Thursday's B*l**x (updated)
Posted: Thu Jul 18, 2013 7:12 amTHE BOLLOX
ROUND-UP
Reports this morning suggest that City’s quota of first team strikers could be set to double within the next 48 hours.
It’s been no secret that the Blues have been heavily linked with a “double swoop” for a pair of marksmen to replace Mario Balotelli and Carlos Tevez who have departed Manchester for Milan and Juventus respectively over the past weeks leaving just Sergio Aguero and Edin Dzeko as the team's recognised strikers..
The Express reckon that attack-bolstering deals to bring in Alvaro Negredo and Stevan Jovetic could be sealed by the weekend and quote Sevilla president Jose Maria Del Nido to back up their claims on the former:
“We are about to close on the sale of the player and, if everything goes normally and everything is signed, he will soon say goodbye to the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan.
“City are buying a great player, the top-scoring Spaniard in La Liga. This is a big deal for Sevilla, the second most important in our history after we sold Daniel Alves [to Barcelona].
“Everyone should be happy; it is a great deal for all three parties.”
The Express also report that it is not just in attack where the Blues are looking to strengthen with Real Madrid’s Portuguese international defender Pepe apparently still an “absolute priority” for Manuel Pellegrini who is “determined to test the Spanish club’s resolve”.
And finally, a hint of what City fans can look forward to on the pitch next season, Jack Rodwell reveals the Blues’ “Barcelona plan”, providing an insight into the early impact Manuel Pellegrini is having on team:
"(He) likes us to press high up and press in numbers, to get the ball back as soon as possible and then play simple football," he tells The Sun.
"He wants us to keep the ball until we're in the final third and then see.
"It's early and he hasn't gone into too much detail - he's gradually drip-feeding us.
"You look at Barcelona and what they do and it works for them so hopefully we'll adapt."
Real Madrid line up move for Manchester City star Sergio Aguero
Manchester City are bracing themselves for a blockbuster bid from Real Madrid for Sergio Aguero.
Champions League semi-finalists Real have been linked with a move for the Argentinian forward for the past three months.
Aguero has hotly dismissed ‘rumours’ he is heading to La Liga and said in May: ‘I’m very happy to be at Manchester City. I’m committed to them. It’s a great club.’
But new City manager Manuel Pellegrini is on the brink of signing Alvaro Negredo from Sevilla in a deal which should be completed in the next 24 hours and will then turn his attentions to Fiorentina’s Montenegro marksman Stevan Jovetic.
Edin Dzeko has already been told he is part of the new regime’s plans at the Etihad Stadium and that could leave Aguero vulnerable to a big-money bid as City prepare to meet the new Financial Fair Play demands.
They have already signed Jesus Navas from Sevilla and Brazilian midfielder Fernandino for a combined £45m and the arrivals of Negredo and Jovetic would push City’s summer spending through the £100million barrier,
Sources in the Spanish capital suggest that Real Madrid have been also alerted to the possibility that Aguero may not be happy if he falls down City’s pecking order and they will consider a tabling a bid.
Real are set to lose striker Gonzalo Higuain to Napoli, who is considered the ideal replacement for Edinson Cavani after his move to Paris St Germain.
That leaves new Bernabeu boss Carlo Ancelotti seeking a replacement and Aguero, who has scored 47 goals in all competitions since his £38million move from Atletico Madrid two years ago, is high on his list.
Negredo lifts lid on City choice
Alvaro Negredo revealed that the chance to continue playing alongside Jesus Navas was a key reason behind his move to Manchester City.
Sevilla confirmed on Wednesday evening that the 27-year-old Spain international striker, who scored 25 Primera Division goals last season, was leaving the club to join City in a £20million transfer, subject to a medical.
Negredo used his 'farewell' press conference to lift the lid on his reasons for wanting to move to the Etihad Stadium and it seems the opportunity to link up with Navas was a big part.
Navas left the Estadio Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan for a move to City in June and Negredo is adamant that his fellow compatriot will be a big hit for Manuel Pellegrini's men.
"I've spoken with Jesus this morning and I am happy to be with him for another year," he said.
"He's such an important player and a great guy. It's a pleasure to play with him."
Negredo also revealed that, after lengthy talks with Pellegrini, the 'challenge' of trying to help City succeed in Europe and the Premier League was another reason for joining.
He added: "Pellegrini called me, we shared opinions and he convinced me about everything.
"He told me what they could offer me there. It's a challenge for me and in this life you can't stand still.
"Now I start another journey and I'm very excited."
Winning ways welcome as Pellegrini eyes Barclays Asia Trophy
Man City manager aiming to hit the ground running at Barclays Asia Trophy in Hong Kong
Manchester City manager winger Mauricio Pellegrini says he is determined to get his side into the winning habit beginning with the Barclays Asia Trophy
Mauricio Pellegrini has called upon his Manchester City players to treat the Barclays Asia Trophy as a key stepping stone to regaining the Barclays Premier League title they won in the 2011/12 campaign, saying, “the season starts now”.
Pellegrini only began his job as Man City manager this month, but he is already spelling out the message that his side must hit the ground running when they take on South China in the Barclays Asia Trophy semi-finals on 24 July, as he explained in an exclusive interview for premierleague.com.
“I speak with the players, and every day I say the same thing, ‘You must think that the Premier League starts tomorrow so the daily work must be very, very hard every day’,” he said. “It seems that 40 days are a lot of days before the start [of the season] but they are not so many days. Working hard every day we are going to arrive at the first official match in Premier League in our best moment, that’s what we are trying to do every day with them.”
City’s players have thus been left with the clearest message that they are required to impress their new manager from the outset, beginning with their encounter with the Hong Kong First Division champions, closely followed, three days later, by what promises to be another testing fixture against Tottenham Hotspur or Sunderland at the Hong Kong Stadium.
“Our target is to prepare the whole squad for the Premier League,” said Pellegrini. “It’s important always to win a trophy and to start winning of course is important.”
The former Real Madrid and Malaga head coach who succeeded Roberto Mancini this summer also highlighted the importance of giving as many of his players as possible match time in the competitive environment of the Barclays Asia Trophy in order to prepare them for their opening match of the season, which kicks off on 19 August at home to Newcastle United.
“I’m not going to play just with one team and leave all the other players without minutes,” the 59-year-old said. “We’re going to play all the players in the pre-season matches, and if by doing that we can win, then perfect.”
GOLDEN BOLLOX 18-7-2010
MARIO BALOTELLI'S transfer to Manchester City is back on after they offered £20million for the Inter striker.
Balotelli, 19, is one of the most wanted men in Europe, but City are the only team to come close to Inter's valuation.
City's football administrator Brian Marwood has been in Milan and offered Eastlands flop Robinho as bait.
Marwood has also offered Robinho to AC Milan as the club continue their whistlestop tour of Europe buying up the most expensive players.
Balotelli had a hard spell under former Inter boss Jose Mourinho, but he previously worked under Roberto Mancini, now at City.
The striker has already won three Italian Serie A titles.
Inter have always insisted Balotelli is not for sale, but City's enormous wealth is beginning to turn heads as new Inter boss Rafa Benitez builds a team in his mould.
MANCHESTER CITY are out to pinch Fabio Capello's England assistant Franco Baldini.
The megabucks outfit want the Italian to leave the FA and join them in a senior role in their management team.
Baldini has been working as Capello's general manager, trusted assistant and fixer since the pair took the jobs with the FA, but there have been recent hints that he would like a change – and possibly return to Italy.
However, Baldini, 49, may be tempted by the chance to join manager Roberto Mancini's backroom team and help chief executive Garry Cook and Brian Marwood with his experience of football at home and abroad.
Cook already has a big staff but is open to improvement and Baldini is highly respected within the game and a known organiser at all levels.
If Baldini joins City, it would bring forward the shake-up in Capello's England staff that People Sport revealed was on the cards last week – which has since been confirmed.
Meanwhile, City last night confirmed that former Italy winger Attilio Lombardo has joined ex-Sampdoria team mate Mancini's backroom staff.
Former boxing world champion Ricky Hatton is to give up his executive box at Manchester City after the club raised the price of it from £22,000 last season to £39,000 for the coming campaign. Sunday Mirror
Yaya Toure: 'I need to improve next season'
Manchester City midfielder Yaya Toure has admitted that he needs to improve next season to keep his place in the side.
The Ivorian has said that whoever the club signs this summer will provide him with more competition, meaning that he will have to remain at an optimum level in order to retain his place in City's starting XI.
"There are a lot of signings that the club has made and I am sure that will have a positive impact on the side," Toure told Goal.com.
"With that in mind, I need to up my game and make sure that I am at my peak at all times. I am also hoping that I will stay injury free for the whole season so that I will be able to deliver.
"Looking at our preparations and with the new manager on board, I am confident that things will be better [next season]."
City have already added Jesus Navas, Fernandinho and Alvaro Negredo to their
squad this summer.
Jack Rodwell expresses Barcelona plan
Manchester City midfielder Jack Rodwell has revealed that new manager Manuel Pellegrini wants them to play like Barcelona.
The Chilean took over at the Etihad this summer following the sacking of Roberto Mancini, and he has expressed several times his desire for the club to play an attractive style of football.
Rodwell admits that these plans have excited the players, and looks forward to performing under the new boss.
"Pellegrini likes us to press high up and press in numbers, to get the ball back as soon as possible and then play simple football," Pellegrini told The Sun. "He wants us to keep the ball until we're in the final third and then see.
"It's early and he hasn't gone into too much detail - he's gradually drip-feeding us.
"You look at Barcelona and what they do and it works for them so hopefully we'll adapt."
City got off to a losing start under Pellegrini in their first pre-season game as they were defeated 2-0 to South African side Supersport United.
Ron Dellow isn’t the best known of the Blues’ former stars but he’s got a fantastic tale to tell
Ron Dellow with [inset] City’s team photo ahead of the 1935-36 season, back row, left to right Tom Chorlton (trainer), Bill Dale, Matt Busby, Sam Cowan, Frank Swift, Robert Donnelly, Jackie Bray, Jack Percival, Sam Barkas, Laurie Barnett (assistant trainer). Front row: Ron Dellow, Bobby Marshall, Ernie Toseland, Alec Herd, Jimmy Heale, Fred Tilson, Eric Brook.
He scored two goals on his home debut to send City top of the league, undertook a death-defying number of bombing missions over Germany during the war, then masterminded one of the great cup upsets in world football.
But Ron Dellow’s story is not cut from the Boy’s Own annual, it is the truth – and the Blues’ oldest surviving player, at the age of 99, is still telling it.
The amazing pensioner celebrated his 99th birthday at the weekend, had a heart attack on Monday – but was still keen to talk to M.u.E.N. Sport when he heard we were interested in his incredible story.
George Smith had been thought to be the oldest City player when he died on Sunday, at the age of 92.
But author Robert O’Driscoll, currently compiling a book about every City player in history, recently came across Ron, who has lived in Holland for 65 years after emigrating there just after the war.
Born in Crosby in July 1914 – two weeks before the outbreak of World War One – Ron had a trial for Liverpool as a youngster. But when they failed to follow up their interest and a spell at Blackburn came to nothing, he signed for Mansfield Town.
Some eye-catching performances for the Stags in the 1934-35 season, in which he scored 10 goals in 29 games, saw City move in and pay a £2,000 fee.
Ron only played 10 games for the great City side of the Thirties, but he scored four goals from the right wing after replacing the great Ernie Toseland in a fabulous team which also included Matt Busby, Frank Swift, Eric Brook and Alec Herd.
“That was a great team, and it was special to replace Ernie, who was as quick as anything,” Ron said, from his home in Almelo.
“I am proud of my time at City and still watch them on television whenever I can.”
He netted on his debut, in March 1935, in a 2-1 win at Derby, with Herd getting the other, and in his home debut he scored twice in a 4-1 win over Aston Villa at Maine Road. Ron has a newspaper cutting which proclaims ‘Dellow scores twice to send City top’, but the glory was to be short-lived.
In his own words he then fell into ‘bad company’ after suffering an ankle injury, enjoying a drink with a wayward teammate. He lost his form and moved on to Tranmere – who he helped to promotion in 1938, and promptly scored against City, who were relegated in the same season.
But his footballing exploits paled into insignificance after he joined the Royal Air Force.
Ron became a Lancaster bomber pilot during World War Two and is said to have flown an incredible 31 missions over Germany, at a time when life expectancy was an average of five missions. The man himself was modest about the matter, saying: “I didn’t keep count of how many times I flew!”
Ron had to ditch twice in the North Sea as his plane limped back from raids, and remembers being rescued by fishermen: “The most annoying thing was that when they pulled me out, there was a fish that wouldn’t leave my toes alone!”
After the war, Ron headed over to Holland to begin a new adventure, playing cricket.
“I once took nine wickets for nine runs – I bowled like a demon,” he said with a laugh.
He met his future wife, settled, and has remained there ever since.
He went on to forge an impressive career as a coach, starting young Arnold Muhren along the path to stardom by giving him his debut for Volendam as a 17-year-old in 1968. Muhren, by a twist of fate, went on to become an Ajax star and a hero to Ipswich and Manchester United fans in the early 1980s.
Ron’s Volendam team was known for its technical excellence, and Ron said: “I made Muhren into a player.
“I saw him in the street, took him to play for me, and then the club sold him to Ajax for a couple of million.”
Muhren crossed paths with Dellow again, in 1974, when he was a star name in the brilliant Ajax side which also boasted World Cup stars Arie Haan and Johnny Rep.
Dellow was in charge of second division Heracles, who shocked Ajax with a 4-2 win in extra time in a Dutch Cup tie – one of the great upsets of Dutch football history. Goalkeeper Arend Steunenberg was one of the heroes of that game, and he still visits Ron to this day, while grateful fans had a road named after their giant-killing manager in his adopted town of Almelo – it is called ‘Ron Dellow Laan’.
Ron was not as impressed as everyone else. Interviewed after the game, he said: “You play the best team in the world and win, and you feel like world champions – but we need to show the same next week against Den Bosch!”
Ron continued coaching at an amateur level until he was 85, and has remained remarkably bright and breezy despite his advanced years.
Despite his recent health, few would back against Ron adding a century to his football, and cricket, exploits.
City launches multilingual online presence
English Premier League club Manchester City has launched what it claims to be the broadest multilingual website offering in world football.
In addition to its official site in English and existing Arabic and Mandarin Chinese versions, City will now provide exclusive online content in Traditional Chinese, French, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Thai.
The online roll-out means City now caters for the native languages of up to 80% of the world’s internet population in more than 160 countries. Overseas fans will be directed automatically to their countries’ native language websites depending on their global location.
Manchester City CEO Ferran Soriano said: “Manchester City’s popularity and global fan base is growing at a fast pace. We want to talk to our fans and friends in their own language to engage with them in new ways. We are very proud of this initiative.”
Where Next for Gareth Barry? Compared to Gerrard, Arteta, Dembele & Mikel
Amongst the millions of pounds lavished on the cream of the European crop there actually may be a few bargains to be had if you look a little closer to home. With the powers that be at Manchester City flashing the cash to bring in top talent, such as Fernandinho and Jesus Navas, to launch a new assault on Manchester United’s domestic crown, players like Gareth Barry have been pushed to the sides to pave way for the new order. Barry himself was one of the initial wave of sheikh backed transfers to join City in the Summer of 2009, for a reported fee of £12 million, but it now seems like his services may no longer be required on a regular basis and may look to pursue interest from elsewhere in a bid for first team football. With Arsenal being heavily linked in the British press, could Barry be a high quality potential recruitment not just for them but any aspiring club facing a fight for European Football next season?
At the age of 32 Barry is approaching the latter stages of his career but with the likes of Steven Gerrard, 33, and Frank Lampard, 35, showing that age is no limit for the modern footballer he still could have a few more seasons at the top level left in his legs. Barry is an experienced international player, with 53 caps for England, and has been part of the Manchester City Midfield since 2009. In that time he racked up 132 Premier League appearances and featured in both of Manchester City’s, fairly disastrous, Champions League campaigns. He does, however, have both an FA cup and Premier League winners medal to his name. He offers genuine experience to any club willing to take the gamble on an older player, as he was part of Manchester City’s initial push for Champions League football before becoming an integral part of the title winning team of 2011/12. The paper rumor mill puts his price at around £4 million, which with the new TV deal is nothing to most clubs, but with wages approaching the six figure mark it would be hard pressed to find few clubs that could afford his services. However, for clubs pushing for champions league football and more, such as Arsenal, Liverpool and Tottenham, he may just be within reach.
The 2012/13 campaign was not a successful campaign for Barry or anyone associated with Manchester City football club as they failed to even put up a decent fight in the defence of their Premier League trophy. Barry also found that he had more competition in midfield with the acquisitions of Jack Rodwell and Javi Garcia. This resulted in a reduction in the amount of first team appearances, with a total of 31 starts and 3 substitute appearances in 2011/12 to 27 starts and 4 substitute appearances in 2012/13. It is hard to nail down a defined position for Gareth Barry as he is not really a specialized, well, anything. He does not have the box to box nature the likes of Toure or Gerrard of yesteryear, he is not a dedicated defensive midfielder or deep lying play maker. Rather he is a ‘platform’ player that team’s can build their midfield and team around knowing that he will do a solid 7/8 out of ten no matter what role he has to fill yet he will never truly excel at any particular skill set. In 2011/12 Barry often found himself playing alongside the muscular Yaya Toure in a more withdrawn defensive role, or Nigel De Jong as a paired screen for the back four and acting as a base for the more forward thinking flair players ahead of him. Yet in 2012/13 he found himself alongside the more defensively orientated Garcia and, therefore, had more license to be more involved higher up the field, especially when City shifted into a 5-3-2 formation.
Barry’s defensive contribution decreased from 2011/12 to 2012/13. As mentioned before this could be due to playing alongside Yaya Toure in 11/12 where he would have had more defensive responsibilities. Yet, despite being involved in fewer ground 50-50 challenges Barry’ tackles success rate improved by 9.1%. On top of this Barry was dribbled past 10 fewer times in only a total of 342 fewer minutes of football. Worryingly though he was unable to keep up an impressive interception every 38.04 minutes of football played as this dropped to one every 54.48 minutes. Both these stats could have been impacted by the change in Barry’s 2012/13 role.
As the slightly more advanced midfielder, knowing he had the protective cover of Garcia behind him, he was able to move forward into the midfield battle resulting in less space for individuals to dribble past him, but more opportunities to pass the ball around him into the space left behind him. This meant that he was not able to pick up as many loose balls aimed towards the forwards and rather his interceptions were less plentiful but could be more hurtful to the opposition. Furthermore, with Barry having a higher tackling percentage in 12/13 it could be theorised that individuals were unable to get past him as easily as he used his experience to take the ball off them. One final footnote should be that it is often seen that age can creep up on professional footballers, with pace one of the first attributes to decline, so perhaps Barry was unable to gamble on as many interceptions in 2012/13 as he was unsure of his ability to get there was the same as the year before.
A comparison of Barry’s passing and creativity statistics also highlights Barry’s midfield duties evolving into a more advanced role than the previous year. Despite making fewer attacking passes, mainly due to playing fewer minutes, it is interesting that Barry played more final third passes at a 4% higher accuracy than the year before. This culminated in Barry creating an open play chance, including assist and clear-cut chances, every 60 minutes in 12/13 compared to 83 in 11/12, a massive 23 minutes difference.
How does he compare to others?
What these statistics show is that on one level, it can be seen that Barry’s defensive performances have declined whilst his offensive performances have increased. The reason behind this could be due to his development as a player, but at the age of 32 it is doubtful, or the expansion of this role at Manchester City from a defensive ‘platform’ to a more offensive one. I still refer to Barry as a ‘platform’ player here simply because he does not fulfil the usual criteria associated with a true defensive midfielder, strong, powerful with bundles of energy, rather he uses his skill and experience to suit the needs of the team. Similarly as a more offensive player he is still a platform for attacks to build but lacks the true flair and finesse of a true attacking midfielder. This does showcase Barry’s versatility but also highlights a weakness, his ability to play as part of a two man midfield. As part of a three he can shine alongside a more defensive player and a more attacking player and can be the central clog in the machine fulfilling both attacking and defensive roles on a needs must basis, but in a two he doesn’t have any stand out qualities to really make his mark on a game. Yet with the majority of the top teams in European and domestic football playing a variation of the 4-3-3 formation there is still plenty of opportunity for Barry to shine at other clubs. The question is how does he compare to other players playing a similar position at those clubs?
Defensive Comparison
The players chosen for this comparison were players that fulfilled a similar role to Barry during the 12/13 season. Obviously, as managers play different systems with different requirements these cannot be exact. For example, Carrick plays a more expansive playmaker role in a 4-4-1-1 formation at Manchester United whereas Mikel much more a defensive midfielder yet they’re inclusion add significant comparison points to the attributes of Gareth Barry. Also to make interpretation easier, the top ranked and bottom ranked performance indicator is highlighted in green and red respectively.
At a quick glance, the figures above do not seem to fall too favourably for Gareth Barry, with Barry topping none of the categories. He only betters the average of the group in both tackle success and dribbled pasts with all the other key performance values falling below the average value. Yet, this was when he was playing a more expansive role when you compare his performances in the more defensive minded 2011/12 season then you can see that Barry’s much improved defensive performances mean that he is within 10% of the average in the majority of his key performance indicators.
Again, this just highlights that Barry is simply a ‘good’ player nothing spectacular in the defensive department, unlike Dembele, but rather is perfectly capable of doing an adequate job for a team. This is emphasized when compared to the performances of Mikel Arteta of Arsenal who is performing to a slightly lower level than Barry in terms of tackling frequency, tackle success and the amount of times he has been dribbled past. Arteta does appear to be a more adapt reader of the game, performing an intercept every 8.5 minutes more than Barry.
Creativity: Barry compared to rivals
Again Barry shows off his ability to be a ‘good’ not great creative player with him not excelling in any particular category but beingwithin 10% of the average for the group, (the average for the OPCC per min is skewed by Mikel). Also, similarly to the defensive statistics, an interesting comparison between Barry and Arteta emerges, with Arteta pipping Barry in the majority of the creativity stats except in each player’s ability to create chances for teammates, with Barry creating a chance almost twice as often as Arteta does. This is telling that despite Arteta being more active in the oppositions final 3rd, it is Barry who is the more efficient in creating goal scoring opportunities for his teammates.
Where would he fit he?
For me there is only one answer to this, with Chelsea and Manchester United both looking to reinforce their midfield with players in the upper end of the transfer market then it only leaves the three aspiring clubs of Liverpool, Tottenham and Arsenal. Liverpool themselves have an abundance of young energetic midfielders to partner Gerrard in midfield and, personally, I don’t believe that Gareth Barry would suit the style of play that Brendan Rodgers is attempting to implement on Merseyside and Barry does not fit into the signing profile, Kolo Toure not withstanding, that FSG are attempting to bring in.
Down at White Hart Lane, Tottenham are set to welcome £17 millions pounds worth of Brazilian in the shape of Pauliniho to become part of a midfield consisting of Sandro and Dembele. As seen from above, Dembele steals the shows as one of the leagues top midfielders and with Scott Parker lurking in the background, alongside Livermore and Huddlestone, as back up’s for Sandro, Dembele and Pauliniho it is hard to see where Barry would fit into the side.
That leaves only one natural place for him to go and that is to Arsenal Football Club. As can be seen above, Barry is very comparable to Arteta in both an offensive and defensive role, his inability to excel at both at the same time may be a slight concern, but he could provide excellent competition for the Spaniard as a part of the Arsenal midfield. More importantly he can act as cover for a wide variety of people and circumstances due to his versatility. He could be used to protect the back four alongside Arteta when Arsenal need to see a game out, he can be used to push Arteta or himself further forward and still provide a stable base for attacks to build from. He can be used as injury cover for both Wilshere and Diaby. Most importantly, he brings to Arsenal an experienced head that can manage and control the midfield, someone who has won trophies and understands what it takes to drag his team over the finish line. There are so many positives for Arsene Wenger to introduce an individual of Barry’s ilk to the squad that it would outweigh the negatives of such an older individual joining the team. Of course there will be issues with Barry’s pay package, with Arsenal notorious for sticking to their wage structure especially for someone over the age of 30. Barry is not going to be the star that light’s up the stadium on a Saturday afternoon yet he is the player that will dig deep and pull the team through to get those important three points when they are needed in the dark winter nights.
TWEET OF THE DAY
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GOLDEN BOLLOX 18-7-2011
Nedum Onuoha will fight for his Manchester City future
Onuoha has knuckled down to training with the reserves at Carrington and turned out in City’s friendly at Moss Lane while his team-mates are on tour.
Nedum Onuoha has vowed to prove that Roberto Mancini was wrong to leave him out of City’s North American tour.
The defender, 24, received a loud signal that his Blues days were numbered when he learned that he would be staying at home with a clutch of big-name outcasts.
Onuoha, Craig Bellamy, Jo, Wayne Bridge and Emmanuel Adebayor were among a group of players told by e-mail and text they would not be joining the touring first-team party this summer.
Those senior players have found it tough to hide their disappointment at the rejection and the fact that they were not told face-to-face.
But while Adebayor – who looks increasingly likely to join Real Madrid – threw a wobbler and flounced out, Onuoha and co have knuckled down to training with the reserves and youngsters at Carrington.
Academy graduate Onuoha, who has been with the Blues since he was 10, has been linked with Blackburn after spending last season on loan at Sunderland.
And though he does not want to leave the Etihad Stadium, he knows that he will probably have to go for the sake of his career.
As the first team prepared for victory over Club America in San Francisco on Saturday, Onuoha lined up alongside Bellamy, Michael Johnson and a clutch of youngsters in a City XI that won 2-1 at Altrincham.
The defender admitted he would rather have been in the States but is determined to fight back from the blow of missing the seniors’ tour.
“To be honest, we’re just being professional at the moment,” Onuoha said. “There’s a lot of disappointment about what happened and how it happened.
“You could say that people make mistakes and the situation could have been dealt with a bit differently.
“But as far as the players are concerned, none of us are down in the dumps. We’re just determined that we’re going to give everything we can.
“At the end of the day, we might not be on tour but we’ve not been shown the door so we’ve got to keep going.
“We’re still being paid by Manchester City. We’re in pre-season so it’s always going to be hard. But in any games you have, you should always try your best because you have to be ready for a big season.
“As far as I’m concerned, I’m going to keep going through pre-season. Nothing’s changed on my side and it’s the same with a few of the others too.
“It’s a case of coming in during the week, training hard and getting ready for any games that we have. I think the first team are back in just over a week’s time so things might be different then.”
Onuoha, whose City contract runs until 2014, insists that he will keep on pushing to regain a first-team place until the day he is shown the door.
He added: “I think I’ve been blessed and privileged to be able to play for my home-town club so many times.
“I’d love to stay and fight, and until someone tells me to jog on then I’ll keep trying.”
But having returned from his year in the North East to find he no longer has his own locker at City’s Carrington training ground, he knows the signs are not good.
“There have been a few structural changes since I’ve been away but that seems to happen every year anyway,” he said.
“I don’t have a locker, I don’t have a squad number now, but other than that, it’s same as.”
Shaun Wright-Phillips is desperate to prove he has a future with Manchester City.
The winger is in the final year of his contract and looks certain to be on his way out, The Sun reports.
But boss Roberto Mancini was impressed as he started and scored in City''s North American tour opener against Club America on Saturday and the Italian will keep the door open.
Wright-Phillips, 29, was quoted, as saying: "I''m working hard and I have no intention of going anywhere else. If they want to keep me I want to be here. That would be my ideal scenario and I''ve told the manager that.”
Manchester City's Kieran Trippier avoids a Bellamy rollicking
Craig Bellamy was outshone at Moss Lane by a 20-year-old full-back without a senior City appearance – but was happy to let it slide.
Bellamy was the biggest name on the pitch as a City XI won at Altrincham yet it was Kieran Trippier who stole the show.
Trippier, who captained a Blues side made up of youngsters and senior fringe players, struck a long-range winner two minutes before half-time after Joan Angel Roman had cancelled out Damian Reeves’ penalty.
It was the perfect way for the defender to celebrate his new three-year City contract, signed on Friday.
And afterwards, Bellamy – who played for 55 minutes before making a speedy exit – was happy to let Trippier do the talking.
The young right-back, a product of the City Academy, admitted that he had risked the Wales international’s wrath by going for goal. Trippier said: “I pushed forward and thought ‘I’m going to have a go here.’ But I had Bellamy screaming at me on the other side.
“I’m glad it went in otherwise I’d have got a bit of a rollicking. When it went in, he said: ‘I was going to rollick you then.’ And he started laughing.
“That’s what he’s like. He’s a good guy, and I’ve learned a lot from him.”
Trippier, who spent last season on loan at Championship side Barnsley, is keen to get some more first-team action under his belt this season but has acknowledged he will probably need to go out on loan again.
He said: “If a team came in for me with a loan offer, I’d consider it because I want to play games. Last season I played more than 35 games.
“I want to better myself, I’m only young and I need to learn. Going into the Championship would benefit me.”
Reserve team coach Andy Welsh was able to call on Bellamy and Nedum Onuoha after both were left out of City’s pre-season tour of North America.
Wayne Bridge and Jo had also been considered for the game but both were left out after suffering slight knocks in training, while Shay Given missed out as he finalised today’s move to Aston Villa.
Michael Johnson played the first 45 minutes as he continues his fightback from a near three-year injury nightmare and is set for another run-out when Welsh takes a City XI to Stalybridge on Wednesday.
Alty went in front after 90 seconds when Courtney Meppen-Walter brought down Shaun Densmore and Reeves drove the penalty under keeper Ian Lawlor.
Spanish youngster Roman stroked in a 35th-minute equaliser before Trippier struck the winner just before the break.
Devante Cole, 16-year-old son of former United and City striker Andy Cole, impressed as a second-half substitute with a powerful run and shot, well saved by on-trial keeper Josh Ollerenshaw, released by Oldham.
And there was a solid City debut too from Holland Under-17 centre-back Karim Rekik, just signed from Feyenoord.
Welsh said: “I thought the senior players were terrific, and I think the young boys can learn an unbelievable amount just from playing alongside them.
“Craig was desperate to play. He’s a fantastic professional. Nedum and Michael wanted to play too.
“Michael has had a tough time but he’s worked really well in training and it will get a bit of ring rust off him.”
Altrincham boss Lee Sinnott said: “It was a good test for us against a strong City side.”
Umbro, another casualty of THAT MODERN FOOTBALL?
(I've still not forgotten/forgiven them for whoring themselves to the swamp-dwellers ... so Fuck 'em)
If you’re one of those people that doesn’t take an interest in the unveiling of new kits let me tell you about something that I have noticed; umbro don’t seem to be making kits anymore.
Twelve months ago things were very different, umbro were everywhere! England, Ireland and Sweden wore umbro in Euro 2012. Man City and Lille won their national leagues in umbro, Atheltic Bilbao reached the Europa League final in umbro. Last August Southampton, Blackburn Rovers, Nottingham Forest, Rangers, Huddersfield Town, Cowdenbeath, Peru, Peterhead, Wales and New York Cosmos all proudly word umbro.
The only teams from the above list still wearing umbro are Wales, Ireland and Peru. It’s enough to make you wonder whether umbro have gone bust.
A simple reason explains why umbro aren’t supplying many kits at the moment, the existence of nike inc. It’s not just that England, Man City, Athletic Bilbao, Blackburn, Lille and New York Cosmos have all switched to Nike since May, it’s that nike bought, filleted, then sold on the carcass of umbro, events that are described in anodyne business-speak in this article ;
“Iconix Brand Buys Nike’s Umbro Soccer Unit for $225 Million
Iconix Brand Group Inc. (ICON) agreed to acquire Nike Inc. (NKE)’s Umbro sports apparel and footwear unit for $225 million in cash.
The deal is expected to close by the end of the year, New York-based Iconix said in a statement. Nike bought Umbro, which was founded in 1924, in 2008 for about 302 million pounds ($483.7 million), according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The sale is part of Nike Chief Executive Officer Mark Parker’s push to focus on the business units with the most growth potential and profitability. Nike, based in Beaverton, Oregon, previously announced it’s also trying to sell its Cole Haan unit of dress-shoe stores.
Nike rose 0.1 percent to $92.89 at the close in New York. The shares have lost 3.6 percent this year.
The deal will end one of the many acquisitions that hasn’t panned out for the world’s largest maker of sporting goods. Nike has also bought and then sold the Starter apparel brand and Canstar Sports Inc., maker of Bauer hockey gear. The one bright spot has been Converse, which has flourished under Nike’s control.
Back in 2008, Umbro appeared to be a good fit because it gave Nike more customers in Europe as it tried to reach its goal of surpassing Adidas AG (ADS) as the world’s largest soccer company.
Umbro also had a long-standing deal with the England national soccer team to supply its uniforms. In a statement announcing the deal, Parker touted the new relationship as a “dynamic alignment” that would make Nike the world leader in soccer.
Hopes Faded
Those hopes faded when the England squad failed to qualify for the 2008 European Championships finals, prompting a decline in sales. From there, results didn’t improve, forcing Nike to write down the value of the unit by $240.7 million in 2009.
Before making the deal Nike did retain some of Umbro’s most valuable assets when it moved Umbro’s sponsorship deals with England and Premier League champion Manchester City to the Nike brand. Nike will be discussing next steps with other teams sponsored by Umbro and some may transfer, Mary Remuzzi, a spokeswoman, said in an e-mail. Umbro also makes the uniforms for the national teams from Sweden and the Republic of Ireland.
Umbro’s sales in the fiscal year ended May 31 grew 17 percent to $262 million after being little changed in the previous year. When Nike announced it planned to sell Umbro in May, analyst Chris Svezia of Susquehanna Financial Group said it wasn’t profitable.
The Umbro and Cole Haan units had a combined loss of $43 million before interest and taxes in fiscal 2012 and would lose as much as $75 million if owned for all of fiscal 2013, Nike has said.
Iconix bought the Starter brand from Nike in 2007 and also owns the Candie’s, Joe Boxer and Rocawear brands.”
This is the thing about nike; strip away their aspirational bullshit of positivity and all that’s left is hard-nosed cynicism. The only reason nike wanted umbro was to divest them of their client list.
“Back in 2008, Umbro appeared to be a good fit because it gave Nike more customers in Europe as it tried to reach its goal of surpassing Adidas AG (ADS) as the world’s largest soccer company ……………………… Before making the deal Nike did retain some of Umbro’s most valuable assets when it moved Umbro’s sponsorship deals with England and Premier League champion Manchester City to the Nike brand. Nike will be discussing next steps with other teams sponsored by Umbro and some may transfer, Mary Remuzzi, a spokeswoman, said in an e-mail.”
From one perspective some might wonder what the issue is; a swoosh has replaced a couple of diamond on the front of football shirts big deal, all these companies are just the same aren’t they?
The situation is deeper than these surface trifles, it’s a symptom of a free-market capitalism that blights and poisons human society. The fact that someone in an air-conditioned office near Seattle is actually willing to put the nebulous ideal of market share above the social costs of potential factory closures without blinking is quite a revolting situation. I find it hard not to detest cynicism involved in this behaviour.
Even without applying Marxist politics to it this situation isn’t particularly pleasant. We have a clash of two behaviours. Nike’s gimmicky shirts made from plastic bottles versus umbro’s countless classic designs. Nike’s brash exhibitionism versus umbro’s traditions of craftsmanship - every teams at the 1966 world cup wore umbro. Scotland wore umbro for 50 odd years and England wore umbro for over 70 years.
Whichever way you look at this situation THAT MODERN FOOTBALL has fucked things up again, more rich history is being consigned to the dustbin of history.
The situation is incredibly sad if you consider it in isolation, when you realise what this rich history is being replaced with it’s too dispiriting to think about. Rich history is being replaced by……
A company that thinks it can change the culture of football with a new pair of football boots
“Football Design Director Denis Dekovic, began by looking at the attacking forces in today’s game. “The game is changing. It used to be that speed was the focus of the attacking side of the game, but now everybody has pace,” Dekovic said. “The Nike Hypervenom is a response to the way the game is changing. Players want to be quicker, not just in a foot race, but quicker with the ball at their feet in small spaces. They want to create chances from nothing. These faster, more agile defenders need to be combatted and the Hypervenom is designed to do exactly that.”
A company that thinks a promotional vehicle is an “incubator” of noble marketing ideas ;
“During the crucial qualifying matches for football’s biggest tournament next year in Brasil, Korean football fans experienced the Nike Hypervenom boot through an unconventional vehicle before the Korean national team’s crunch showdown with Uzbekistan.
On June 11, fans packed in front of the Seoul Sangam stadium were wowed by NIke Football’s new breed of attack — geared up inside an eight-wheel 11-ton industrial truck.
The Hypervenon Truck showed off the cutting-edge innovation of the Hypervenom boot by illustrating the design evolution of the boot, as if it were a new breed, and by presenting the truck as an incubator lab for the Hypervenom.”
……A company that celebrates its own brilliance with hagiographic videos and worships their own version of history;
“In 1998 Nike launched the first Mercurial football boot — a shoe inspired by and designed for an athlete who was playing an entirely new brand of football. The player was Brasilian football phenomenon Ronaldo Luís Nazário de Lima, popularly dubbed “El Fenómeno,” but more commonly known as Ronaldo.
The tagline for the Nike Mercurial launch ad campaign, “Ultralight, so your legs can be as fast as your imagination,” spoke to Ronaldo’s unbelievable creativity and speed. Ronaldo not only captured the imagination with his style, speed, skill and instictive eye for a goal, but he also helped reignite the reputation of Brasilian football. His influence continues to guide exceptional players like Neymar as they follow in his footsteps.
Ronaldo is closely associated with the original silver-yellow-blue Nike Mercurial he wore in France during the summer of 1998. Among a field of black and white, the Nike Mercurial stood out for it’s sleek shape and colourful, speed-inspired visual design. To celebrate 15 years of the iconic boot, Nike has created a Mercurial Vapor IX inspired by the 1998 design.”
The last example crystalises the problems I have with nike. They not only apply the term “iconic” to a hideous boot, they apply the term “iconic” to a hideous boot that was worn for 7 matches by a player that was hardly an all-time world cup hero during the tournament. To cap it all they are brazen enough to celebrate a world cup in the which the final is shrouded by disquieting rumours about their conduct in relation to “their” star athlete.
The issues in this post and yesterday’s Coventry City-related events, events that Ian from 200% tells us about, is yet more proof that football is in the hands of wrong people.
FA Stand By 5.15pm Cup Final Kick Off
Football Association chairman Greg Dyke today confirmed that the FA Cup final will continue to be staged at 5.15pm, despite strong opposition to the later kick-off time.
It was announced at Wembley Stadium this morning that the competition will be televised by the BBC and BT Sport, who have secured four-year shared rights beginning in 2014.
Fans hoping that the change in broadcaster from ITV would result in the final being restored to its traditional 3pm slot will be disappointed, however.
Dyke stressed that the later time - which sparked fierce protest from supporters travelling south to attend last season's showpiece between Wigan and Manchester City - is a necessity of the modern game's commercial landscape.
"The final will continue to be held in late afternoon, which is where it's been moved to," Dyke said.
"I'm certainly happy with that because if you look at the viewing figures for the past two FA Cup finals they were much bigger than they would have been had the match kicked off at 3pm.
"The world changed and we had to change with it."
ITV has negotiated the exclusive rights to England games from 2014-18. The broadcaster had already won England's World Cup and European Championship qualification fixtures from UEFA and has now secured all home and away friendly internationals.
Precariously positioned in their World Cup qualifying campaign, England's place at Brazil next summer is far from guaranteed, but Dyke is confident they will be involved.
"I think we will qualify for the World Cup. It would be pretty awful if we didn't, but I think we will," he said.
Dyke was speaking for the first time since replacing David Bernstein as chairman last Saturday, but the 66-year-old refused to elaborate on his plans for the FA.
"I will outline my top priority in the next few weeks, but clearly there are some issues in English football that need to be sorted and that's what we'll try to do," he said.
"I won't say any more just now, but I will outline them one at a time over a period of time."
Dyke welcomed the FA Cup's return to the BBC for the first time since 2008 and stressed that the competition still had an important role to play in club football despite the continual growth of the Premier League.
"Financially it's quite a jump in money from this year to the next, but also the fact that it's going on the BBC means there will be a lot of coverage across many outlets that help promote the FA Cup," he said.
"We've also got a pay deal with BT, which we're pleased about. Remember, all the money from the FA Cup goes back into football, it doesn't go to players' wages.
"There was some fairly intense competition for the rights, but they've ended up where we expected them to.
"I believe the FA Cup is still the greatest club cup competition in the world and you saw all the romance of it last year when Wigan won after beating the multi-million pound Manchester City team.
"The FA Cup operates in a different context to the Premier League. Last year I was chairman at Brentford, who went to play at Chelsea.
"That was so exciting and you can't explain what it meant to the fans. The FA Cup belongs to the fans."
Manchester United are making a £60m bid for Tottenham forward Gareth Bale, 24. Daily Mirror
Sunderland are considering a move for former Chelsea and Liverpool midfielder Raul Meireles, 30, who is unsettled at Fenerbahce. DSSC
Striker Christian Benteke, 22, is facing showdown talks with Aston Villa manager Paul Lambert after requesting a transfer last week. Sun
Lazio are keen on Sunderland midfielder Sebastian Larsson, 28, who only has a year left on his current deal. talkSHIT
Arsenal and Napoli have been told by Real Madrid that forward Gonzalo Higuain, 25, will cost £37m. The Times
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger says Manchester United vice-chairman Ed Woodward's exit from their pre-season tour of Australia to accelerate a move for Barcelona midfielder Cesc Fabregas, 26, is a waste of time. Daily Mirror
Celta Vigo are in talks to sign Liverpool striker Dani Pacheco, 22. DSSC
Verona and Iceland midfielder Emil Hallfredsson, 29, is on Southampton's radar. talkSHIT
Harry Redknapp has missed Queens Park Rangers' pre-season trip to Austria, leaving former England manager Steve McClaren to take charge of training, and could be sidelined for at least another six weeks as he recovers from knee surgery. DSSC
Swansea are increasing their bid for Espanyol winger Wakaso, 22, to £4.5m after Russian teams Anzhi Makhachkala and Rubin Kazan joined the race to sign him. Sun
Southampton are considering a bid for 28-year-old Catania striker Gonzalo Bergessio. Daily Star
Crystal Palace are lining up an £850,000 bid for Croatian midfielder Mislav Orsic, 20, who has scored 22 goals in 90 games for Inter Zapresic. Daily Express
Former Chelsea midfielder Florent Malouda, 33, has joined Turkish side Trabzonspor. Daily Star
Everton have reached an agreement with Granada's Guilherme Siqueira, 27, to replace full back Leighton Baines, 28, who is rumoured to be on his way to Old Trafford. Marca
Veteran Colombian defender Mario Yepes, 37, has signed a two-year contract with Atalanta following the expiry of his contract at AC Milan. Tuttosport
French champions Paris St Germain have signed left-back Lucas Digne, 19, from Lille on a five-year deal. Le Parisien
Air Asia tycoon Tony Fernandes flew his Queens Park Rangers players out for their pre-season tour on budget airline Easyjet. Daily Mirror
Marseille scored a victory for football after beating rugby union's Toulon 36-35 in a bizarre half-football half-rugby match at the Stade Mayol. Metro
GOLDEN BOLLOX 18-7-2012
REAL MADRID WANT MICAH RICHARDS
REAL MADRID boss Jose Mourinho is lining up a shock £20m bid for Micah Richards.
The Spanish champions have contacted Manchester City about a possible deal for Richards and are confident of luring him to the Bernabeu.
Starsport understands that Mourinho has made the fullback one of his main targets and Richards is keen on a move to the La Liga giants.
Mourinho is a big fan of Richards and tried to sign him when he was Chelsea boss but had a bid rejected. He has kept close tabs on his progress and believes he would be a huge hit at Real and boost their chances of winning the Champions League.
Richards is preparing for the Olympics with Stuart Pearce’s Team GB after being left out of England’s Euro 2012 squad.
But he is aware of Real’s interest and is open to the prospect of joining them.
The England star signed a new deal with City in August worth around £70,000 a week and has just helped them land the Premier League title.
But he has endured a mixed relationship with boss Roberto Mancini after struggling to establish himself in the Italian’s starting line-up.
Mancini will be reluctant to sell Richards because he offers vital defensive cover at centre-back for Vincent Kompany and Joleon Lescott.
But he would be willing to cash in on him if Real offered a price that was too good to turn down.
A source said: “Real Madrid made contact with City a few weeks ago and Micah is waiting to see what City do, but he would definitely be interested in the move.
“Jose Mourinho has always rated him and reckons he would be a great addition to his squad as they look to defend their Spanish title and try to win back the Champions League.”
The Blues, meanwhile, have been approached by Lokomotiv Moscow about Emmanuel Adebayor after the Togo star’s £6m move to Tottenham stalled. STAR
Gimme gimme gimme: Toure's demands are scaring off even mega-rich Saudis
City defender Kolo wants £50k a week net for three years, a rent-free home, two cars, paid-for flights AND the captaincy to join Al Hilal
Kolo Toure's demand for an £8million contract has put his move to Saudi Arabian club Al Hilal in doubt.
The Manchester City defender is asking for too much – even for a club as wealthy as Al Hilal.
Toure wants £50,000 a week - tax-free - for the next three seasons, with some of the money being paid up front.
The 31-year-old Ivorian – banned in 2011 for failing a drugs test – is also asking for a rent-free apartment and two cars.
On top of that, the former Arsenal star is looking for guaranteed business-class flights, plus the captaincy of Al Hilal before he would consider leaving the Premier League.
There is a further agent’s fee of around £800,000 to be paid in advance – making the package a stretch even for the oil-rich club.MIRROR
Yaya Toure is full of laughs as Manchester City go all Inbetweeners
Yaya Toure enjoys a good show and he’s been lucky enough to have a front seat for some party football at Manchester City over the last two years.
And pre-season is no different as he witnessed some dance moves that wouldn’t have been out of place in the Northern Quarter's finest night spots.
In a routine borrowed straight from the Inbetweeners, City’s sports scientist Tom Parry wows Yaya with a series of slick moves.
‘You can’t teach that, you can’t teach it, it’s natural, that. It’s natural. Look at that, look at his feet, look at his feet,’ a member of staff informs Yaya as Parry really gets going.
Despite cackling and clapping, Yaya doesn’t stop cycling on his exercise bike for a second – the sign of a real professional.
Manchester City are on a meticulously-planned pre-season tour of Austria where players have custom-made mattresses, and officials even tried to get a local church to stop their bells ringing in the early morning.
Yaya was once described by Arsene Wenger as ‘completely average’ after turning out for Arsenal in a friendly against Barnet. Parry’s footwork was anything but. METRO
more bollox later
ROUND-UP
Reports this morning suggest that City’s quota of first team strikers could be set to double within the next 48 hours.
It’s been no secret that the Blues have been heavily linked with a “double swoop” for a pair of marksmen to replace Mario Balotelli and Carlos Tevez who have departed Manchester for Milan and Juventus respectively over the past weeks leaving just Sergio Aguero and Edin Dzeko as the team's recognised strikers..
The Express reckon that attack-bolstering deals to bring in Alvaro Negredo and Stevan Jovetic could be sealed by the weekend and quote Sevilla president Jose Maria Del Nido to back up their claims on the former:
“We are about to close on the sale of the player and, if everything goes normally and everything is signed, he will soon say goodbye to the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan.
“City are buying a great player, the top-scoring Spaniard in La Liga. This is a big deal for Sevilla, the second most important in our history after we sold Daniel Alves [to Barcelona].
“Everyone should be happy; it is a great deal for all three parties.”
The Express also report that it is not just in attack where the Blues are looking to strengthen with Real Madrid’s Portuguese international defender Pepe apparently still an “absolute priority” for Manuel Pellegrini who is “determined to test the Spanish club’s resolve”.
And finally, a hint of what City fans can look forward to on the pitch next season, Jack Rodwell reveals the Blues’ “Barcelona plan”, providing an insight into the early impact Manuel Pellegrini is having on team:
"(He) likes us to press high up and press in numbers, to get the ball back as soon as possible and then play simple football," he tells The Sun.
"He wants us to keep the ball until we're in the final third and then see.
"It's early and he hasn't gone into too much detail - he's gradually drip-feeding us.
"You look at Barcelona and what they do and it works for them so hopefully we'll adapt."
Real Madrid line up move for Manchester City star Sergio Aguero
Manchester City are bracing themselves for a blockbuster bid from Real Madrid for Sergio Aguero.
Champions League semi-finalists Real have been linked with a move for the Argentinian forward for the past three months.
Aguero has hotly dismissed ‘rumours’ he is heading to La Liga and said in May: ‘I’m very happy to be at Manchester City. I’m committed to them. It’s a great club.’
But new City manager Manuel Pellegrini is on the brink of signing Alvaro Negredo from Sevilla in a deal which should be completed in the next 24 hours and will then turn his attentions to Fiorentina’s Montenegro marksman Stevan Jovetic.
Edin Dzeko has already been told he is part of the new regime’s plans at the Etihad Stadium and that could leave Aguero vulnerable to a big-money bid as City prepare to meet the new Financial Fair Play demands.
They have already signed Jesus Navas from Sevilla and Brazilian midfielder Fernandino for a combined £45m and the arrivals of Negredo and Jovetic would push City’s summer spending through the £100million barrier,
Sources in the Spanish capital suggest that Real Madrid have been also alerted to the possibility that Aguero may not be happy if he falls down City’s pecking order and they will consider a tabling a bid.
Real are set to lose striker Gonzalo Higuain to Napoli, who is considered the ideal replacement for Edinson Cavani after his move to Paris St Germain.
That leaves new Bernabeu boss Carlo Ancelotti seeking a replacement and Aguero, who has scored 47 goals in all competitions since his £38million move from Atletico Madrid two years ago, is high on his list.
Negredo lifts lid on City choice
Alvaro Negredo revealed that the chance to continue playing alongside Jesus Navas was a key reason behind his move to Manchester City.
Sevilla confirmed on Wednesday evening that the 27-year-old Spain international striker, who scored 25 Primera Division goals last season, was leaving the club to join City in a £20million transfer, subject to a medical.
Negredo used his 'farewell' press conference to lift the lid on his reasons for wanting to move to the Etihad Stadium and it seems the opportunity to link up with Navas was a big part.
Navas left the Estadio Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan for a move to City in June and Negredo is adamant that his fellow compatriot will be a big hit for Manuel Pellegrini's men.
"I've spoken with Jesus this morning and I am happy to be with him for another year," he said.
"He's such an important player and a great guy. It's a pleasure to play with him."
Negredo also revealed that, after lengthy talks with Pellegrini, the 'challenge' of trying to help City succeed in Europe and the Premier League was another reason for joining.
He added: "Pellegrini called me, we shared opinions and he convinced me about everything.
"He told me what they could offer me there. It's a challenge for me and in this life you can't stand still.
"Now I start another journey and I'm very excited."
Winning ways welcome as Pellegrini eyes Barclays Asia Trophy
Man City manager aiming to hit the ground running at Barclays Asia Trophy in Hong Kong
Manchester City manager winger Mauricio Pellegrini says he is determined to get his side into the winning habit beginning with the Barclays Asia Trophy
Mauricio Pellegrini has called upon his Manchester City players to treat the Barclays Asia Trophy as a key stepping stone to regaining the Barclays Premier League title they won in the 2011/12 campaign, saying, “the season starts now”.
Pellegrini only began his job as Man City manager this month, but he is already spelling out the message that his side must hit the ground running when they take on South China in the Barclays Asia Trophy semi-finals on 24 July, as he explained in an exclusive interview for premierleague.com.
“I speak with the players, and every day I say the same thing, ‘You must think that the Premier League starts tomorrow so the daily work must be very, very hard every day’,” he said. “It seems that 40 days are a lot of days before the start [of the season] but they are not so many days. Working hard every day we are going to arrive at the first official match in Premier League in our best moment, that’s what we are trying to do every day with them.”
City’s players have thus been left with the clearest message that they are required to impress their new manager from the outset, beginning with their encounter with the Hong Kong First Division champions, closely followed, three days later, by what promises to be another testing fixture against Tottenham Hotspur or Sunderland at the Hong Kong Stadium.
“Our target is to prepare the whole squad for the Premier League,” said Pellegrini. “It’s important always to win a trophy and to start winning of course is important.”
The former Real Madrid and Malaga head coach who succeeded Roberto Mancini this summer also highlighted the importance of giving as many of his players as possible match time in the competitive environment of the Barclays Asia Trophy in order to prepare them for their opening match of the season, which kicks off on 19 August at home to Newcastle United.
“I’m not going to play just with one team and leave all the other players without minutes,” the 59-year-old said. “We’re going to play all the players in the pre-season matches, and if by doing that we can win, then perfect.”
GOLDEN BOLLOX 18-7-2010
MARIO BALOTELLI'S transfer to Manchester City is back on after they offered £20million for the Inter striker.
Balotelli, 19, is one of the most wanted men in Europe, but City are the only team to come close to Inter's valuation.
City's football administrator Brian Marwood has been in Milan and offered Eastlands flop Robinho as bait.
Marwood has also offered Robinho to AC Milan as the club continue their whistlestop tour of Europe buying up the most expensive players.
Balotelli had a hard spell under former Inter boss Jose Mourinho, but he previously worked under Roberto Mancini, now at City.
The striker has already won three Italian Serie A titles.
Inter have always insisted Balotelli is not for sale, but City's enormous wealth is beginning to turn heads as new Inter boss Rafa Benitez builds a team in his mould.
MANCHESTER CITY are out to pinch Fabio Capello's England assistant Franco Baldini.
The megabucks outfit want the Italian to leave the FA and join them in a senior role in their management team.
Baldini has been working as Capello's general manager, trusted assistant and fixer since the pair took the jobs with the FA, but there have been recent hints that he would like a change – and possibly return to Italy.
However, Baldini, 49, may be tempted by the chance to join manager Roberto Mancini's backroom team and help chief executive Garry Cook and Brian Marwood with his experience of football at home and abroad.
Cook already has a big staff but is open to improvement and Baldini is highly respected within the game and a known organiser at all levels.
If Baldini joins City, it would bring forward the shake-up in Capello's England staff that People Sport revealed was on the cards last week – which has since been confirmed.
Meanwhile, City last night confirmed that former Italy winger Attilio Lombardo has joined ex-Sampdoria team mate Mancini's backroom staff.
Former boxing world champion Ricky Hatton is to give up his executive box at Manchester City after the club raised the price of it from £22,000 last season to £39,000 for the coming campaign. Sunday Mirror
Yaya Toure: 'I need to improve next season'
Manchester City midfielder Yaya Toure has admitted that he needs to improve next season to keep his place in the side.
The Ivorian has said that whoever the club signs this summer will provide him with more competition, meaning that he will have to remain at an optimum level in order to retain his place in City's starting XI.
"There are a lot of signings that the club has made and I am sure that will have a positive impact on the side," Toure told Goal.com.
"With that in mind, I need to up my game and make sure that I am at my peak at all times. I am also hoping that I will stay injury free for the whole season so that I will be able to deliver.
"Looking at our preparations and with the new manager on board, I am confident that things will be better [next season]."
City have already added Jesus Navas, Fernandinho and Alvaro Negredo to their
squad this summer.
Jack Rodwell expresses Barcelona plan
Manchester City midfielder Jack Rodwell has revealed that new manager Manuel Pellegrini wants them to play like Barcelona.
The Chilean took over at the Etihad this summer following the sacking of Roberto Mancini, and he has expressed several times his desire for the club to play an attractive style of football.
Rodwell admits that these plans have excited the players, and looks forward to performing under the new boss.
"Pellegrini likes us to press high up and press in numbers, to get the ball back as soon as possible and then play simple football," Pellegrini told The Sun. "He wants us to keep the ball until we're in the final third and then see.
"It's early and he hasn't gone into too much detail - he's gradually drip-feeding us.
"You look at Barcelona and what they do and it works for them so hopefully we'll adapt."
City got off to a losing start under Pellegrini in their first pre-season game as they were defeated 2-0 to South African side Supersport United.
Ron Dellow isn’t the best known of the Blues’ former stars but he’s got a fantastic tale to tell
Ron Dellow with [inset] City’s team photo ahead of the 1935-36 season, back row, left to right Tom Chorlton (trainer), Bill Dale, Matt Busby, Sam Cowan, Frank Swift, Robert Donnelly, Jackie Bray, Jack Percival, Sam Barkas, Laurie Barnett (assistant trainer). Front row: Ron Dellow, Bobby Marshall, Ernie Toseland, Alec Herd, Jimmy Heale, Fred Tilson, Eric Brook.
He scored two goals on his home debut to send City top of the league, undertook a death-defying number of bombing missions over Germany during the war, then masterminded one of the great cup upsets in world football.
But Ron Dellow’s story is not cut from the Boy’s Own annual, it is the truth – and the Blues’ oldest surviving player, at the age of 99, is still telling it.
The amazing pensioner celebrated his 99th birthday at the weekend, had a heart attack on Monday – but was still keen to talk to M.u.E.N. Sport when he heard we were interested in his incredible story.
George Smith had been thought to be the oldest City player when he died on Sunday, at the age of 92.
But author Robert O’Driscoll, currently compiling a book about every City player in history, recently came across Ron, who has lived in Holland for 65 years after emigrating there just after the war.
Born in Crosby in July 1914 – two weeks before the outbreak of World War One – Ron had a trial for Liverpool as a youngster. But when they failed to follow up their interest and a spell at Blackburn came to nothing, he signed for Mansfield Town.
Some eye-catching performances for the Stags in the 1934-35 season, in which he scored 10 goals in 29 games, saw City move in and pay a £2,000 fee.
Ron only played 10 games for the great City side of the Thirties, but he scored four goals from the right wing after replacing the great Ernie Toseland in a fabulous team which also included Matt Busby, Frank Swift, Eric Brook and Alec Herd.
“That was a great team, and it was special to replace Ernie, who was as quick as anything,” Ron said, from his home in Almelo.
“I am proud of my time at City and still watch them on television whenever I can.”
He netted on his debut, in March 1935, in a 2-1 win at Derby, with Herd getting the other, and in his home debut he scored twice in a 4-1 win over Aston Villa at Maine Road. Ron has a newspaper cutting which proclaims ‘Dellow scores twice to send City top’, but the glory was to be short-lived.
In his own words he then fell into ‘bad company’ after suffering an ankle injury, enjoying a drink with a wayward teammate. He lost his form and moved on to Tranmere – who he helped to promotion in 1938, and promptly scored against City, who were relegated in the same season.
But his footballing exploits paled into insignificance after he joined the Royal Air Force.
Ron became a Lancaster bomber pilot during World War Two and is said to have flown an incredible 31 missions over Germany, at a time when life expectancy was an average of five missions. The man himself was modest about the matter, saying: “I didn’t keep count of how many times I flew!”
Ron had to ditch twice in the North Sea as his plane limped back from raids, and remembers being rescued by fishermen: “The most annoying thing was that when they pulled me out, there was a fish that wouldn’t leave my toes alone!”
After the war, Ron headed over to Holland to begin a new adventure, playing cricket.
“I once took nine wickets for nine runs – I bowled like a demon,” he said with a laugh.
He met his future wife, settled, and has remained there ever since.
He went on to forge an impressive career as a coach, starting young Arnold Muhren along the path to stardom by giving him his debut for Volendam as a 17-year-old in 1968. Muhren, by a twist of fate, went on to become an Ajax star and a hero to Ipswich and Manchester United fans in the early 1980s.
Ron’s Volendam team was known for its technical excellence, and Ron said: “I made Muhren into a player.
“I saw him in the street, took him to play for me, and then the club sold him to Ajax for a couple of million.”
Muhren crossed paths with Dellow again, in 1974, when he was a star name in the brilliant Ajax side which also boasted World Cup stars Arie Haan and Johnny Rep.
Dellow was in charge of second division Heracles, who shocked Ajax with a 4-2 win in extra time in a Dutch Cup tie – one of the great upsets of Dutch football history. Goalkeeper Arend Steunenberg was one of the heroes of that game, and he still visits Ron to this day, while grateful fans had a road named after their giant-killing manager in his adopted town of Almelo – it is called ‘Ron Dellow Laan’.
Ron was not as impressed as everyone else. Interviewed after the game, he said: “You play the best team in the world and win, and you feel like world champions – but we need to show the same next week against Den Bosch!”
Ron continued coaching at an amateur level until he was 85, and has remained remarkably bright and breezy despite his advanced years.
Despite his recent health, few would back against Ron adding a century to his football, and cricket, exploits.
City launches multilingual online presence
English Premier League club Manchester City has launched what it claims to be the broadest multilingual website offering in world football.
In addition to its official site in English and existing Arabic and Mandarin Chinese versions, City will now provide exclusive online content in Traditional Chinese, French, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Thai.
The online roll-out means City now caters for the native languages of up to 80% of the world’s internet population in more than 160 countries. Overseas fans will be directed automatically to their countries’ native language websites depending on their global location.
Manchester City CEO Ferran Soriano said: “Manchester City’s popularity and global fan base is growing at a fast pace. We want to talk to our fans and friends in their own language to engage with them in new ways. We are very proud of this initiative.”
Where Next for Gareth Barry? Compared to Gerrard, Arteta, Dembele & Mikel
Amongst the millions of pounds lavished on the cream of the European crop there actually may be a few bargains to be had if you look a little closer to home. With the powers that be at Manchester City flashing the cash to bring in top talent, such as Fernandinho and Jesus Navas, to launch a new assault on Manchester United’s domestic crown, players like Gareth Barry have been pushed to the sides to pave way for the new order. Barry himself was one of the initial wave of sheikh backed transfers to join City in the Summer of 2009, for a reported fee of £12 million, but it now seems like his services may no longer be required on a regular basis and may look to pursue interest from elsewhere in a bid for first team football. With Arsenal being heavily linked in the British press, could Barry be a high quality potential recruitment not just for them but any aspiring club facing a fight for European Football next season?
At the age of 32 Barry is approaching the latter stages of his career but with the likes of Steven Gerrard, 33, and Frank Lampard, 35, showing that age is no limit for the modern footballer he still could have a few more seasons at the top level left in his legs. Barry is an experienced international player, with 53 caps for England, and has been part of the Manchester City Midfield since 2009. In that time he racked up 132 Premier League appearances and featured in both of Manchester City’s, fairly disastrous, Champions League campaigns. He does, however, have both an FA cup and Premier League winners medal to his name. He offers genuine experience to any club willing to take the gamble on an older player, as he was part of Manchester City’s initial push for Champions League football before becoming an integral part of the title winning team of 2011/12. The paper rumor mill puts his price at around £4 million, which with the new TV deal is nothing to most clubs, but with wages approaching the six figure mark it would be hard pressed to find few clubs that could afford his services. However, for clubs pushing for champions league football and more, such as Arsenal, Liverpool and Tottenham, he may just be within reach.
The 2012/13 campaign was not a successful campaign for Barry or anyone associated with Manchester City football club as they failed to even put up a decent fight in the defence of their Premier League trophy. Barry also found that he had more competition in midfield with the acquisitions of Jack Rodwell and Javi Garcia. This resulted in a reduction in the amount of first team appearances, with a total of 31 starts and 3 substitute appearances in 2011/12 to 27 starts and 4 substitute appearances in 2012/13. It is hard to nail down a defined position for Gareth Barry as he is not really a specialized, well, anything. He does not have the box to box nature the likes of Toure or Gerrard of yesteryear, he is not a dedicated defensive midfielder or deep lying play maker. Rather he is a ‘platform’ player that team’s can build their midfield and team around knowing that he will do a solid 7/8 out of ten no matter what role he has to fill yet he will never truly excel at any particular skill set. In 2011/12 Barry often found himself playing alongside the muscular Yaya Toure in a more withdrawn defensive role, or Nigel De Jong as a paired screen for the back four and acting as a base for the more forward thinking flair players ahead of him. Yet in 2012/13 he found himself alongside the more defensively orientated Garcia and, therefore, had more license to be more involved higher up the field, especially when City shifted into a 5-3-2 formation.
Barry’s defensive contribution decreased from 2011/12 to 2012/13. As mentioned before this could be due to playing alongside Yaya Toure in 11/12 where he would have had more defensive responsibilities. Yet, despite being involved in fewer ground 50-50 challenges Barry’ tackles success rate improved by 9.1%. On top of this Barry was dribbled past 10 fewer times in only a total of 342 fewer minutes of football. Worryingly though he was unable to keep up an impressive interception every 38.04 minutes of football played as this dropped to one every 54.48 minutes. Both these stats could have been impacted by the change in Barry’s 2012/13 role.
As the slightly more advanced midfielder, knowing he had the protective cover of Garcia behind him, he was able to move forward into the midfield battle resulting in less space for individuals to dribble past him, but more opportunities to pass the ball around him into the space left behind him. This meant that he was not able to pick up as many loose balls aimed towards the forwards and rather his interceptions were less plentiful but could be more hurtful to the opposition. Furthermore, with Barry having a higher tackling percentage in 12/13 it could be theorised that individuals were unable to get past him as easily as he used his experience to take the ball off them. One final footnote should be that it is often seen that age can creep up on professional footballers, with pace one of the first attributes to decline, so perhaps Barry was unable to gamble on as many interceptions in 2012/13 as he was unsure of his ability to get there was the same as the year before.
A comparison of Barry’s passing and creativity statistics also highlights Barry’s midfield duties evolving into a more advanced role than the previous year. Despite making fewer attacking passes, mainly due to playing fewer minutes, it is interesting that Barry played more final third passes at a 4% higher accuracy than the year before. This culminated in Barry creating an open play chance, including assist and clear-cut chances, every 60 minutes in 12/13 compared to 83 in 11/12, a massive 23 minutes difference.
How does he compare to others?
What these statistics show is that on one level, it can be seen that Barry’s defensive performances have declined whilst his offensive performances have increased. The reason behind this could be due to his development as a player, but at the age of 32 it is doubtful, or the expansion of this role at Manchester City from a defensive ‘platform’ to a more offensive one. I still refer to Barry as a ‘platform’ player here simply because he does not fulfil the usual criteria associated with a true defensive midfielder, strong, powerful with bundles of energy, rather he uses his skill and experience to suit the needs of the team. Similarly as a more offensive player he is still a platform for attacks to build but lacks the true flair and finesse of a true attacking midfielder. This does showcase Barry’s versatility but also highlights a weakness, his ability to play as part of a two man midfield. As part of a three he can shine alongside a more defensive player and a more attacking player and can be the central clog in the machine fulfilling both attacking and defensive roles on a needs must basis, but in a two he doesn’t have any stand out qualities to really make his mark on a game. Yet with the majority of the top teams in European and domestic football playing a variation of the 4-3-3 formation there is still plenty of opportunity for Barry to shine at other clubs. The question is how does he compare to other players playing a similar position at those clubs?
Defensive Comparison
The players chosen for this comparison were players that fulfilled a similar role to Barry during the 12/13 season. Obviously, as managers play different systems with different requirements these cannot be exact. For example, Carrick plays a more expansive playmaker role in a 4-4-1-1 formation at Manchester United whereas Mikel much more a defensive midfielder yet they’re inclusion add significant comparison points to the attributes of Gareth Barry. Also to make interpretation easier, the top ranked and bottom ranked performance indicator is highlighted in green and red respectively.
At a quick glance, the figures above do not seem to fall too favourably for Gareth Barry, with Barry topping none of the categories. He only betters the average of the group in both tackle success and dribbled pasts with all the other key performance values falling below the average value. Yet, this was when he was playing a more expansive role when you compare his performances in the more defensive minded 2011/12 season then you can see that Barry’s much improved defensive performances mean that he is within 10% of the average in the majority of his key performance indicators.
Again, this just highlights that Barry is simply a ‘good’ player nothing spectacular in the defensive department, unlike Dembele, but rather is perfectly capable of doing an adequate job for a team. This is emphasized when compared to the performances of Mikel Arteta of Arsenal who is performing to a slightly lower level than Barry in terms of tackling frequency, tackle success and the amount of times he has been dribbled past. Arteta does appear to be a more adapt reader of the game, performing an intercept every 8.5 minutes more than Barry.
Creativity: Barry compared to rivals
Again Barry shows off his ability to be a ‘good’ not great creative player with him not excelling in any particular category but beingwithin 10% of the average for the group, (the average for the OPCC per min is skewed by Mikel). Also, similarly to the defensive statistics, an interesting comparison between Barry and Arteta emerges, with Arteta pipping Barry in the majority of the creativity stats except in each player’s ability to create chances for teammates, with Barry creating a chance almost twice as often as Arteta does. This is telling that despite Arteta being more active in the oppositions final 3rd, it is Barry who is the more efficient in creating goal scoring opportunities for his teammates.
Where would he fit he?
For me there is only one answer to this, with Chelsea and Manchester United both looking to reinforce their midfield with players in the upper end of the transfer market then it only leaves the three aspiring clubs of Liverpool, Tottenham and Arsenal. Liverpool themselves have an abundance of young energetic midfielders to partner Gerrard in midfield and, personally, I don’t believe that Gareth Barry would suit the style of play that Brendan Rodgers is attempting to implement on Merseyside and Barry does not fit into the signing profile, Kolo Toure not withstanding, that FSG are attempting to bring in.
Down at White Hart Lane, Tottenham are set to welcome £17 millions pounds worth of Brazilian in the shape of Pauliniho to become part of a midfield consisting of Sandro and Dembele. As seen from above, Dembele steals the shows as one of the leagues top midfielders and with Scott Parker lurking in the background, alongside Livermore and Huddlestone, as back up’s for Sandro, Dembele and Pauliniho it is hard to see where Barry would fit into the side.
That leaves only one natural place for him to go and that is to Arsenal Football Club. As can be seen above, Barry is very comparable to Arteta in both an offensive and defensive role, his inability to excel at both at the same time may be a slight concern, but he could provide excellent competition for the Spaniard as a part of the Arsenal midfield. More importantly he can act as cover for a wide variety of people and circumstances due to his versatility. He could be used to protect the back four alongside Arteta when Arsenal need to see a game out, he can be used to push Arteta or himself further forward and still provide a stable base for attacks to build from. He can be used as injury cover for both Wilshere and Diaby. Most importantly, he brings to Arsenal an experienced head that can manage and control the midfield, someone who has won trophies and understands what it takes to drag his team over the finish line. There are so many positives for Arsene Wenger to introduce an individual of Barry’s ilk to the squad that it would outweigh the negatives of such an older individual joining the team. Of course there will be issues with Barry’s pay package, with Arsenal notorious for sticking to their wage structure especially for someone over the age of 30. Barry is not going to be the star that light’s up the stadium on a Saturday afternoon yet he is the player that will dig deep and pull the team through to get those important three points when they are needed in the dark winter nights.
TWEET OF THE DAY
@clairee_french
Cobham contact has just told me people in the area are worried Wayne Rooney might be the next footballer to move into the neighbourhood (!)
[spoiler]
[/spoiler]GOLDEN BOLLOX 18-7-2011
Nedum Onuoha will fight for his Manchester City future
Onuoha has knuckled down to training with the reserves at Carrington and turned out in City’s friendly at Moss Lane while his team-mates are on tour.
Nedum Onuoha has vowed to prove that Roberto Mancini was wrong to leave him out of City’s North American tour.
The defender, 24, received a loud signal that his Blues days were numbered when he learned that he would be staying at home with a clutch of big-name outcasts.
Onuoha, Craig Bellamy, Jo, Wayne Bridge and Emmanuel Adebayor were among a group of players told by e-mail and text they would not be joining the touring first-team party this summer.
Those senior players have found it tough to hide their disappointment at the rejection and the fact that they were not told face-to-face.
But while Adebayor – who looks increasingly likely to join Real Madrid – threw a wobbler and flounced out, Onuoha and co have knuckled down to training with the reserves and youngsters at Carrington.
Academy graduate Onuoha, who has been with the Blues since he was 10, has been linked with Blackburn after spending last season on loan at Sunderland.
And though he does not want to leave the Etihad Stadium, he knows that he will probably have to go for the sake of his career.
As the first team prepared for victory over Club America in San Francisco on Saturday, Onuoha lined up alongside Bellamy, Michael Johnson and a clutch of youngsters in a City XI that won 2-1 at Altrincham.
The defender admitted he would rather have been in the States but is determined to fight back from the blow of missing the seniors’ tour.
“To be honest, we’re just being professional at the moment,” Onuoha said. “There’s a lot of disappointment about what happened and how it happened.
“You could say that people make mistakes and the situation could have been dealt with a bit differently.
“But as far as the players are concerned, none of us are down in the dumps. We’re just determined that we’re going to give everything we can.
“At the end of the day, we might not be on tour but we’ve not been shown the door so we’ve got to keep going.
“We’re still being paid by Manchester City. We’re in pre-season so it’s always going to be hard. But in any games you have, you should always try your best because you have to be ready for a big season.
“As far as I’m concerned, I’m going to keep going through pre-season. Nothing’s changed on my side and it’s the same with a few of the others too.
“It’s a case of coming in during the week, training hard and getting ready for any games that we have. I think the first team are back in just over a week’s time so things might be different then.”
Onuoha, whose City contract runs until 2014, insists that he will keep on pushing to regain a first-team place until the day he is shown the door.
He added: “I think I’ve been blessed and privileged to be able to play for my home-town club so many times.
“I’d love to stay and fight, and until someone tells me to jog on then I’ll keep trying.”
But having returned from his year in the North East to find he no longer has his own locker at City’s Carrington training ground, he knows the signs are not good.
“There have been a few structural changes since I’ve been away but that seems to happen every year anyway,” he said.
“I don’t have a locker, I don’t have a squad number now, but other than that, it’s same as.”
Shaun Wright-Phillips is desperate to prove he has a future with Manchester City.
The winger is in the final year of his contract and looks certain to be on his way out, The Sun reports.
But boss Roberto Mancini was impressed as he started and scored in City''s North American tour opener against Club America on Saturday and the Italian will keep the door open.
Wright-Phillips, 29, was quoted, as saying: "I''m working hard and I have no intention of going anywhere else. If they want to keep me I want to be here. That would be my ideal scenario and I''ve told the manager that.”
Manchester City's Kieran Trippier avoids a Bellamy rollicking
Craig Bellamy was outshone at Moss Lane by a 20-year-old full-back without a senior City appearance – but was happy to let it slide.
Bellamy was the biggest name on the pitch as a City XI won at Altrincham yet it was Kieran Trippier who stole the show.
Trippier, who captained a Blues side made up of youngsters and senior fringe players, struck a long-range winner two minutes before half-time after Joan Angel Roman had cancelled out Damian Reeves’ penalty.
It was the perfect way for the defender to celebrate his new three-year City contract, signed on Friday.
And afterwards, Bellamy – who played for 55 minutes before making a speedy exit – was happy to let Trippier do the talking.
The young right-back, a product of the City Academy, admitted that he had risked the Wales international’s wrath by going for goal. Trippier said: “I pushed forward and thought ‘I’m going to have a go here.’ But I had Bellamy screaming at me on the other side.
“I’m glad it went in otherwise I’d have got a bit of a rollicking. When it went in, he said: ‘I was going to rollick you then.’ And he started laughing.
“That’s what he’s like. He’s a good guy, and I’ve learned a lot from him.”
Trippier, who spent last season on loan at Championship side Barnsley, is keen to get some more first-team action under his belt this season but has acknowledged he will probably need to go out on loan again.
He said: “If a team came in for me with a loan offer, I’d consider it because I want to play games. Last season I played more than 35 games.
“I want to better myself, I’m only young and I need to learn. Going into the Championship would benefit me.”
Reserve team coach Andy Welsh was able to call on Bellamy and Nedum Onuoha after both were left out of City’s pre-season tour of North America.
Wayne Bridge and Jo had also been considered for the game but both were left out after suffering slight knocks in training, while Shay Given missed out as he finalised today’s move to Aston Villa.
Michael Johnson played the first 45 minutes as he continues his fightback from a near three-year injury nightmare and is set for another run-out when Welsh takes a City XI to Stalybridge on Wednesday.
Alty went in front after 90 seconds when Courtney Meppen-Walter brought down Shaun Densmore and Reeves drove the penalty under keeper Ian Lawlor.
Spanish youngster Roman stroked in a 35th-minute equaliser before Trippier struck the winner just before the break.
Devante Cole, 16-year-old son of former United and City striker Andy Cole, impressed as a second-half substitute with a powerful run and shot, well saved by on-trial keeper Josh Ollerenshaw, released by Oldham.
And there was a solid City debut too from Holland Under-17 centre-back Karim Rekik, just signed from Feyenoord.
Welsh said: “I thought the senior players were terrific, and I think the young boys can learn an unbelievable amount just from playing alongside them.
“Craig was desperate to play. He’s a fantastic professional. Nedum and Michael wanted to play too.
“Michael has had a tough time but he’s worked really well in training and it will get a bit of ring rust off him.”
Altrincham boss Lee Sinnott said: “It was a good test for us against a strong City side.”
Umbro, another casualty of THAT MODERN FOOTBALL?
(I've still not forgotten/forgiven them for whoring themselves to the swamp-dwellers ... so Fuck 'em)
If you’re one of those people that doesn’t take an interest in the unveiling of new kits let me tell you about something that I have noticed; umbro don’t seem to be making kits anymore.
Twelve months ago things were very different, umbro were everywhere! England, Ireland and Sweden wore umbro in Euro 2012. Man City and Lille won their national leagues in umbro, Atheltic Bilbao reached the Europa League final in umbro. Last August Southampton, Blackburn Rovers, Nottingham Forest, Rangers, Huddersfield Town, Cowdenbeath, Peru, Peterhead, Wales and New York Cosmos all proudly word umbro.
The only teams from the above list still wearing umbro are Wales, Ireland and Peru. It’s enough to make you wonder whether umbro have gone bust.
A simple reason explains why umbro aren’t supplying many kits at the moment, the existence of nike inc. It’s not just that England, Man City, Athletic Bilbao, Blackburn, Lille and New York Cosmos have all switched to Nike since May, it’s that nike bought, filleted, then sold on the carcass of umbro, events that are described in anodyne business-speak in this article ;
“Iconix Brand Buys Nike’s Umbro Soccer Unit for $225 Million
Iconix Brand Group Inc. (ICON) agreed to acquire Nike Inc. (NKE)’s Umbro sports apparel and footwear unit for $225 million in cash.
The deal is expected to close by the end of the year, New York-based Iconix said in a statement. Nike bought Umbro, which was founded in 1924, in 2008 for about 302 million pounds ($483.7 million), according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The sale is part of Nike Chief Executive Officer Mark Parker’s push to focus on the business units with the most growth potential and profitability. Nike, based in Beaverton, Oregon, previously announced it’s also trying to sell its Cole Haan unit of dress-shoe stores.
Nike rose 0.1 percent to $92.89 at the close in New York. The shares have lost 3.6 percent this year.
The deal will end one of the many acquisitions that hasn’t panned out for the world’s largest maker of sporting goods. Nike has also bought and then sold the Starter apparel brand and Canstar Sports Inc., maker of Bauer hockey gear. The one bright spot has been Converse, which has flourished under Nike’s control.
Back in 2008, Umbro appeared to be a good fit because it gave Nike more customers in Europe as it tried to reach its goal of surpassing Adidas AG (ADS) as the world’s largest soccer company.
Umbro also had a long-standing deal with the England national soccer team to supply its uniforms. In a statement announcing the deal, Parker touted the new relationship as a “dynamic alignment” that would make Nike the world leader in soccer.
Hopes Faded
Those hopes faded when the England squad failed to qualify for the 2008 European Championships finals, prompting a decline in sales. From there, results didn’t improve, forcing Nike to write down the value of the unit by $240.7 million in 2009.
Before making the deal Nike did retain some of Umbro’s most valuable assets when it moved Umbro’s sponsorship deals with England and Premier League champion Manchester City to the Nike brand. Nike will be discussing next steps with other teams sponsored by Umbro and some may transfer, Mary Remuzzi, a spokeswoman, said in an e-mail. Umbro also makes the uniforms for the national teams from Sweden and the Republic of Ireland.
Umbro’s sales in the fiscal year ended May 31 grew 17 percent to $262 million after being little changed in the previous year. When Nike announced it planned to sell Umbro in May, analyst Chris Svezia of Susquehanna Financial Group said it wasn’t profitable.
The Umbro and Cole Haan units had a combined loss of $43 million before interest and taxes in fiscal 2012 and would lose as much as $75 million if owned for all of fiscal 2013, Nike has said.
Iconix bought the Starter brand from Nike in 2007 and also owns the Candie’s, Joe Boxer and Rocawear brands.”
This is the thing about nike; strip away their aspirational bullshit of positivity and all that’s left is hard-nosed cynicism. The only reason nike wanted umbro was to divest them of their client list.
“Back in 2008, Umbro appeared to be a good fit because it gave Nike more customers in Europe as it tried to reach its goal of surpassing Adidas AG (ADS) as the world’s largest soccer company ……………………… Before making the deal Nike did retain some of Umbro’s most valuable assets when it moved Umbro’s sponsorship deals with England and Premier League champion Manchester City to the Nike brand. Nike will be discussing next steps with other teams sponsored by Umbro and some may transfer, Mary Remuzzi, a spokeswoman, said in an e-mail.”
From one perspective some might wonder what the issue is; a swoosh has replaced a couple of diamond on the front of football shirts big deal, all these companies are just the same aren’t they?
The situation is deeper than these surface trifles, it’s a symptom of a free-market capitalism that blights and poisons human society. The fact that someone in an air-conditioned office near Seattle is actually willing to put the nebulous ideal of market share above the social costs of potential factory closures without blinking is quite a revolting situation. I find it hard not to detest cynicism involved in this behaviour.
Even without applying Marxist politics to it this situation isn’t particularly pleasant. We have a clash of two behaviours. Nike’s gimmicky shirts made from plastic bottles versus umbro’s countless classic designs. Nike’s brash exhibitionism versus umbro’s traditions of craftsmanship - every teams at the 1966 world cup wore umbro. Scotland wore umbro for 50 odd years and England wore umbro for over 70 years.
Whichever way you look at this situation THAT MODERN FOOTBALL has fucked things up again, more rich history is being consigned to the dustbin of history.
The situation is incredibly sad if you consider it in isolation, when you realise what this rich history is being replaced with it’s too dispiriting to think about. Rich history is being replaced by……
A company that thinks it can change the culture of football with a new pair of football boots
“Football Design Director Denis Dekovic, began by looking at the attacking forces in today’s game. “The game is changing. It used to be that speed was the focus of the attacking side of the game, but now everybody has pace,” Dekovic said. “The Nike Hypervenom is a response to the way the game is changing. Players want to be quicker, not just in a foot race, but quicker with the ball at their feet in small spaces. They want to create chances from nothing. These faster, more agile defenders need to be combatted and the Hypervenom is designed to do exactly that.”
A company that thinks a promotional vehicle is an “incubator” of noble marketing ideas ;
“During the crucial qualifying matches for football’s biggest tournament next year in Brasil, Korean football fans experienced the Nike Hypervenom boot through an unconventional vehicle before the Korean national team’s crunch showdown with Uzbekistan.
On June 11, fans packed in front of the Seoul Sangam stadium were wowed by NIke Football’s new breed of attack — geared up inside an eight-wheel 11-ton industrial truck.
The Hypervenon Truck showed off the cutting-edge innovation of the Hypervenom boot by illustrating the design evolution of the boot, as if it were a new breed, and by presenting the truck as an incubator lab for the Hypervenom.”
……A company that celebrates its own brilliance with hagiographic videos and worships their own version of history;
“In 1998 Nike launched the first Mercurial football boot — a shoe inspired by and designed for an athlete who was playing an entirely new brand of football. The player was Brasilian football phenomenon Ronaldo Luís Nazário de Lima, popularly dubbed “El Fenómeno,” but more commonly known as Ronaldo.
The tagline for the Nike Mercurial launch ad campaign, “Ultralight, so your legs can be as fast as your imagination,” spoke to Ronaldo’s unbelievable creativity and speed. Ronaldo not only captured the imagination with his style, speed, skill and instictive eye for a goal, but he also helped reignite the reputation of Brasilian football. His influence continues to guide exceptional players like Neymar as they follow in his footsteps.
Ronaldo is closely associated with the original silver-yellow-blue Nike Mercurial he wore in France during the summer of 1998. Among a field of black and white, the Nike Mercurial stood out for it’s sleek shape and colourful, speed-inspired visual design. To celebrate 15 years of the iconic boot, Nike has created a Mercurial Vapor IX inspired by the 1998 design.”
The last example crystalises the problems I have with nike. They not only apply the term “iconic” to a hideous boot, they apply the term “iconic” to a hideous boot that was worn for 7 matches by a player that was hardly an all-time world cup hero during the tournament. To cap it all they are brazen enough to celebrate a world cup in the which the final is shrouded by disquieting rumours about their conduct in relation to “their” star athlete.
The issues in this post and yesterday’s Coventry City-related events, events that Ian from 200% tells us about, is yet more proof that football is in the hands of wrong people.
FA Stand By 5.15pm Cup Final Kick Off
Football Association chairman Greg Dyke today confirmed that the FA Cup final will continue to be staged at 5.15pm, despite strong opposition to the later kick-off time.
It was announced at Wembley Stadium this morning that the competition will be televised by the BBC and BT Sport, who have secured four-year shared rights beginning in 2014.
Fans hoping that the change in broadcaster from ITV would result in the final being restored to its traditional 3pm slot will be disappointed, however.
Dyke stressed that the later time - which sparked fierce protest from supporters travelling south to attend last season's showpiece between Wigan and Manchester City - is a necessity of the modern game's commercial landscape.
"The final will continue to be held in late afternoon, which is where it's been moved to," Dyke said.
"I'm certainly happy with that because if you look at the viewing figures for the past two FA Cup finals they were much bigger than they would have been had the match kicked off at 3pm.
"The world changed and we had to change with it."
ITV has negotiated the exclusive rights to England games from 2014-18. The broadcaster had already won England's World Cup and European Championship qualification fixtures from UEFA and has now secured all home and away friendly internationals.
Precariously positioned in their World Cup qualifying campaign, England's place at Brazil next summer is far from guaranteed, but Dyke is confident they will be involved.
"I think we will qualify for the World Cup. It would be pretty awful if we didn't, but I think we will," he said.
Dyke was speaking for the first time since replacing David Bernstein as chairman last Saturday, but the 66-year-old refused to elaborate on his plans for the FA.
"I will outline my top priority in the next few weeks, but clearly there are some issues in English football that need to be sorted and that's what we'll try to do," he said.
"I won't say any more just now, but I will outline them one at a time over a period of time."
Dyke welcomed the FA Cup's return to the BBC for the first time since 2008 and stressed that the competition still had an important role to play in club football despite the continual growth of the Premier League.
"Financially it's quite a jump in money from this year to the next, but also the fact that it's going on the BBC means there will be a lot of coverage across many outlets that help promote the FA Cup," he said.
"We've also got a pay deal with BT, which we're pleased about. Remember, all the money from the FA Cup goes back into football, it doesn't go to players' wages.
"There was some fairly intense competition for the rights, but they've ended up where we expected them to.
"I believe the FA Cup is still the greatest club cup competition in the world and you saw all the romance of it last year when Wigan won after beating the multi-million pound Manchester City team.
"The FA Cup operates in a different context to the Premier League. Last year I was chairman at Brentford, who went to play at Chelsea.
"That was so exciting and you can't explain what it meant to the fans. The FA Cup belongs to the fans."
Manchester United are making a £60m bid for Tottenham forward Gareth Bale, 24. Daily Mirror
Sunderland are considering a move for former Chelsea and Liverpool midfielder Raul Meireles, 30, who is unsettled at Fenerbahce. DSSC
Striker Christian Benteke, 22, is facing showdown talks with Aston Villa manager Paul Lambert after requesting a transfer last week. Sun
Lazio are keen on Sunderland midfielder Sebastian Larsson, 28, who only has a year left on his current deal. talkSHIT
Arsenal and Napoli have been told by Real Madrid that forward Gonzalo Higuain, 25, will cost £37m. The Times
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger says Manchester United vice-chairman Ed Woodward's exit from their pre-season tour of Australia to accelerate a move for Barcelona midfielder Cesc Fabregas, 26, is a waste of time. Daily Mirror
Celta Vigo are in talks to sign Liverpool striker Dani Pacheco, 22. DSSC
Verona and Iceland midfielder Emil Hallfredsson, 29, is on Southampton's radar. talkSHIT
Harry Redknapp has missed Queens Park Rangers' pre-season trip to Austria, leaving former England manager Steve McClaren to take charge of training, and could be sidelined for at least another six weeks as he recovers from knee surgery. DSSC
Swansea are increasing their bid for Espanyol winger Wakaso, 22, to £4.5m after Russian teams Anzhi Makhachkala and Rubin Kazan joined the race to sign him. Sun
Southampton are considering a bid for 28-year-old Catania striker Gonzalo Bergessio. Daily Star
Crystal Palace are lining up an £850,000 bid for Croatian midfielder Mislav Orsic, 20, who has scored 22 goals in 90 games for Inter Zapresic. Daily Express
Former Chelsea midfielder Florent Malouda, 33, has joined Turkish side Trabzonspor. Daily Star
Everton have reached an agreement with Granada's Guilherme Siqueira, 27, to replace full back Leighton Baines, 28, who is rumoured to be on his way to Old Trafford. Marca
Veteran Colombian defender Mario Yepes, 37, has signed a two-year contract with Atalanta following the expiry of his contract at AC Milan. Tuttosport
French champions Paris St Germain have signed left-back Lucas Digne, 19, from Lille on a five-year deal. Le Parisien
Air Asia tycoon Tony Fernandes flew his Queens Park Rangers players out for their pre-season tour on budget airline Easyjet. Daily Mirror
Marseille scored a victory for football after beating rugby union's Toulon 36-35 in a bizarre half-football half-rugby match at the Stade Mayol. Metro
GOLDEN BOLLOX 18-7-2012
REAL MADRID WANT MICAH RICHARDS
REAL MADRID boss Jose Mourinho is lining up a shock £20m bid for Micah Richards.
The Spanish champions have contacted Manchester City about a possible deal for Richards and are confident of luring him to the Bernabeu.
Starsport understands that Mourinho has made the fullback one of his main targets and Richards is keen on a move to the La Liga giants.
Mourinho is a big fan of Richards and tried to sign him when he was Chelsea boss but had a bid rejected. He has kept close tabs on his progress and believes he would be a huge hit at Real and boost their chances of winning the Champions League.
Richards is preparing for the Olympics with Stuart Pearce’s Team GB after being left out of England’s Euro 2012 squad.
But he is aware of Real’s interest and is open to the prospect of joining them.
The England star signed a new deal with City in August worth around £70,000 a week and has just helped them land the Premier League title.
But he has endured a mixed relationship with boss Roberto Mancini after struggling to establish himself in the Italian’s starting line-up.
Mancini will be reluctant to sell Richards because he offers vital defensive cover at centre-back for Vincent Kompany and Joleon Lescott.
But he would be willing to cash in on him if Real offered a price that was too good to turn down.
A source said: “Real Madrid made contact with City a few weeks ago and Micah is waiting to see what City do, but he would definitely be interested in the move.
“Jose Mourinho has always rated him and reckons he would be a great addition to his squad as they look to defend their Spanish title and try to win back the Champions League.”
The Blues, meanwhile, have been approached by Lokomotiv Moscow about Emmanuel Adebayor after the Togo star’s £6m move to Tottenham stalled. STAR
Gimme gimme gimme: Toure's demands are scaring off even mega-rich Saudis
City defender Kolo wants £50k a week net for three years, a rent-free home, two cars, paid-for flights AND the captaincy to join Al Hilal
Kolo Toure's demand for an £8million contract has put his move to Saudi Arabian club Al Hilal in doubt.
The Manchester City defender is asking for too much – even for a club as wealthy as Al Hilal.
Toure wants £50,000 a week - tax-free - for the next three seasons, with some of the money being paid up front.
The 31-year-old Ivorian – banned in 2011 for failing a drugs test – is also asking for a rent-free apartment and two cars.
On top of that, the former Arsenal star is looking for guaranteed business-class flights, plus the captaincy of Al Hilal before he would consider leaving the Premier League.
There is a further agent’s fee of around £800,000 to be paid in advance – making the package a stretch even for the oil-rich club.MIRROR
Yaya Toure is full of laughs as Manchester City go all Inbetweeners
Yaya Toure enjoys a good show and he’s been lucky enough to have a front seat for some party football at Manchester City over the last two years.
And pre-season is no different as he witnessed some dance moves that wouldn’t have been out of place in the Northern Quarter's finest night spots.
In a routine borrowed straight from the Inbetweeners, City’s sports scientist Tom Parry wows Yaya with a series of slick moves.
‘You can’t teach that, you can’t teach it, it’s natural, that. It’s natural. Look at that, look at his feet, look at his feet,’ a member of staff informs Yaya as Parry really gets going.
Despite cackling and clapping, Yaya doesn’t stop cycling on his exercise bike for a second – the sign of a real professional.
Manchester City are on a meticulously-planned pre-season tour of Austria where players have custom-made mattresses, and officials even tried to get a local church to stop their bells ringing in the early morning.
Yaya was once described by Arsene Wenger as ‘completely average’ after turning out for Arsenal in a friendly against Barnet. Parry’s footwork was anything but. METRO
more bollox later