In true deadline day fashion, it could not be closed quietly, as yesterday’s events demonstrated.
There was plenty of activity but all regarding outgoing transfers rather than incomings. The Alexis Sanchez ‘saga’ and alleged pursuit of Jonny Evans proved fruitless, while the Blues bid farewell to Wilfried Bony and Jadon Sancho with Jason Denayer and Kean Bryan heading out on loan.
Although the final day did not herald any new recruits, the press have been impressed with City’s summer business.
Paul Merson awarded an A- rating in his Sky Sports column. Praise indeed!
“You have to give Pep Guardiola credit for going out and buying what he needed,” he reflects.
“I would have given them a higher grade if they'd signed the centre-half they probably still need.
“Jonny Evans would have made it an A+ window for them.”
Speaking with the BBC, former Blue Trevor Sinclair echoed: “City had a very good transfer window.
“They dealt with a lot of the issues they had with full-back positions, bringing in Kyle Walker, Benjamin Mendy and Danilo.
"They started well. Towards the end, I think they wanted to bring another central defender in so didn't finish as well as they'd hoped - but they did well.
Naturally, the journalists of the footballing world have been trying to dig deeper into the deadline day drama – particularly the Sanchez story.
The Mirror insist the chase is not over though and believe City will attempt to land the Chile star in the January window.
According to Simon Mullock: “Pep Guardiola thought he had landed his No 1 target at 10am yesterday morning when Gunners chief executive Ivan Gazidis called his City counterpart Ferran Soriano to tell him the Blues' second offer for Sanchez had been accepted.
“City had tabled a bid of £55million plus £5million in add-ons after having their initial £50million gambit rejected.
“Gazidis informed Soriano that Arsenal had a replacement – Monaco's Thomas Lemar – lined up.
“And that the Sanchez transfer would hinge on a deal with the French champions being sealed.
“But despite having a £90million offer accepted by Monaco accepted later in the day, Lemar was not interested in making the move to the Emirates.
“Arsenal then told City that the agreement for Sanchez was off the table.
“Sanchez is said to be devastated by the news after telling his Chilean team-mates that his move to City was about to be completed as they prepared for their World Cup qualifier against Paraguay.
“Arsenal claim that City left it too late to make their move for the 28-year-old.
“But the Manchester club first contacted the Gunners in May to tell them that they wanted to sign the forward.
“City will attempt to sign Alexis Sanchez next year.”
In other news, there is praise for Gabriel Jesus, after the forward executed a glorious assist for his country in Thursday’s 2-0 win over Ecuador.
Brazil’s official website describes Philippe Coutinho’s strike as ‘a work of art.
A translated article reads: “A painting. There is no other definition for the goal of Philippe Coutinho.
“It started with the start of the shirt 11, which left behind three defenders and gave a futsal pass to Gabriel Jesus.
“Coutinho dragged his foot on the grass and lifted the ball over the back to find the striker inside the area.
“Then it was Jesus' turn to paint the picture that already had a sketch. He drew a balloon almost in the small area and had the intelligence to complete with a touch of head for whoever came in speed through the middle.
“Who came in was Coutinho, who appeared like a rocket and signed the work of art.”
Very poetic!
SANCHEZ IN HUFF
Arsenal talisman Alexis Sanchez is reportedly "devastated" after failing to secure a deadline-day move to Manchester City, who are understood to be "furious" with the Gunners' handling of the transfer saga.
ESPN FC's Jonathan Smith reported the Citizens were angry with Arsenal after the north Londoners neglected to bring in a replacement for Sanchez, despite knowing about City's interest in the player since May.
City made a second bid for Sanchez on Thursday worth £55 million, plus £5 million in add-ons, while Arsenal saw a £92 million for AS Monaco winger Thomas Lemar come undone.
The Mirror's John Cross highlighted the difference made by how one perceives the failed transfer, suggesting City were also guilty of leaving their business too late:It's also true that had City known the Gunners would be difficult negotiators, they could have offered the player exchange Arsenal were seeking late in the transfer window, or a more substantial transfer offer.
Smith noted reports from earlier in the week that Arsenal had tried to convince City to part with Raheem Sterling in part-exchange for Sanchez, but the Citizens rebuffed that idea.
Arsenal's failure to secure UEFA Champions League qualification for this season is likely to have stunted the club's transfer prospects, and Sky Sports reporter Kaveh Solhekol suggested Liverpool complicated the Lemar chase
Knowing how adamant their north London peers were to land a replacement for Sanchez given the lateness of the bid, Pep Guardiola's side could have chosen to accept that deal instead of only offering cash.
Arsenal are now at major risk of losing Sanchez—signed from Barcelona in 2014 for £32 million—for nothing when his contract expires next summer. The forward has so far refused to sign a contract extension at the Emirates Stadium.
There's a chance City could return to make a renewed run at the Chile international during the winter transfer window, although it appears any relationship between the two has been soured by this deadline day's events.
David Seaman wanted Arsenal to swap Alexis Sanchez for Yaya Toure instead of Raheem Sterling.
A big deal was made over Arsenal potentially receiving a Manchester City player in exchange for Alexis Sanchez.
Raheem Sterling was the one we apparently wanted, so that we would have a ready-made replacement.
However, David Seaman believes that Arsenal don’t need players like Sterling, and need strong, dominant midfield players instead. Someone like Yaya Toure.
Speaking about Riyad Mahrez, who’s also been linked with Arsenal, Seaman told talkSPORT: “He would be a good signing but, for me, do they need that sort of player?
“Obviously if the Ox and Sanchez go, then they do.
“But I still feel they need a strong centre-half and a really strong dominating midfield player.
“I heard the speculation about a swap deal for Sterling, but I would have rather taken a swap deal for Yaya Toure.”
If this was 2014, you would absolutely want Yaya Toure.
It is, though 2017, and the Ivorian is now 34 years old and nowhere near as dynamic as he used to be. Nor is he the Patrick Vieira type midfielder everyone craves, what with him being infamous for being lazy defensively. Add to that his huge wages and you can see why Arsenal weren’t interested in him.
Arsenal do need a good defensive midfielder, but would probably be better of signing someone much younger and more athletic on a more reasonable salary.
Ultimately, the point is moot anyway as Arsenal didn’t receive a player in exchange for Alexis as City didn’t want to let anyone go. Daily Cannon
Roberts move revoked
Celtic had agreed a permanent deal with Manchester City for attacking midfielder Patrick Roberts before City boss Pep Guardiola opted against the move, according to a report.
The Scottish Sun claims that the SPL champions had reached an agreement with the Premier League side to break their transfer record and splash £8million for the 20-year-old this summer.
The newspaper reports that the winger had informed the Manchester club that he was keen on a move back to Scotland and although Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers was confident of securing a permanent deal, Guardiola pulled the plug on the transfer and preferred Roberts to be sent out on loan.
The youngster completed a loan deal with the Hoops in August and Celtic still reportedly paid a seven-figure fee alongside contributing to the player’s huge wages.
The report claims that the Celtic board are hopeful that they can agree a permanent deal with City for Roberts at the end of this season.
The winger will embark on his third loan spell at Celtic Park having enjoyed great success with the club for the past two consecutive seasons.
The Englishman played an important role in helping the Hoops secure back-to-back league titles and complete a historic domestic treble last season.
Guardiola clearly believes that Roberts has the potential to become a fine City player in the near-future with his decision to deny his permanent deal to Celtic Park. However, it must have been frustrating for the Hoops after a deal had reportedly been agreed but they will be relieved that they are able to rely on his services this season. With City splashing the cash this summer and incorporating more attacking talent to the squad, it is a surprise that Guardiola felt compelled to pull the plug on the Roberts deal as it seems highly unlikely that the winger will be a first-team regular at the Etihad Stadium in the upcoming years.
Sancho rag block
Manchester United have reportedly failed in their efforts in signing Jadon Sancho after Manchester City blocked his move to join another English club.
The 17-year-old was attracting interest from the top clubs in England as he had set his sights on leaving the City. Apart from United, the two north London clubs, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur were interested in the teenager.
According to the MuEN, Sancho was unhappy with Pep Guardiola's decision to omit him from City's squad for the pre-season tour. Following this, he decided to leave the Manchester club as he had reservations about getting regular playing time in the first team.
United were open to the idea of concluding the deal past the deadline day. However, the player's agent was keen on completing the transfer on Thursday. City were also not interested in letting Sancho join their direct rivals, despite firm interest from United, Arsenal and Tottenham.
The England Under-18 forward left the Etihad and completed a move to Borussia Dortmund on 31 August. He has been handed the No 7 shirt at the Signal Iduna Park, which was vacated by Ousmane Dembele following his switch to Barcelona.
A statement on Dortmund's official website read, "DFB Cup holders Borussia Dortmund have signed 17-year-old English youngster Jadon Sancho, who has been coveted by a number of top European clubs, on the final day of the transfer window."
"BVB and Sancho's former club, Manchester City, agreed on the terms of the transfer today. Sancho, who has signed a long-term contract with the eight-time German champions, will immediately link up with the first-team squad."
Dortmund sporting director Michael Zorc expressed his delight after his side secured Sancho's services.
"We're delighted that Jadon Sancho, who is at present one of the hottest prospects in European football, wants to and will play for Borussia Dortmund," Zorc told Dortmund's official website.
"We're convinced that we'll be able to help this very young player to further develop his game and to make him into a valuable addition to our team in the medium-term."
TRAITOR BOLLOX
Manchester City's Walker was called a "traitor'' during an exchange with former Tottenham teammates Alli and Dier, only to retort that there was no problem when the latter was interested in a move to Manchester United.
The pair are pictured hugging after in the post that Walker believes has been blown out of proportion, calling his former club teammates "the Chuckle brothers.''
"It's just a bit of friendly banter,'' he said ahead of Friday's World Cup qualifier. "I think it's been took a bit too far, me, Del, Harry [Kane], Eric, we're all very close. I've know them for a good six, seven years now.
"It's all just a bit of friendly banter I wouldn't read too much into it.''
Asked if Dier called him a traitor, Walker said with a laugh: "Yeah, it's just kind of one of them things that you just have a bit of fun about.
"You know, me and Eric have a good relationship on and off the field.
"We have banter together and I take it, he takes it. That's just about it, really.''
Walker said there was no need to make up as "we never fell out'' and England boss Southgate had no problem with it.
"Well, why not? We spent forever saying the players don't connect with the supporters, they're never open, they're never engaging,'' he said.
"And when we do, we try and kill them, so what do we want?
"We've got a great group of lads who like to have fun at the right times.
"They know the balance of when to work and when to have fun, and that's important. We have got to be able to do both because playing for England should be fun.
"It's an incredibly proud thing to do but it is also got to be enjoyable and sometimes we forget that.
"But in terms of what they say to each other and how they carry on, well, if that what was what was said then that's mild!''
Striker Wilfried Bony was excited about his return to Swansea following a £12m move from Manchester City.
Bony has decided to play with shirt number two, despite Fernando Llorente vacating the number nine shirt by leaving for Tottenham. (Swansea City)
ON THIS DAY 1989:
Former Manchester City Hero Kazimierz Deyna Died In A Car Accident
Manchester City fans remember Kazimierz Deyna fondly after he played for the club during the 1970s
Today, fresh flowers will be strewn all over the base of a statue in the Polish capital Warsaw.
Some 28 years ago today football lost one of its greatest exponents who is still held in as much reverie in the blue half of Manchester as he is in the hearts of a whole nation.
Kazimierz Deyna’s three years at Manchester City were blighted by injury but for those lucky enough to watch him play the respect for him is still as prominent as ever.
Denya was the pinup boy of Polish football and even started alongside Pele, Sly Stallone & Bobby Moore in Escape to Victory, playing the part of Paul Wolchek.
Kazi – as he was known to his team mates and City fans – signed for City in 1978, becoming one of the first foreign players to sign for an English top flight club.
Despite making only 43 appearances for City he chalked up 13 goals, including seven goals in the last eight games of the 1978/79 season which effectively kept City in the top flight.
His team mate at City and now part of Guardiola’s back room staff, Brian Kidd said:
“He was sublime. So elegant. Such an excellent manipulator of the ball. He had so much guile and sophistication. People talk about the technique of the influx of foreign players these days. Kazi was way up there.”
Denya played 97 times for Poland, scoring 41 goals and was part of the famous side that humbled England at Wembley in 1973.
He made over 300 appearances for Legia Warsaw, winning two league titles. He won Olympic Gold with Poland in 1972 and finished third in the voting for the 1974 Ballon d'Or.
After leaving City, Denya went to the USA where he played out his career with the San Diego Sockers before retiring and settling down.
He was killed in a car accident near his home in San Diego on 1 September 1989. He was 41 years old.
In 1994, he was chosen by the Polish Football Association (PZPN) and the readers of all Polish sports-related newspapers as the Polish Football Player of All Time. His number 10 is retired by Legia Warsaw and the Sockers.
In June 2012 Kazimierz Deyna’ s remains were buried in Warsaw's Powązki Military Cemetery.
English football did not see enough of Kazi, but those who saw even a little of his talents, loved him a lot.
WAG OF THE DAY
Minnie McGee
I’ve policed a lot of football. We must stop treating fans as the enemy - Nick Glynn
The outcry against the treatment of Manchester City fans at Bournemouth is a reminder – heavy-handed police and stewards should be shown the red card
Manchester City’s Sergio Agüero tries to stand up for a fan who ran on to the pitch at Bournemouth.
It’s great. Your football team scores, first minute, last minute, last minute of injury time, any time. There are 30 seconds of ecstasy, exuberance, jumping around, hugging people you would never hug anywhere else. It is accompanied by smiles, laughter, singing.
For 99.99% of football fans, violence could not be further from their minds. Goals are rare in football – I am a lifelong Birmingham City fan, I know this. This is not rugby, or cricket, or tennis, where players score with dreary repetition. This is football, where you can watch a brilliant 90-minute game where there isn’t a single goal.
I remember shaking the hand of a Millwall fan when they beat Leicester away with an 87th-minute goal and saying to him “It’s the best feeling in the world”. He was shocked, expecting me as the police bronze commander for the match to have some sort of action taken against him. Decades earlier I remember rescuing one of my colleagues from the Coventry pen in the Spion Kop at Leicester, as he tried to stop their fans singing George and John’s Sky Blue Army, like singing was some sort of dangerous pastime.
There has been an outcry about the recent treatment of Manchester City fans (and Sergio Agüero) at Bournemouth last weekend – after Raheem Sterling scored a 97th-minute winner. To be clear, pitch invasions are wrong, but there is a difference between a pitch invasion and joyful celebrations momentarily spilling over the white line and on to the turf – and that is where a bit of common sense is needed.
It is always interesting to watch the reaction of stewards and police officers when a goal is scored. I see fear, anger, aggression, sometimes panic. For many, it seems the overriding desire is to stop a perfectly normal and natural human reaction to a rare event, rather than taking a few steps back, a few deep breaths, remaining calm, and observing and giving half a minute for things to calm down.
And the crowd almost always will calm down, especially where the situation isn’t aggravated by stewards and police officers diving in and unnecessarily intervening. When players go to their own fans to celebrate, don’t worry – there’s nothing to worry about. The fans will be safely back in their seats in a minute, and the players will be getting on with the game.
The reaction of stewards and police officers to goal celebrations is symptomatic of a wider problem with the rules and regulations that govern football fans, and the way that authorities treat them as a group. Many regulations apply only to football fans, and please, don’t try to claim we all deserve it. We don’t.
The Football (Offences) Act 1991 was written in the flawed and biased times after the Hillsborough disaster, when the public were conned by a tabloid newspaper’s lying headlines and the perception supported by politicians of the time that all football fans were “scum”, capable of urinating on dying fans.
Those lies are perpetuated in the Football (Offences) Act and the underlying sentiment of dislike and suspicion of football fans is preserved in its use by the police and stewards across the country. We’re all hooligans, deep down, goes the thinking.
Some of the laws that govern football are ridiculous. The rules on pitch encroachment are too broad. We want to prevent pitch invasions, not criminalise and throttle someone who steps over a line by a few centimetres while celebrating.
Throwing coins can blind someone or cause other serious injury. If the individuals who throw coins can be identified, I welcome the full force of the law being used. Technically, within the “missile throwing” provisions, throwing the match ball back on to the pitch can be a criminal offence. So can throwing the ball to the kid who desperately wants to be the one who throws the ball back on to the pitch. Simply drinking alcohol in sight of the pitch is a criminal offence. The rules are outdated and ridiculous.
Now that the Hillsborough victims and their families are finally on their way to seeing real justice, and trials of safe standing are finally on the cards – at last – a review of the Football (Offences) Act and other relevant rules and regulations that cover football is long overdue. Inconsistencies in how football is policed and stewarded cannot continue. It is time for an independent, national review.
As for headlocks – as suffered by the fan on the pitch at Bournemouth last weekend, who Agüero seemed so keen to help – there is no need for a review or new laws. Section 3 of the Criminal Law Act 1967 makes it clear that force used by the police, and anyone else, including football stewards, must be reasonable in the circumstances. Force has to be proportionate to the threat being dealt with.
Headlocks are not outlawed (any use of force could be reasonable in the right circumstances), but the only circumstances that could justify use of a headlock are where the violence or risk being averted is so serious that causing death or really serious injury to the “assailant” would be justified.
Make no mistake, headlocks can kill. Therefore justification for their use is rare. A simple reminder of that fact to police officers and football stewards might be enough to avert an easily avoided tragedy.
Nick Glynn is a retired senior police officer. He is an expert witness on police use of force, and was a football commander and adviser for nearly two decades
OTHER BOLLOX
Ross Barkley turned down a move to Chelsea partly because Everton refused to let the 23-year-old midfielder speak with Tottenham. (Guardian)
Juventus have the basis of an agreement in place with midfielder Emre Can's representatives, if the 23-year-old decides not to renew his Liverpool contract. (Ilbianconero, via Calciomercato)
Everton wanted to sign former Arsenal defender Thomas Vermaelen on loan from Barcelona, but the Spanish side refused to release the 31-year-old. (Liverpool Echo)
Arsenal striker Olivier Giroud, 30, did not complete a move to Everton because his wife rejected it. (Daily Star)
Jurgen Klopp had been waiting to sign new Liverpool midfielder Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain for three years after watching him play in the Champions League with Arsenal while Klopp was manager of Borussia Dortmund. (Daily Express)
Bournemouth had a £25m bid for Leicester City winger Demarai Gray, 21, rejected. (Sky Sports via Bournemouth Echo)
Former Southampton playmaker Matt le Tissier has dismissed reports Liverpool will sign defender Virgil van Dijk, 26, for a reduced price in January. (Daily Star)
Everton failed to land either the striker or the defender Ronald Koeman wanted. (Liverpool Echo)
Tottenham playmaker Marcus Edwards, 18, turned down several loan offers in an attempt to fight for a spot in the first team. (Guardian)
Bournemouth turned down a £15m bid from Championship club Wolves for their 24-year-old striker Benik Afobe. (Sun)
Crystal Palace boss Frank de Boer fears he could be sacked by the Premier League club this weekend. (Times)
Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger turned down the opportunity to succeed Sir Alex Ferguson as Manchester United manager in 2002. (GQ, via Manchester Evening News)
Besiktas forward Ryan Babel, who played under Newcastle boss Rafael Benitez at Liverpool, was surprised to be linked with a move to the North East
Thomas Lemar says he is happy to stay at Monaco after Arsenal failed with a late bid for the 21-year-old winger on transfer deadline day. (L'Equipe)
Manchester United defender Phil Jones has denied directing foul and abusive language at a doping control officer after the Europa League final last season and says the two-game ban imposed by Uefa was harsh. (Guardian)
GOLDEN BOLLOX
On this day 2012
Aguero won title and saved my job, admits Mancini
Roberto Mancini has admitted he may have lost his job as Manchester City manager had Sergio Aguero failed to deliver the Premier League trophy to the Etihad Stadium with his injury-time winner against Queens Park Rangers last season.
City face QPR again at the Etihad tonight (Saturday) with memories of the dramatic end to last season fresh in the mind at the home of the champions.
And although Mancini's reward for winning the title was a new five-year contract this summer, the Italian admits he finds it difficult to contemplate what might have happened had City blown their chance of glory.
"Probably you would have been talking with another manager now," he said. "We didn't win the championship in the last second, though. We won the last championship during all the season.
"Football is beautiful because anything can happen in one game. I hope this year we can get the same result but don't concede one or two goals a game."
City were unable to land a routine draw in the group stage of the Champions League and Mancini's team face Real Madrid, Borussia Dortmund and Ajax in Group D.
In the opening fixture City will travel to Madrid to face Real, but despite previous friction between Mancini and Real manager Jose Mourinho, Mancini insists the game is bigger than a personality clash.
"This is not Mourinho-Mancini, it is Real Madrid-Manchester City," Mancini said.
"It is fantastic to play against three top teams, but we have four strong months until December when we finish the group and we need to have all the players ready every three days for this reason."
Manchester City complete £16m Javi Garcia transfer from Benfica
Manchester City have completed a £16m deal for Benfica's Spain international midfielder Javi Garcia.
City boss Roberto Mancini made 25-year-old Garcia a priority after Daniele de Rossi decided to stay at Roma and Nigel de Jong moved to AC Milan.
The former Real Madrid man won his only Spain cap earlier this year.
Manchester City, predictably, were big spenders as they parted with £38m to sign Benfica's Javi Garcia, Fiorentina defender Matija Nastasic, Maicon from Inter Milan and Swansea City winger Scott Sinclair.
Tottenham, as ever, were busy. The arrival of Lyon goalkeeper Hugo Lloris was no surprise but the signing of Fulham's Clint Dempsey certainly was.
Liverpool's failure to complete a deal after their offer was rejected by Fulham completed a fruitless deadline day which will undoubtedly disappoint manager Brendan Rodgers after he cleared Andy Carroll off the wage bill to West Ham and brought in £4m from the sale of Charlie Adam to Stoke City.
City have also signed Fiorentina defender Matija Nastasic, 19, in a deal worth £13m plus Stefan Savic moving in the opposite direction.
Garcia left Real Madrid for Osasuna in 2007, only for the Bernabeu club to exercise a buy-back clause a year later before he moved on to Benfica in 2009.
Nastasic, 19, has two caps for Serbia and made 22 starts for Fiorentina in Serie A last season after joining from Partizan Belgrade a year ago.
The new arrivals at the Etihad will join 31-year-old Brazilian defender Maicon, who has moved in a £3m deal from Inter Milan, while moves for Scott Sinclair and goalkeeper Richard Wright have also been confirmed as Mancini completes his transfer business.
City have already signed Everton's Jack Rodwell for £12m but decided against pursuing deals for Robin van Persie, who went to Manchester United for £24m, and Eden Hazard, bought by Chelsea for £32m.
Javi Martinez was another player of great interest to Mancini but he has moved to Bayern Munich from Athletic Bilbao in a £30m-plus transfer.
Striker Roque Santa Cruz and defender Dedryck Boyata have both left City on season-long loans.
Santa Cruz has joined Spanish side Malaga while Boyata has moved to Dutch outfit FC Twente.
Boyata, 21, spent last season on loan at Bolton and now joins up with former England manager Steve McClaren at the Dutch side.
City's Northern Ireland defender, Ryan McGivern, has joined Hibernian on loan until January.
The 22-year-old left-sided defender, who has 16 full caps, has made one appearance for City, as a substitute in a 5-0 league win over Sunderland in April 2011.
CHELSEA AND MANCHESTER CITY CONTINUE TO SPLASH THE CASH
If Chelsea and Manchester City are serious about UEFA’s financial fair play rules, they have a funny way of showing it.
Chelsea’s Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich and City’s Abu Dhabi billionaire Sheikh Mansour have been flexing their mighty financial muscle once again to make sure that the clubs who swept up the major prizes last season emerged as the biggest spenders of the transfer window.
Chelsea’s summer outlay of £80 million was intended to top the £100m mark until they failed to beat the deadline by signing either Loic Remy from Marseille or Andre Schurrle from Bayer Leverkusen.
That amounts to the second highest summer spend by Abramovich since he announced his purchase of the club in 2003 by blowing £110m on Hernan Crespo, Juan Veron, Claude Makelele, Joe Cole and Glen Johnson, among others.
It not only signals that Abramovich has rekindled his enthusiasm for football following the Champions League-FA Cup Double in May but also represents real faith in Roberto Di Matteo, who was appointed manager only when Pep Guardiola declined the offer of taking over.
Richard Wright also joined on a free as back-up goalkeeper to Joe Hart and Costas Pantillimon
For their part, champions City, after a low-key summer by their standards, ended the window with a flourish – splashing £37m over its final 48 hours to take their close-season spending up to the £52m mark.
After months of complaining that his board were not doing or spending enough to bring in new players, boss Roberto Mancini finally admitted yesterday he was ‘happy’ with the business done.
But the fact remains that if Mancini had had his way, City would have spent much more, considering he failed to land any of his four top targets – striker Robin van Persie, who ended up across town at Old Trafford, Eden Hazard, who went to Chelsea, Javi Martinez, who opted for Bayern Munich, and midfielder Daniele De Rossi, who decided to stay home in Rome.
Mancini wanted six players and has got six – just not his first choices. But he clearly won a battle with the City hierarchy to land Maicon, who, at 31, does not fit the club’s age profile.
But having worked with the Brazilian right-back at Inter, Mancini was able to argue with some conviction that he would be a valuable asset, especially with Micah Richards ruled out by an ankle injury for some weeks.
The other arrivals are of the right age for City’s board, though.
Javi Garcia, a £16m defensive midfielder from Benfica, is 25, while central defender Matija Nastasic, a £12m buy from Fiorentina, is just 19. Winger Scott Sinclair, a £6.2m recruit from Swansea, is 23 and midfielder Jack Rodwell, who cost £15m from Everton, is only 21.
Richard Wright also joined on a free as back-up goalkeeper to Joe Hart and Costas Pantillimon.
As for balancing the books, City did much better than their London rivals – bringing in about £20m with Nigel de Jong joining Adam Johnson and Emmanuel Adebayor through the exit door.
But Chelsea’s main departees, Didier Drogba, Jose Bosingwa and Salomon Kalou, left on free transfers, while Michael Essien rejoined his one-time Stamford Bridge boss Jose Mourinho with a season-long loan to Real Madrid.
Prize money from last season and commercial deals will help offset the spending of Chelsea and City but both Mancini and Di Matteo will argue that you have to speculate to accumulate.
Quite what UEFA will make of it when they introduce their new financial rules in 2014 remains to be seen.
Mancini yesterday actually praised the man he has been at odds with all summer, football administrator Brian Marwood, for his wheeling and dealing – even if his own first picks did not materialise.
The City manager said: “When you finish the season, you have a meeting with the club. You talk about some new players but sometimes maybe it is not possible to take all the players you want. You should have a different choice. But if I get these players, I am happy. I was frustrated as it is difficult to do everything in one week or 10 days. Only this reason. Now I think they have worked very well in the last two weeks.
“The problem for Manchester City or Paris Saint-Germain is that clubs ask for too much money for their players.
“But if we sign all these players, we’ll improve our team. Some of them will come to play in a different championship and will maybe need time. Maicon is a top player and has experience; Nastasic is young but will develop into a top defender. Sinclair plays in the same position as Adam Johnson but the difference is that Adam works with the ball and Sinclair runs into space. There are some differences but they are both wingers. I hope Sinclair can do like Adam or better. “We need a goalkeeper with experience and Richard Wright is good for us.”
After taking his spending to almost £300m in less than three seasons as manager, some might say that Mancini should be a very contented man – as should Di Matteo. Now both need to back up the investment. EXPRESS
Richard Wright is no robot-lizard disguised as a country estate agent
Manchester City's new keeper, remembered for some calamitous strokes of ill fortune, may seem like a weird signing but perhaps his time has come
Football, which has always been weird, seemed to get just a little bit weirder in the dog days of the Premier League transfer window. Perhaps the strangest moment of a slightly fretful summer arrived this week with the news that Manchester City, the richest club in the world, had signed 1990s goalkeeping curiosity Richard Wright.
This is a move that seems not so much surprising as unsettling, the kind of transfer that might happen in a slightly confusing dream. In the case of Wright to City it is as though some kind of basic category mistake has been made, like catching a glimpse of a dog wearing a hat, or hearing someone describe in great detail what the colour red smells like, a mid-range Premier League goalkeeping version of that moment in the 1980s when the aged Let's Dance-era David Bowie reappeared suddenly at the top of the charts pretending to be a regular guy who wears chinos and sings pop songs, but resembling to the child weaned on Wham! and Duran Duran a frightening alien robot-lizard disguised as a country estate agent.
This is not to denigrate the very talented Wright, who seemed for a long time all set to leap into the bovine void left by the delayed retirement of David Seaman at Arsenal. If he now seems less an actual goalkeeper and more a kind of Shed Seven-listening, Tony Blair-high‑fiving, Millennium Bug-solving nostalgia item, this is no doubt related to the fact that after a productive start to his career he has averaged little more than 10 games a season over the past decade, most recently leaving Preston North End after five days at the club due to "homesickness".
Plus he seems unshakeably associated with a very specific era in English goalkeeping, a generation of itchy, jumpy, pink-faced young men maddened to the point of distraction by the evolution of the keeper's role from shamefaced Gollum of last resort into a kind of spangle-shirted quarterback, the goalkeeper-athlete with his "distribution", his goal somersaults, his bargingly self-important sprints downfield.
Goalkeepers of his era often seemed prone to calamitous strokes of ill fortune. Wright is remembered for the injury he sustained while warming up in a goalmouth after falling over a sign warning him of the dangers of warming up in the goalmouth. On his England debut he gave away two penalties, the first of which crossed the line after bouncing in off the back of his head. He also suffered a serious injury after falling out of his loft hatch at home, something I remember with a sense of distant kinship because I have also fallen out of my loft hatch and it is an unnerving experience, creating in that moment of freefall through the hatch a sense of having been betrayed on some basic level by the floor. Perhaps Wright, as he fell, also grabbed uselessly at a piece of yellow foam ceiling insulation, shredding it into horrible feathery strips and creating a mist of falling grit and fibres that stung his eyes and tickled his throat as he lay splayed on the carpet thinking: "This exact same thing happened to that goalkeeper. Richard Wright."
Wright is not the only unexpected new arrival this summer. Jack Rodwell is already providing a mini-Yaya presence in the revolving arm-wrestle of City's midfield. Rodwell remains a slightly confusing player, an almost-prodigy of wonderful semi-talent who looks fantastic and runs around nicely but doesn't seem to actually do anything you can put your finger on, performing most noticeably in the thrusting midfield run-hulk role or more defensively as a non-specific central trot-about, all the while harbouring ambitions of performing as a high spec central mooch-about. Scott Sinclair has also arrived from Swansea to provide occasional midweek jink-relief, and beyond that to reinforce the sense of City's money being spent rather frugally this summer, like the kind of cobwebbed ancestral millionaire who emerges every fortnight in yellowing tweeds and spends £4,000 on cat food and candles.
Of course all three have something else in common. They are English-reared, thereby assisting in the annual rejig required by Premier League rules on "homegrown" players. Before Wright City had seven in their likely first-team squad, one short of the required eight. From this perspective Wright's one-year contract is a deeply canny deadline-week investment, defusing at a stroke the need to panic-negotiate any last-minute bids for English players and perhaps, who knows, shaving a little off the Sinclair deal.
Some have suggested City's low key signings are an indication of a fatal stodginess in the relationship between Brian Marwood and Roberto Mancini. By now they were supposed to have towed an iceberg into dock, cloned William Shakespeare, lassoed the sun, announced the immediate capture of the vast parmesan cheese deposits of Mars. Instead they have tinkered with the base-notes, adding depth and a little regulatory compliance. There is also, no doubt inadvertently, some tactical sense in this. In a market borne aloft on twice-yearly carbon dollar injections City have shied away from domestic bidding wars, trading at a net gain right up to the final day of the window, at which point spending was down 20% on the last three seasons. Intentionally or not, a form of tourniquet has been applied, with a summer of thriftiness – on the basis that the only thing that can compete with City's money is City's money – depriving the rest of the Premier League of that surging liquidity. Manchester United have bought well and Chelsea have their own resources but if City don't go shopping nobody's going shopping much these days.
For now they have two fine young English players and the summer-oddity Wright, who may yet end up experiencing a dramatic late-career renaissance. But who at the very least perhaps deserves his own entry in the transfer lexicon as the Memorabilia Signing: a bargaining tool, a regulatory shemozzle, and another peculiar entry in the Premier League's own grand shark-eyed fiscal odyssey.
Schmeichel begs for Rag forgiveness
I'd never have gone to Man City the way they are now, says United legend Schmeichel
Peter Schmeichel has claimed he would never have signed for Manchester City if they had been in direct competition with Manchester United for the league title.
After spending eight successful years at Old Trafford, when he became one of the club's greatest goalkeepers and, in the absence of Roy Keane, skippered them to their historic 1999 Champions League final triumph, Schmeichel stunned many fans when he joined City just three years later.
Although the Dane lasted just a season with the Blues, making 29 appearances, for some United fans it amounted to a betrayal.
Now the 48-year-old is back in the Red Devils fold as a club ambassador.
And, speaking ahead of a Manchester United Foundation dinner in London next month where he will appear with Denis Law at a Q&A session, Schmeichel explained his reasoning behind his move.
'I would never have played for Manchester City had they been what they are today.' he said.
'The club now is nothing like the one I was at. Maybe the kit man is still there but that is about it.
'They had just been promoted from the Championship when I joined them.
'It was very neutral in the way they competed with Manchester United.
'Even when I went to Aston Villa it was very important that I was not in competition with Manchester United.'
City fans are hardly likely to care as they continue to bask in the glory of their club's heart-stopping title triumph.
However, with continuing talk of disunity between manager Roberto Mancini and sporting director Brian Marwood and the rush to sign new recruits ahead of tomorrow's transfer deadline, it does not seem everything at City is rosy at the start of a season Schmeichel believes will be exceptionally testing for them.
'Change is good. Quick change can be very dangerous,' he said.
'Sometimes you can get ahead of yourself when you change and this season is a big test for them.
'Now everybody wants to beat them. They are not just Manchester City, the richest club in the world.
'Now they are the champions. And any side getting points against the champions will feel they have done really well.
'This is what Manchester United have been dealing with for years.
'I am not saying Manchester City won't do well but they cannot prepare for what is to come.'
In fairness to Sheikh Mansour, other than the botched handling of Mark Hughes' departure, the City owner has generated far more goodwill than bad during his time in charge.
The same cannot be said of United's owners, who continue to attract huge amounts of criticism for the way they run the Old Trafford outfit, even though they have splashed out on Robin van Persie this summer.
With the transfer deadline looming, it does not look as though Sir Alex Ferguson's midfield resources will be bolstered though, meaning a reliance on Anderson, Tom Cleverley and new-boy Nick Powell.
Yet Schmeichel feels this summer's strategy fits with the overall United philosophy.
And he does not believe that should ever change.
'It is important that Manchester United keeps its identity,' he said.
'Their heritage is to produce and develop players, something that started with Sir Matt and continued with Sir Alex Ferguson.
'That should never change. There have been times when it was difficult. When Chelsea got all their money, they got the players United wanted. To a certain degree we have had that with Manchester City as well.
'But big players who want to win trophies and have a profile will always look at this football club.
'The Premier League has been going for 20 years. United have won 12 titles and never finished lower than third.
'That has been done by bringing in players from local areas and spicing it up by paying what it takes to get established stars like Robin van Persie.
'The day that changes and people think United can just go and buy a football team, it will lose its identity.'
The B*l**x tried to get an interview with PS to confirm these claims but he had to rush off to nosh SlurAlex .... apperently
