also seem to ’leave his foot in’ a fair bit and have niggles at opposing players from time to time. I'll let you look at the various YouTube footage...

Crass

And then there’s this piece of “work” from the Manchester Evening News. Headed up, “Gossip”, it makes some pretty wild assumptions, which are both crass and classless from our local newspaper.