Early August ‘chatter’

Wow! August already. And for the Premier League only 14 short days to go. So what’s circulating?

Yaya happy again

In a video release on MCFC (although the interview was published in words a few days beforehand) Yaya Toure has explained that ‘all is well’ again. Angry at his apparent disrespect that the club hadn’t celebrated his birthday enough nor appreciated him in general, I feel very sorry for the lad now.

Of course we all now know the full extent of his troubled mind at the time; losing any family member is very sad indeed but to lose a brother so young must be awful! And when you’re in low mood you can most certainly snap at anything and everything and so, in my opinion, it should now be ‘put to bed’; just as Yaya himself wants.

I’m sure, following this, we’ll have a fully focused and determined Ivorian ripping defences apart again next season until, that is, he jets off to Morocco in January for the 30^th African Cup of Nations.

Just do yourself and everyone else a favour, Yaya…ditch your flippin’ agent!

2-2 (1-3 on pens)

So we suffered only our second pre-season defeat on Wednesday (or was it Thursday by then?) in our second U.S. game. Liverpool were the victors in, what looked to me like (in highlights), a very even contest overall.

Jovetic continues to shine - once again he looked lively and very keen to put himself in all the right areas to give him self a chance to score. And he is scoring.

Navas continues HIS impressive pre-season form by showing some of his explosive pace against the Scousers. The Manchester Evening News commented that he appeared to play with the brakes on at times last season and I agree; I don’t think we saw the best of him in his debut season. Hopefully with the spur of missing out on the World Cup [through injury] we’ll see a fully flying Spaniard this time round.

 

Joe & Willy both had very busy and good games as the 'keeper competition' hots up...

Kelechi Iheanacho

Sadly Yaya marked his return by doing something I never thought I’d ever see him do – he missed a penalty! So did Kolarov, and Navas had his attempt saved. The continuingly impressive Kelechi Iheanacho was the only one to find the net for City from the spot with a very cool-looking strike. Sadly Liverpool were more accurate after missing their first attempt also and went ahead of us in the Guinness International Champions Cup group stage.

 

 

Home-grown boost?

I came in from the pub last night to the surprising news that we might be about to sign Frank Lampard on a 6-month loan from NYCFC. Manchester City officials denied this when asked about the possibility a few weeks ago; it would appear that there’s been a re-think. Talks are on-going…

Personally I think this would be an EXCELLENT move. Not only does Frank, at 36, bring huge experience to the dressing room and would be an added influence to the youngsters at the club, but the home-grown compliance will receive a big boost. As the MLS doesn’t start until March 2015, a 6-month loan (to February) should see us through any injuries we might endure during the tough season and winter ahead.

If this move DOES go ahead, however, surely the alarm bells will be going off even louder for HAHM-ez Milner who, quite rightly, has recently issued an ‘I will stay [beyond this season] if I play’ message to his employer.

Tough start to get even tougher?

A look at our opening 11 fixtures should have most Blues raising a slightly concerned eyebrow. Perhaps with the exception of Stoke City at home the rest most certainly fall somewhere between “tricky” to downright “hard”. Compared to Manyoo’s opening 8 fixtures it’s a far different and quite hellish first quarter of the season to be honest!

So the rather shocking piece in the M.E.N. the other day revealed that, worst case scenario, our early endeavours could be made far worse. Why? Well this is because we might be starting the season without 7 (that’s SEVEN) key players!

As I say, it was “worst case scenario”.

The local paper included in the magnificent (missing) 7 Sergio Aguero; Pablo Zabaleta, Martin Demichelis, Vincent Kompany, Fernandinho, Bacary Sagna and the injured Alvaro Negredo.

Well…certainly Alvaro, I’ll give them that one. And perhaps World Cup finalist Sergio, Zaba and Martin might not see any action at St James Park on 17^th August. That was always going to be the danger [of playing right to the end] when in a strong, World Cup team.

But 3^rd-place play-off participant Fernandinho should be available for selection in my opinion and unless he’s carrying (another) niggle then I can’t see why Vinny won’t be walking the lads out at 3:55pm (BST) in a fortnights time.

As for the right-back slot; if Zaba IS given a well-deserved extended break then Sagna - who started gym training about a week ago - will be ready to step in I’m certain.

With those [tough] opening fixtures we’ll certainly need most of ‘em to be fit & available. And if we get through those opening 11 games relatively unscathed then we’ll give ourselves a terrific chance of defending the title that’s for sure.

Me and my big mouth!

Thankfully that opening game should see us being able to wear our poor, white-free but least offensive of the three new (non-City-like) kits. Three? Yes…and I feel partly to blame in the ‘tempting fate’ department.

In one of my many moaning rants about our poor choice of colours I hinted that, at this rate, I’d even accept purple. Well…’be careful what you wish for’ should have been the advice heeded here. Take a look at this apparent 3^rd-strip abomination that City are rumoured to be bringing out very soon…

 

Anyone for tennis? They’re gonna look like Wimbledon ball boys in those horrendous, more-nothing-to-do-with-Manchester-City colours.

Jeeze!

Olympiacos game.

So we enter our last group-stage, USA tour game today facing the Greeks. Pellegrini (and Louis Van Gaal) aren’t happy about the state of the Pitches. Our ‘Engineer’ is actually quite concerned about the safety of his players with regards to the pitch we’re due to play on. In fact, it apparently ‘cut up’ so badly after we trained on it that Olympiacos were forced to train elsewhere at a nearby woman’s football club.

Not good new at all; especially when we are apparently going to see the return [from injury] of Samir Nasri and let David Silva have his first pre-season run out too. Fingers crossed everyone comes through the game with no issues.

8:00pm (BST) and on Sky Sports 1 (2:00pm CST).

Mangala watch.

Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Apart from, that is, City still maintain that it will be happening; by stating that this will be our last purchase of the summer. Additionally, however – and a little worryingly – we’re starting to be linked with other central defenders; as though someone has ‘got wind’ that the deal to bring the Frenchman in from Porto is about to collapse.

Young Marquinhos from PSG is the latest central defender to be linked with a move to City.

Manyoo spending over?

According to the man himself in an interview in America, LVG has hinted that the two purchases so far may well be their last for the summer. I’m not so sure it will be.

But IF that’s the case, although the two signings are decent - and I’m sure the Dutch Manager will get far more out of last season’s players than David Moyes ever did - ‘no more spending’ vastly reduces their chances of grabbing the league title this season in my opinion…that’s WITH ’no European football to get in the way’ taken into consideration.

Balotelli hope

Do you know that feeling when you just hope like hell that a rumour turns into reality? Well just as much as I couldn’t WAIT to see the back of vastly overrated and highly annoying Mario Balotelli a few seasons back; I’m praying that one of our rivals does indeed manage to prise him away from AC Milan.

Imagine the disruption he will most certainly cause…and how funny it will be to sit back and watch it unfold from a distance? If Arsenal don’t land him then it would be even funnier to see Liverpool replace Count Suarez with the ‘fruit loop’.

Apparently Brendan Rodgers has been ‘bigging up’ the loony Italian in a recent interview. Oh please let it be true.

If not - and if your spending ISN’T over Louis – couldn’t you be persuaded? J