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Months away but the expectation levels are rising.

When do you think the key transfers will take place this summer - before, during or after the World Cup. Will players want to move before the World Cup so they can concentrate on football with their futures sorted? Does it suit us to buy before when the price may be lower or after when we have been able to have a closer look at options.

Any thoughts?

Its sort of a double edge sword for players and clubs alike. A player could have the chance to go to a club like blackburn for example before the tournament starts but a few impressive performances on the world stage and suddenly he gets offers from biggers clubs. Similarily, its a risky buying a player on the back of a good world cup, just look at diouf at liverpool after the 2002 world cup.

If we do buy a one hit wonder, someone who was nothing before the world cup but has a few good games I'll be pissed off.
We should have such scouting system in place that we don't even have to look at any games to know who we should sign.

I think the biggest transfers will be made after the world cup as all the selling clubs (like Bayern with Ribery) are hoping that their star players have a terrific WC and they can ask for £10m more. And the players will equally want to focus on WC first.

I'm pretty sure that Ribery has said he wants his future sorted before the World Cup. Read today that David Villa will decide after South Africa on his future and it won't be solely based on money. I guess we will have to treat each individual target as that, individual.

Our scouting system should be top class and the Manager/Board must have a list of the positions they want to fill including what criteria they wish to use e.g. age, experience, ability and value. Having more than one target for a given position surely will be in place this time.

Just a thought for after the World Cup, any ideas when City came back for 1st team pre-season training last year - might give a little clue as to when the Club would want new players signed by.

Bojinov's left foot wrote:I'm pretty sure that Ribery has said he wants his future sorted before the World Cup. Read today that David Villa will decide after South Africa on his future and it won't be solely based on money. I guess we will have to treat each individual target as that, individual.

Our scouting system should be top class and the Manager/Board must have a list of the positions they want to fill including what criteria they wish to use e.g. age, experience, ability and value. Having more than one target for a given position surely will be in place this time.

Just a thought for after the World Cup, any ideas when City came back for 1st team pre-season training last year - might give a little clue as to when the Club would want new players signed by.

just a small problem with that question mate ,if sorry WHEN we've qualified for the chumps league the last preliminaire round would mean the lads would need to be back early i just hope most of the countries with our players don't get far as the players like Tevez,zabba,Barry etc etc will need a rest

Bojinov's left foot wrote:I'm pretty sure that Ribery has said he wants his future sorted before the World Cup. Read today that David Villa will decide after South Africa on his future and it won't be solely based on money. I guess we will have to treat each individual target as that, individual.

Dont let that statement fool you - it is all about the money for Villa. The only reason he wants to wait till after the world cup is so he in a position so hopefully as a world cup winner can hike his wage demands to Real and Barca to levels worth him staying in Spain for.

If he doesnt get an offer worth staying in Spain for, he will go to the highest bidder

Given our financial power I'd be happy to pay Villa the highest money offer. It would then be down to the Manager to find a place in the team for him.