Players staying, going, wanting to stay and a
player who can’t seem to decide whether he wants to arrive! Jeeeeze…bring on
the start of the season!
Staying…probably
So all is well in the land (and head) of Yaya Toure. It was never about money; it was never
about prising a move away from the club (giving his ‘orrible agent a fat wedge
of cash) and, perhaps, it wasn’t even about cake. The flippin’ “R” word has
been mentioned in this latest ‘turn around’ (Respect if you had to ask) and he
wants to put it all behind him. Good.
Yaya added that he wants show the fans, at least, who, he’s
said, have always been good with him and his family; that he’s ready to stay
next season and show that it will be a pleasure to enjoy the campaign ahead and
try to win [the league] again next season.
I ‘get’ that he might still feel a little sour towards the
club for them not OFFERING him the chance of staying at home [after the West Ham game] with his terminally ill brother and
it’s clear now, looking back, that his head was a mess around about that time. I’ve
said this before; try to recall how tetchy he was getting on the field towards
the end of last season. I must admit that, at the time, I wasn’t aware that he
had a very, very sick brother and so, now, I fully understand and feel very
sorry for him and his entire family.
In Seluk, though, he has a
poor advisor in my opinion and like so many other footballers, Yaya seems
easily influenced by his agent “friend”. Deep down the Ivorian is an emotional
lad (I can say “lad” of a 31-year old at my age) and he was going through a
very personal and emotional time towards the end of last season.
‘Cake gate’, however, may rumble on; with Seluk ‘signing
off’ with the words,
“I hope now everybody
will have a friendly relationship. I
hope his next birthday they will celebrate together”.
Weirdo…but just so that we don’t have to go through this
joke of a situation again – something
that annoyingly seemed to take the shine off our double-winning season –
then for everyone’s sake, City, get that order in at the bakers now!
Negredo is staying! He has
to now, he said it on #ask on CityTV. So why
won’t the rumours go away? Please rumour mongers…you go away!
Wanting to stay, but…
Not surprisingly it’s James Milner’s
turn to have his say. I was bracing myself for it. Not surprising because not
only is he out of contract next summer and can start to speak to other clubs
from January 2015; but the ‘never gives
less than 100%’ and MUCH improved, English, 28-year old can count himself
very unfortunate not to get more games for the Blues last season.
There are good shouts from some City fans as to why we
needed to bring in Fernando when we HAVE James
at the Club…there are even better shouts
from Blues who question how the HELL Javi Garcia
can get selected ahead of the Yorkshire man.
I certainly agree with the latter and the player himself; James believes that his
best position is central or slightly withdrawn / deeper midfield and looking at
the central options we have now; he must wonder how on earth he’s gonna to
manage to get enough game-time.
He’s decent enough on the right wing and certainly offers us
something different to the speedy Navas. But
please, City, don’t play him on the left. I watched him try and try (as he
does) on the left-flank last season but it just doesn’t work for the most part.
Good luck James. I hope you stay and I hope all of your
fantastic efforts result in more minutes on the pitch than last season. I hope
too that you sign a new contract and give us your best years ahead.
The ‘Wanting to stay,
but…’ category also includes Matija Nastasic.
He’s never asked to leave as far as I’m aware but, as with Alvaro, the rumours just
won’t go away.
Ahead in the pecking order of last season’s injury-prone-defender would appear to be Vincent Kompany, Martin Demichelis (and Eliaquim Mangala?) and with Karim Rekik having a
shirt ‘number change’ and featuring high in pre-season so far (and counting as home-grown); it does indeed appear that the very
promising Serbian may indeed be surplus to requirements at the moment.
What a massive shame that would be because I think we all
remember with considerable excitement his first season in a City shirt; where the 19-year old
looked composed and very accomplished in his Premier League debut season.
I understand the need to focus on the ‘home grown rule’ and
I understand too the need to raise funds it we are, indeed, looking to bring in
another body before the close of the transfer window. I’d just hope we could do
that without having to sacrifice this kid.
Going
There’s been no more (real) mention of it…but I don’t think
it’ll be long before we see Micah Richards, Jack Rodwell and Scott Sinclair depart. All English
players it won’t go unnoticed of course.
Yeah we’ve had the persistent link with Liverpool about
Micah and the predictable link with Everton for
Jack. And with Swansea City ‘selling’ [and
swelling the coffers] at the moment I don’t think it’ll be long before we see, yet
again, a link to his former club for Scott Sinclair; who did his ‘shop window
display’ no harm at all by scoring in a 2-1 win against Hearts
last night (Kolarov with the other goal from the spot late on after the Scottish side equalised).
Javi Garcia? Well it’s all been said before of course but
I’d be slightly surprised and disappointed if we weren’t able to ‘cash in’ on
him in the summer. Surely…SURELY that would make sense when considering the
situations of both Nastasic and Milner.
And the long, on-going saga of poor John Guidetti moved into another chapter the other day; being linked this
time with a move to Russian side Dynamo Moscow.
I STILL harbour hopes of seeing the Swede make it at City but if he is deemed
surplus THIS season; then I share the wishes of most other Blues who would like
to see him given a full season on loan in the Premier League.
Although he didn’t, for
whatever reason, get many minutes for Mark Hughes’
Stoke City; surely the likes of Aston Villa, Burnley (where John has played and scored before but
not in the Premier League), Crystal Palace,
Everton, Hull City,
Leicester City, Newcastle United, Queens Park Rangers, Southampton, Sunderland,
Swansea City, West Bromwich Albion or West Ham United would
be interested in his services for a season? They could do far worse.
But, and I’ve said this
before, if we do loan him for the season we should put in a ‘January recall
clause’ just in case he’s either not being used or we hit a winter striker
crisis.
Gone
According to Transfermarkt.co.uk
at least, we parted company with Luca Scapuzzi
on 1st July 2014. Recently on loan with Siena
Gone and, sadly for him, certainly forgotten – I think I can
recall 2 appearance from the young Italian brought in by Mancini.
Arriving?
He had his medical – we
all saw the photographs of him in Manchester London
instead of the cobbled streets of Manchester
But fear not Blues, the only London Club who were apparently
interested in the French defender’s services; their Manager, Jose Mourinho, has recently stated that their summer
spending is over.
Sorry future Mrs
Mangala…
Really?
Well I’m not sure where we’d get the cash from but we’re
being linked, not for the first time, with a move for the recently-injury-plagued-striker
Falcao. A wonderfully talented striker who was,
undoubtedly, attracted to the cash of AS Monaco
but, for whatever reason [aside from injuries], it just hasn’t worked out.
Apparently he was in talks with a move to Real Madrid
but they have stalled for some reason. So, predictably, the rumour machine was
then cranked up and as well as Liverpool and Manyoo
(and not Chelsea
With Liverpool apparently wanting to spread their Luis Suarez £75M around the team rather then
splashing it on just ‘one big star’ - and with Manyoo apparently pursuing Edison Cavani - this, apparently, has ‘left the door
open’ for us to ‘step in’.
But I say again, how are we to afford him and not break our
£49M spending restrictions imposed as a fine under F(not so)FP? The sale of Micah, Jack, Javi and Scott alone probably won’t be
enough to secure a player who will, I’m sure, be valued at around £40M+. Perhaps that’s why the rumours of Nastasic
& Negredo just won’t go away…
Stop the
merry-go-round, I wanna get off!
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