Reports are rife this morning that we are lining up a
£15M move for Stoke City ’s, Bosnia and Herzegovina
goalkeeper Asmir Begovic; with Joe Hart going to Stoke on a ½ season loan. It’s both
a little bizarre and quite unexpected…but at the same time has a tone of, ‘this
could well happen’ about it.
End for Costel?
And…remember Birmingham ?
First of all this isn’t the first time we’ve been linked
with the Stoke stopper. Apparently had Roberto
not been shown the exit door in the summer Asmir was one of his top summer
targets – and we may well have been
saying our permanent farewells to Joe!
Bringing in the 6’ 6' keeper from the Potteries and retaining Hart on the
books would, of course, soon see the end for Pantilimon
at City; a keeper, whom, has still yet to make any major mistakes.
However, IF there is any truth to this we would have two unbelievably
crackin’ keepers on our books! But equally, of course, two goalies who should
in their own right be playing most games at any level across the world. One of
‘em, therefore and quite naturally, would be very unhappy indeed. And with both being 26 years of age; neither
would be planning on slowing down and moving aside any time soon….
But if we are, indeed, aiming to join the very highest elite
of teams in the world (I think that’s the
long-term plan unless I’ve got the owner’s message wrong) then having two
terrific keepers in Joe and Asmir makes excellent sense…and would most
certainly fit in with our proprietor’s long term vision for the Club.
And if we are to compensate Stoke by sending Joe out on loan
for the remainder of the season; just remember what a hugely improved version
of Joe we got back after he spent a season on loan at Birmingham City .
Anyway, it’s all irrelevant
now; Pellegrini has already completely
pooh-poohed the idea; stating the in the pre-Plzen
match interview that we are in no way in the market for ANY keeper in January.
So that was a complete waste of keyboard-finger exercise…
So let’s crack on with tomorrow’s game…
Briefly then, here’s my predicted starting line-up and subs…
4-4-2:
_____________________Dzeko____________
______________Aguero__________________
__________Fernandinho___Garcia___________
__________________Hart__________________
Rumour has it that Kompany looked sharp in training today and
so I think he might give him 20/25 minutes toward the end ahead of the Swansea City game - while Nastasic, apparently,
seemed to be struggling somewhat and didn’t even complete the warm-up this
morning. Kolarov looked to have got over his recent illness too. Hurraaaaay…
I’d love to think that he’d stick Rodwell in there from the
start but I very much doubt it. I think too that Guidetti will get a game but
not before Aguero gives Dzeko some fair support for the first 45 minutes.
Fernandinho and Navas, like Milner, look like they could run
all season and not get tired and so I think they’ll both start again. I hope to
see Lopes get on at some stage too.
And although any kind of consistency in defence is key for
us at the moment I can just see a completely different back line starting
against the Czech side. With us already having qualified it is wise to save Clichy for the Swansea
game (although I’d LOVE to see us pluck a left back from the EDS to have a
crack at tomorrow night’s game). Richards definitely needs a run-out and
Lescott played really well when replacing Nastasic in the second half against Spurs. Could be too soon for Demichelis following
Sunday’s game and, regardless; like Micah Boyata deserves a crack too.
Apparently Jovetic didn’t train at all today.
Result: A fairly
comfortable win.
Let’s hope CSKA put up a good fight; giving us a slim chance of top
spot to keep it interesting at least…
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