I said recently that I don’t intend to spew out the
same ol’ transfer talk that’s already ‘out there’ and that’s still the case in some ways. I have, in fact, touched on the subject of
player possibilities & various movements over the last 6 months…
On-pitch commitment & determination ratings
A few more diamonds to make the current crop sparkle even brighter
The maths – the possibilities
But although we’re just 5 weeks or so past last
season; the fixtures for next season are
already out and time – and transfer
rumours – seem to be rolling-on at a fair ol’ rate of knots!
And so I want to look at positions I think we need to
address along with some possible / likely players (and some wilder
suggestions) to come in and fill those slots (with a quick look at outgoing players too).
Starting at the back…
Keeper situation?
Well as long as Willy Caballero is happy to
keep pushing Joe Hart then this position isn’t
an issue in the slightest. In fact even Richard Wright who is highly respected on the
training pitch has been given another 1-year extension…
Same for the
right-back slot really - unless Bacary Sagna
suddenly decides that his Manchester
City
However, I think it’s a very
different story on the left side of our
defence…and I think it’s about time we sorted this problem area out once
and for all!
Regular readers will know my (low) opinion of Aleksandar
Kolarov’s ability as a defender…and I don’t follow the idea that he’s all that good (he's not too bad I suppose)
going forward either...and please don’t
tell me, “But he’s good at free kicks…"
We saw about four or five back-to-back 7/10, ‘shop window’
performances from him at the end of last season…and that p***** me off even
more in some ways; that all these years is has been ‘capable’. But I lost
patience with this lad a long time ago and how he’s still here I’ll never know.
Now I like Gael Clichy - he’s certainly more of a defender
than the afore mentioned. However, I will agree with some who aren’t OVERLY
confident whenever he’s give the left-back slot over the Serbian and he can be
annoying inconsistent at times.
But I have also seen him produce 7.5/10 performances on a
regular basis too and, for me, he’s well worth keeping.
I also love him for this
passionate moment after ‘THAT’ goal in ‘THAT’ final game of the 2011/12 season.
But he needs help / competition and we are DESPERATE for an
injection of quality in this area. And, so…
I’ll start with a player that has just one year remaining on
his contract but one who plays for a team that I found annoying to deal with
last season. FC Porto's Alex Sandro has been linked with us several times and
should be available for a decent £15M. Just yer 6 caps for Brazil
If Kolarov does leave us in the summer and this fella comes
in his place, there’s no upsetting the ‘foreign quote’
either.
The next player has not only been linked with us on several
occasions but it’s also rumoured that the 22-year old has handed-in a transfer
request at Monaco Manchester
City
Want to ‘up’ the English quota? Well apparently you can get
a tightly-locked contract signing from West Ham United for £20M. With 4-years remaining on the contract he only signed
last season; Aaron Cresswell has been turning
heads since his move from Ipswich Town Chelsea
Very much an outside chance is another player with 4
years remaining on his contract…but this one will apparently cost more like
£30M. If Kevin De Bruyne does move on in the
summer then I find it highly unlikely that VfL Wolfsburg will want to let ANOTHER very important player leave…and if
they DO lose their number one ‘assist creator’ from last season then why would
they need the money?
But apparently HUGE interest is being shown by both Arsenal
& Manyoo for Swiss left-back Ricardo Rodriguez and so if we do want to fix a
long-standing issue then why not go for one of the best around, which I
understand this fella to be?
Now for the ‘IF’ factor position of central defence. Dedryck Boyata has already gone (to Celtic), right-back-come-centre-back Micah Richards
has been released and is to be picked up by Aston Villa on 1st July and Karim Rekik is apparently about to be bought by PSV
or someone else for around £3.5M
(with City adding a ‘first choice buy’ clause in future sale or sales).
And so for the IFs…
IF
Eliaquim Mangala is gonna ‘come good’ and fill
his potential more this season; IF
Vincent Kompany isn’t going to be injured for
his now-often-traditional quarter-season (or
worse), IF
‘old dependable’ Martin Demichelis isn’t going
to start feeling the strain of being an almost 35-year old defender in one of
the most pacy leagues in the world and IF Jason Denayer lives up to the many
plaudits that have gone his way in recent months and is, therefore, ready to be
City’s 4th central defender in the Premier League…then we should be ‘all sorted’ in this department; with no need
to splash any cash.
However, IF, like me, Manchester City
Highly
unlikely is Mats Hummels, a player strongly
linked with Manyoo (unfortunately). Highly unlikely also are we
to use £35M+ of our ‘war chest’ on a central defender; with so much emphasis on
improving our attacking / creative midfield…and having already spent
£40M+ on Mangala last summer.
He
would be, of course, a fantastic addition to an area for us that was fragile to
say the least at times last season…but it would also be seen as a ‘luxury
signing’ and one that would severely dent our spending power elsewhere on the
pitch.
Eder Balanta is a player
who has been linked with City in the past and although, like Hummels, he has 2
years remaining on his contract; £15M or so would probably be enough to secure
his services. Don’t know much about him myself but some decent sides appear to
be watching him. Not sure how he’d stand work-permit-wise and, of course, the
Argentine league is vastly different to that of the Premier League. Pellegrini knows his South American league
though and if the ex-central defender
himself thinks him good enough then this could be a possibility.
Far
less likely - and again far more expensive - would be Everton’s highly rated English defender
John Stones. At 22 next January and with 4 years
remaining on his contract this fella would likely cost in the region of £32M (with
the added “English” ransom forced onto would-be suitors of course).
Then of
course there’s always the ‘rolling out’ of the name Pepe, with whom we get linked with
every…single…transfer window (summer and winter). It’s all been said before
about this fella – he certainly has the quality and experience to play in the
Premier League but has had a VERY questionable on-pitch
character; with ‘red mist’ tendencies to
say the least!
Seems
to have calmed down in recent seasons, I understand
from a Real fan I often speak with, and with contract-extension talks
having apparently stalled since the ‘changing of the guard’ at Real Madrid; this might be worth a punt
after all. Chelsea
 |
| Tosin Adarabioyo |
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| Cameron Humphreys |
So for
me all that remains to say about this department is, do City “Stick” or
“Twist”? I think sticking [with what we
have] would be a bit of a risk…
Down to the REAL ‘business end’ (or should that be the ‘business middle’?)
Of course it’s the
midfield / wing department that is to be the subject of the most analysis in
the summer. In particular with regards to the forward-thinking / creative
personnel, where David Silva almost ran the
show single handed last season (not ideal at all) and where Yaya Toure looked a lost soul for the most part; his
huge frame and not-so-young legs apparently
wanting more assistance than some of his midfield colleagues were providing
(but I’ll jump back to that shortly).
With Samir Nasri looking quite likely to leave in the summer - despite having only signed a new 5-year contract (to June 2019) last
summer - and with questions marks also over Jesus Navas (despite being a fairly
regular for Manuel Pellegrini); an injection of class & creativity is
an absolute must before the big KO in August.
Defensively, midfield wise, we might be alright…or are we?
Like Mangala, his ex-Porto colleague Fernando hasn’t exactly lived up to ‘the
billing’ since his arrival last summer and although we have been told by the
player himself that he was rushed back a little too soon following an
early-season injury and that a lot of last season he was playing through some
pain; question marks still largely remain about ‘The Octopus’.
And so with no James Milner (although never used in that role by our manager – James’ apparent
main reason for wanting a new challenge elsewhere) and going even further back the likes of Jack Rodwell, Gareth Barry and Nigel de Jong all-having departed; it leaves us with only Fernandinho should Fernando ‘not fire’
again…and / or is injured again.
For me that leaves us a little
lightweight in the ‘defensive midfield’ options because, as regular readers
will be aware, the jury has been out for me ever since Fernandinho signed from Shakhtar Donetsk for £28M+. At times he looks
quite a useful and accomplished player…but only at times. I find him a fairly
inconsistent player whenever asked to play slightly advanced OR defensively…and
somewhat flaky to say the least.
I just wonder – and not necessarily hope because I
would very much LIKE to see him play more consistently well – whether the 30-year old Brazilian might make way for other
incoming midfielders? If so, then for me we’d definitely have to add another
defensive midfielder to our summer shopping list if the emphasis, otherwise, is to bring in mostly
‘attacking flare’.
So
that’s, at least, a central, creative
midfielder required along with both left & right-sided midfielders /
wingers.
Let’s
start with the most expensive player linked with a move to the Etihad - a player who was muted to be
on our ‘radar’ even before the arrival of Manuel Pellegrini…and whose stock has
risen and risen AND RISEN as his many talents blossomed following his departure from Trafford to Turin.
Paul Pogba is apparently
one of the most sort-after players in Europe ,
if not the world, and it’s for this reason – despite our own stock rising steadily over the years – that I find
it hard to believe that we’ll get him…this summer at least.
If he
stays at Juventus for at least one more season,
as some reports suggest, then I can see him quite possibly being a Manchester City
Of
course if he is indeed ‘all he’s cracked up to be’ then I hope we do get him –
he sounds like an awesome player and at just 22 an absolute diamond for many
years…as well as a hugely sellable asses to be in possession of.
My only
very slight fear is that if the plan
is - as I understand it to be - to
mostly play him alongside Yaya in the middle; then in a 4-4-2 one of them is
going to feel a little ‘shackled’ I’m sure and to say the least.
We all
know that Yaya is far more effective for Manchester City ‘bombing forward’
rather than ‘sitting deep’ and although Pogba has been described many times as
a ‘box to box’ player who can ‘dig in’ and tackle / break-up play; I understand
that he too is far more valuable in an attacking role. This isn’t an issue if
the plan is to mostly play with one striker and five midfielders as that would
allow for a ‘Fernando-type’ to sit behind 4 attacking midfielders.
The
question also throws up where David Silva would play and the only answer is
either on one of the flanks, where he’s often less successful, or is rotated /
rested with Yaya. Nice problems to have
of course…
Should
we not get the Mario Balotelli lookalike then another repeatedly-linked player
is Isco of Real Madrid. Of course our
manager tried to sign him before Real got their claws into him and, understandably having managed him at Malaga
But
apparently the little Spanish attacking midfielder may be surplus to requirements under the often defensive-minded Rafael Benitez, who has a treasure-chest-full
of attacking talent at his disposal. If so, I’d like this fella very much
indeed.
I’m not
an expert on foreign stars from around the world - more often I have a ‘general
knowledge’ of a player’s abilities & background; often then digging a
little deeper as links with Manchester City get stronger. I think unless you have an abundance of time on your hands – or it’s
your job of course – then a lot of us who have an interest in footy are perhaps
similar.
But not
just because of his nationality, size and playing position; I think in Isco
we’d have a 6-years-younger, David Silva-type player on our books for what
would be, hopefully, a long time to come. That’s not a bad thing at all! I like the look of this chap…and he’d cost us FAR less than Mr Pogba.
Next up
for consideration is a player who flirted so very briefly with the Premier League that
it’s difficult to recall. And so I have to admit that I’ve been doing a little
bit of head-scratching as to why – other
than his age and the fact that he has 4 years remaining on his contract –
he is apparently worth in the region of £35M; when he’s had just one good
season in the Bundesliga.
But I read time and
time again WHAT a player he is becoming after a so-very-brief Chelsea
Despite 10 goals
from midfield and a Bundesliga record last season of a whopping 21 assists; I’ve just got this little Harry Kane / Spurs
‘one season wonder’ possibility alarm
bell…should that happen to
Spurs’ “very own” striker of course (and
I’m certainly not wishing that to be the case for the England international
striker).
I hope I’m very
wrong about that feeling should we get De Bruyne, of course; although
mostly a central attacking / creative midfielder he often operates on the left…and
can do similar on the right too by all accounts. Very useful indeed.
Right…the Raheem Sterling debate!
Where I stand on the
fella is this…and I’ll START
with agreeing with some of the “negatives” out there:
- He’s inconsistent. And I don’t say that lightly because as a long-suffering
Manchester City fan of days-gone-by; one of the most irritating traits of
our beloved club was their annoying ability to be SO flippin’ inconsistent (that’s why, today, the likes of Clichy,
Nasri, Fernandinho, Navas & Dzeko to
name five often leave me gritting my teeth in frustration at times). The
many detractors of the right-sided, Liverpool
attacker point, quite rightly,
specifically to the poor and inconsistent season he had last season
(but I will add a note to that
point in that he was playing in a team that was also, in general, fairly
poor & inconsistent and that he still managed [in 35 games] 7 goals and 8 assists
in that same poor & inconsistent team…where Liverpool’s - and his - main front-man-partner was missing for most of it).
- The price. I
will agree, in some part, that
the figure
- His shooting is pretty naff most
of the time…and that’s why I see him as a right winger /
right-sided forward as opposed to him being classed as a striker, which he
is most certainly not in my book…not
at the moment anyway.
- His crossing
– although it has improved slightly
with time and as he continues to mature on the pitch – isn’t the best.
But I’m going to add that his crossing is still better than that of Navas’…even
when the young
Okay, in Raheem’s
defence…
-
At 20 years & 6 months old this guy has at least 3 Premier
League seasons behind him already and with 47 games; a wealth of international
experience at various levels too. In that times he has been a regular for large
parts of those teams and you don’t get to do that if you’ve not got something
about you.
-
Have you listened to a lot of young-player interviews and those of
coaches / ex-footballers? Well I have and one reoccurring theme said by many of
them is that young players who surround themselves with other highly-talented
players - with the right attitude - will learn from those
more-experienced teammates and become a much better player for it. Want an
example? When we signed James Milner from Aston Villa we had most certainly signed ‘Mr Average’. I recall
bemoaning towards the end of his first season that all we’d bought was a player
who could run all day and do nothing else. I had to listen to a Manyoo fan
persistently goad me about how we had all this money and yet we’d gone out and
bought a couple of very average Aston Villa midfielders (Gareth Barry
being the other one)…and I could do nothing in
the first year [about James] to come back to the embitteRED pest. And so how
striking it was that in ‘year 2’ this same Manyoo fella’s derogatory comments
subsided and from ‘year 3’ onwards he wasn’t uttering a Milner-bashing word; as
James, for me, won the ‘most improved
player’ award season on season on season right up to the very [sad] end. His
positional awareness improved, his link-up play, his passing, I swear he even added a burst of extra pace
to his game and he even started to pitch-in with some goals; proving how
even MORE versatile he was [than we all thought] by stepping up as a lone
striker! Now apart from some good coaching, of course, can anyone seriously reject
the idea that he (and we) benefited
from him-being surrounded by the highly-skilled & experienced colleagues
he’s had the pleasure to work with? We have better players than Liverpool ‘in
my humble’ and so if Raheem can soak up that same influence and advice then can
you imagine what a young man with talent we’d have in the years to come?!
-
His maturity and level-headedness. Okay, first of all I cannot
deny that the young lad has been a bit silly recently once and, even more
recently, possibly twice; by being seen sniffing some kind of so-called legal
high gas. Stupid! But I’ve listened to football people
being interviewed who have worked with the lad both in a footballing capacity
and with activities on the fringes of football. Similar to his teammate, Daniel
Sturridge, for a young lad I’ve heard that he gets involved with a lot of
community activity and even spends his own time teaching kids the finer points
of footballing skills. You can’t buy that – we
are trying to of course – but you know what I’m getting at; it’s just as
important for me that you get players with the right character / attitude. Would you rather have that…or a Jack Wilshere-type
character that flicks hand gestures towards Manchester City fans and calls
Spurs “S***” when celebrating his own team’s F.A. Cup success, to name just 2 incidents by the 23-year old
Arsenal man?
Yes, if we do sign Raheem, we’ll be paying a
high price (certainly
TOO high by the sounds of it)
for half-“potential”…and I know too that if we shopped around in Europe with
that sort of cash we’d be sure to find a more-ready-made & quite brilliant
right-sided forward. I also hope we’re not buying him as an out
& out striker, as I’ve said.
But if you can,
indeed, ‘suck
the price up’ for the time being
then I’m sure that if Raheem were to become a Manchester City player in the
coming weeks then in the coming years we’ll have a much-envied player on our
books.
One final note from
me on Raheem is this. My ‘barometer’ on this player also lies with the fact
that over the last 2 or 3 seasons, whenever we’ve played ‘The Reds’ I’ve been
fearful of the likes of Luis Suarez, Steven Gerrard…and one Raheem Sterling. What I CAN’T quite decide on is whether that
should be classed as praise for the youngster himself or whether it stems from
the fact the left side of our defence has often been fragile over that same
period of time…
An alternative, we
are told, will be an approach to The Gunners for England midfielder Jack
Wilshere - he who played just 14 bit-part Premier League appearances last
season and who scored 2 goals and got 1 assist. In 2013/14 he made 24
appearance, 3 goals and 5 assists; the previous season 25 appearances no goals
and 5 assists and the season before that, 35 appearances in the league with 1
goal and 3 assists.
Now of course better
‘Wilshere watchers’ than me might point out that he’s more of a box-to-box type
central midfielder and, therefore, doesn’t get the goals & assists of the
likes of Raheem Sterling. And that’s fair enough…but aren’t we in the market
for a central midfielder of that ilk in Pogba or Isco? Why is Wilshere an
alternative for a right-sided attacker? Besides,
which, I also have it on good authority that he doesn’t actually do too much
defensive work for Arsenal and so, in that case, his ‘goals & assists’
tally make for even less impressive reading…
Anyway…linked as a ‘back
up’ we would appear to be and the most worry aspect for me is his pretty bad, to say the least, fitness record. In
fact I was shocked to read that he had made as many as 14 appearances last
season; albeit ‘bit part’ ones as I say. With 3 years on his contract remaining
against Raheem’s 2, you can bet Arsenal would want around the same kind of fee that
Liverpool are asking for their man…and if we’re going down that route of
purchasing a treatment-table player then why did we get rid of Jack Rodwell and
why don’t we keep Stevan Jovetic?
Talented though he is, this ‘Jack the lad’ is
not for me…
According to reports
we are about to sign young Fulham right-winger Patrick Roberts. The London-born, England Under-19
player would cost at least £5M with ‘add
ons’ I’m sure and more recent reports suggest that we’ll send him
immediately out on loan to a team / league that club officials believe will benefit
him the most.
And continuing the
theme of right-sided, attacking players; we are reportedly watching Mexico
& FC Twente’s Jesus Manuel. I’ve done the ‘video thing’ on him and although right-footed,
he’s notable accomplished on the left and ‘just off the front man’ too.
And let’s not forget that we
have our very own, highly rated EDS player Marco Lopes to possibly come back into the fold after
impressing during a season-long loan spell at Lille last
season.
Briefly as possible
on the defensive side then…
If we are to offload
in the middle at all then it’s a shame we didn’t make an approach for Sami Khedira, who is moving from Real Madrid
With only 2 years
remaining on his contract; with plenty of Premier League - and otherwise
English - experience with Arsenal, West Ham United (on loan) and Charlton Athletic
(on loan) AND with him being able to provide proficient cover in central
defence (VERY
useful for us and addresses two areas in one swoop); this move would make a whole
lotta sense! Of course Chelsea
‘Up front’…and another ‘IF’ factor.
So
following on slightly from, in particular,
the Raheem Sterling intent of what we’re buying him as [winger or striker]; for
me it’s not really a case of ARE we going to add anyone to the striking
department in the summer but, again for
me, how many.
To make
this slightly easier first and foremost – SURELY we’re going to see the end of
both Edin Dzeko & Stevan Jovetic and, so, can we move on under the strong
assumption that we’re going to be left with “just”
Sergio Aguero & Wilfried Bony? Good, and so…
…top
guys as they are; that’s clearly not enough to see us through a long, 4-trophy
campaign.
Of the EDS
players, in general, I can see Kelechi Iheanacho being ready for some first team action this coming season…and I
say that knowing that both injury and work permit issues meant that he had
reduced playing time for Columbus Crew and delayed his playing time in England
But he just looks
so assured and competent despite his fledgling status that, staying injury free of course, I see
more EDS starts & first-team bench time rather than a loan move. Assuming
I’m right – and assuming that Raheem is
to be brought in as either right-sided competition WITH or replacement FOR
Jesus Navas – then that means surely we’ll be in the marker for a least one striker to replace the
departing Edin & Stevan.
Here are some
suggestions / links:
Already linked with
us in the past is Lyon’s Alexandre Lacazette, although Manyoo are cranking up the heat
in apparent pursuit; with Liverpool amongst
others very interested also.
Apparently, Lacazette
has stated that he will only move from Lyon to a team in the Champions League – that's risky with 4th-placed
Manyoo then and that would definitely rule out
a move to Liverpool …
A terrific,
award-winning 27 goals in 33 appearance last season; the season before of 15
goals and 5 assists from 36 Ligue 1 appearances
wasn’t a bad return either. With 3 years remaining on his current deal he’d
probably cost in the reason of a rather [now] familiar-looking price of £35M.
A player I’ve been
monitoring for about 18 month now belongs to Roma
but was on-loan at AC Milan half of last
season. Struggled for a time with injuries at Roma after signing from Genoa
But Mattia Destro certainly found his feet at Roma and
bagged 24 goals in all competitions from 57 appearances; some of those
appearances being part-games. Don’t really get why, then, Roma loaned him out (I’m sure they have their reasons) to Milan
Sampdoria are apparently monitoring him and Arsenal
have been linked too, as were we once under Roberto Mancini.
AC might be interested in extending his stay also. Might be worth a go and with
2 years remaining on his Roma deal, £25M might be enough for this just-turned
24-year old.
Mattia probably
isn’t a very likely signing and far less likely is Gonzalo HiguaÃn. So why include
him then? Well a player of this
quality will, as most similar players do,
want Champions League football and with Napoli
finishing their season 5th and in “just” a Europa League spot;
despite having 3-years left on his 5-year deal he might be getting itchy feet.
All of the usual
English suspects are circling vulture-like and for a player of his age and
quality it might take £40M+ to get him. But imagine him playing / competing
with Aguero & Bony?!
The fact alone
that he can do a crackin’, classic Laurel & Hardy-style
door / head-bang is enough to spend that kind of money alone…
A far cheaper
option is also a far more sensible one too…and one that still excites in many
ways. I was pleasantly surprised when West Bromwich Albion came to the Etihad last season at just how good Saido Berahino was. Of course I’d heard he was good –
sadly I’d also heard about his apparent
‘Billy big biscuits’ attitude too – but for a slight-looking fella I was
impressed with his body strength and on-pitch attitude and discipline.
More-so did I
admire the England Under-21 striker as Albion had gone down to 10 men after
just 90 seconds; meaning that he was the…‘one’…in a ‘full 90’ 4-4-1 formation.
About to turn 22 in
August and with just 2 years remaining on his contract; I can’t see him signing
a contract extension and so the Midlands ’
club [wanting some decent cash for him] might, therefore, even encourage a move
in some ways…or at the very least won’t
do much to stop one from happening.
Apparently West Brom want £30M and Tottenham
are keen to link him up front with (Harry) Kane. Newcastle United
too are showing interest but that price tag is likely to scare them off –
whilst Tottenham are apparently trying to negotiate a cash / swap with Andros Townsend & Aaron Lennon, which might just interest The Baggies.
I recon £25M might
just swing it and we have had
successful / smooth transfer dealings with them last season (for Joleon Lescott).
Chuck in a loanee EDS player for experience and they too might be interested in
doing a deal with us.
Another English
player to add to the ranks; a very good striker (20 goals from 45 appearances
in all competitions last season in a struggling-to-average team) makes very,
VERY good sense to me.
An outsider
wildcard I’d like to chuck in is QPR’s Charlie Austin. He tore us to pieces at Loftus Road
Tended to be less
effective away from home last season I noted; perhaps a little inconsistent therefore. But for a soon-to-be 26-year old
English striker with just one year remaining on his contract, this ‘lethal finisher’
would be well worth a punt to add to what we have. £15M to £18M would probably
get him to!
Although he has
lived ‘up North’ in his very successful time with Burnley;
it’s highly likely that the Hungerford-born
player will switch to West Ham United...although
Newcastle have been strongly linked with him for weeks now.
Hope
you enjoyed my not-so-little summer
transfer piece – and
thanks for taking the time! Time now, though, for us all to sit back while Ferran Soriano, Txiki Begiristain and others at Manchester City, I’m
sure, ‘do their bit’ in the summer, which is sure to be filled with many twists & turns.
