Page 1 of 2

And so the speculation starts.

PostPosted: Sun Dec 20, 2009 3:13 pm
by trueblue64
Manchester City's new manager Roberto Mancini has an extravagant list of January transfer targets that includes some of European football's biggest stars, according to The Sunday Times.

The Italian will have money to spend in the transfer window, though he will be expected to sell players as well in order to boost resources.

However, he is reportedly mulling over bids for a clutch of superstars that includes Barcelona's Thierry Henry (rated at £10m), Liverpool striker Fernando Torres (£80m), Atletico Madrid's Sergio Aguero (£40m) and Benfica winger Angel Di Maria (£35m).

Bayern Munich's Franck Ribery (£65m) is also said to be a target.

To complement that stellar list of attacking talent, Mancini is also apparently considering bids for Liverpool's holding midfielder Javier Mascherano and Barcelona's Yaya Toure, whilst City are set to continue their pursuit of West Ham United's England centre-back Matthew Upson.

Exits from Eastlands also look to be on the agenda, with Kolo Toure reportedly unhappy at the manner of Mark Hughes's sacking.

Craig Bellamy and several other players are also highly displeased with the way events have transpired and are said to be in "revolt" by several sources on Sunday.

Goal.com UK

Re: And so the speculation starts.

PostPosted: Sun Dec 20, 2009 3:17 pm
by Im_Spartacus
trueblue64 wrote:Manchester City's new manager Roberto Mancini has an extravagant list of January transfer targets that includes some of European football's biggest stars, according to The Sunday Times.

The Italian will have money to spend in the transfer window, though he will be expected to sell players as well in order to boost resources.

However, he is reportedly mulling over bids for a clutch of superstars that includes Barcelona's Thierry Henry (rated at £10m), Liverpool striker Fernando Torres (£80m), Atletico Madrid's Sergio Aguero (£40m) and Benfica winger Angel Di Maria (£35m).

Bayern Munich's Franck Ribery (£65m) is also said to be a target.

To complement that stellar list of attacking talent, Mancini is also apparently considering bids for Liverpool's holding midfielder Javier Mascherano and Barcelona's Yaya Toure, whilst City are set to continue their pursuit of West Ham U***d's England centre-back Matthew Upson.

Exits from Eastlands also look to be on the agenda, with Kolo Toure reportedly unhappy at the manner of Mark Hughes's sacking.

Craig Bellamy and several other players are also highly displeased with the way events have transpired and are said to be in "revolt" by several sources on Sunday.

Goal.com UK



City interested in Torres, Toure, De Maria, Ribery and Aguero shocker. Fuck me, they thought long and hard about that.

Re: And so the speculation starts.

PostPosted: Sun Dec 20, 2009 3:24 pm
by Citizen of Oslo
Same names as last week then.

Re: And so the speculation starts.

PostPosted: Sun Dec 20, 2009 3:29 pm
by blootoof
Citizen of Oslo wrote:Same names as last week then.


Considering Manciti (see what I did there?) was nailed on after the Hull game, his list might not be far off.

Re: And so the speculation starts.

PostPosted: Sun Dec 20, 2009 3:44 pm
by Citizen of Oslo
You've got a point. Manciti has propably been watching more City games than most of us the last few weeks.

Re: And so the speculation starts.

PostPosted: Sun Dec 20, 2009 4:41 pm
by Lev Bronstein
Mancini will have already given his list of targets as part of the selection process. I would also have thought that he would have to have convinced the "selection panel" that they are realistic. We don't want more Kaka.

Re: And so the speculation starts.

PostPosted: Sun Dec 20, 2009 4:47 pm
by john68
...and so the magic roundabout starts all over again...another round of new players...another period of waiting for new players to be settled in...AND THE TARGET IS STILL TOP FOUR THIS SEASON.

Re: And so the speculation starts.

PostPosted: Sun Dec 20, 2009 4:50 pm
by Socrates
john68 wrote:...and so the magic roundabout starts all over again...another round of new players...another period of waiting for new players to be settled in...AND THE TARGET IS STILL TOP FOUR THIS SEASON.


Hughes was already talking about new signings in January so what's the difference?

Re: And so the speculation starts.

PostPosted: Sun Dec 20, 2009 4:51 pm
by Lev Bronstein
Oh yes, and exits.

Surely, anyone who leaves the club will have to take a wage cut, unless the club pay them to go. Now that would look stupid.

Re: And so the speculation starts.

PostPosted: Sun Dec 20, 2009 4:53 pm
by mkwhit77
blootoof wrote:
Citizen of Oslo wrote:Same names as last week then.


Considering Manciti (see what I did there?) was nailed on after the Hull game, his list might not be far off.



It's still the same list that we had at the start of the season & the season before that

Re: And so the speculation starts.

PostPosted: Sun Dec 20, 2009 4:53 pm
by zuricity
john68 wrote:...and so the magic roundabout starts all over again...another round of new players...another period of waiting for new players to be settled in...AND THE TARGET IS STILL TOP FOUR THIS SEASON.



John68, I can't see the problem. This PL this season is wide open, the title is there for the taking. It's going to be damn close all the way. So if we can get our defence sorted out we will be up there. We've got to stop shipping goals every game.

Sometimes when you watch the way we can stroke the ball around and pull goals out of nothing , it's almost magical. However, any good work done by the Attack is penalised because of shoddy defending and in my opinion a very unstable midfield. Perhaps if the midfield players were really performing it would give the defence more time to do their job.

Re: And so the speculation starts.

PostPosted: Sun Dec 20, 2009 5:34 pm
by Vhero
Wow they took a long hard think eh?? But I reckon we got a chance of getting bigger names now with Mancini than we ever did with Hughes. Especially considering how close we are to top 4.

Re: And so the speculation starts.

PostPosted: Sun Dec 20, 2009 5:54 pm
by FA cup winners 2006
Vhero wrote:Wow they took a long hard think eh?? But I reckon we got a chance of getting bigger names now with Mancini than we ever did with Hughes. Especially considering how close we are to top 4.


but is mancini going to be a big enough of a draw to get the likes of torres and ribery or any other top class player to push us on

Re: And so the speculation starts.

PostPosted: Sun Dec 20, 2009 6:55 pm
by Blackadder2
Let's say we do pull off an interesting signing or two on Jan 1st.

Would they be available for the Cup semi-final or would cup rules on eligibility rule them out?

Re: And so the speculation starts.

PostPosted: Sun Dec 20, 2009 7:26 pm
by Douglas Higginbottom
I thought the target was top 6? That was according to NQDP yesterday wasn't it?

Re: And so the speculation starts.

PostPosted: Sun Dec 20, 2009 7:29 pm
by giokingkladze
Douglas Higginbottom wrote:I thought the target was top 6? That was according to NQDP yesterday wasn't it?


Are you going down to see what's going on tomorrow doug?

Re: And so the speculation starts.

PostPosted: Sun Dec 20, 2009 7:33 pm
by Spurge
FA cup winners 2006 wrote:
Vhero wrote:Wow they took a long hard think eh?? But I reckon we got a chance of getting bigger names now with Mancini than we ever did with Hughes. Especially considering how close we are to top 4.


but is mancini going to be a big enough of a draw to get the likes of torres and ribery or any other top class player to push us on


Not sure if it's a case of whether Mancini is a big enough draw I think perhaps players are more likely to be put off by the fact that we are becoming a higher profile joke.

Re: And so the speculation starts.

PostPosted: Sun Dec 20, 2009 7:43 pm
by Bluez
Socrates wrote:
john68 wrote:...and so the magic roundabout starts all over again...another round of new players...another period of waiting for new players to be settled in...AND THE TARGET IS STILL TOP FOUR THIS SEASON.


Hughes was already talking about new signings in January so what's the difference?

It will all come down to how many players are bought. Hughes was talking about a couple to strenghthen cxertain areas. If Mancini buys 2 or 3 players there is no problem, he just has to fit them in with what we have. If he buys 8 or 9 we are back to square one. We now have a very strong squad, the problem was just getting them to defend as a unit.

Re: And so the speculation starts.

PostPosted: Sun Dec 20, 2009 7:58 pm
by Socrates
Bluez wrote:
Socrates wrote:
john68 wrote:...and so the magic roundabout starts all over again...another round of new players...another period of waiting for new players to be settled in...AND THE TARGET IS STILL TOP FOUR THIS SEASON.


Hughes was already talking about new signings in January so what's the difference?

It will all come down to how many players are bought. Hughes was talking about a couple to strenghthen cxertain areas. If Mancini buys 2 or 3 players there is no problem, he just has to fit them in with what we have. If he buys 8 or 9 we are back to square one. We now have a very strong squad, the problem was just getting them to defend as a unit.


8 or 9 in a January window is a bit fanciful... Players are hard to get, won't be more than a couple.

Re: And so the speculation starts.

PostPosted: Sun Dec 20, 2009 8:40 pm
by john68
Socrates wrote:
john68 wrote:...and so the magic roundabout starts all over again...another round of new players...another period of waiting for new players to be settled in...AND THE TARGET IS STILL TOP FOUR THIS SEASON.


Hughes was already talking about new signings in January so what's the difference?


Jon,
Pretending stupidity ain't your best talent.