Manchester City give up on Daniel Agger and go for Diego Godin instead
This is a complicated one, take a deep breath and read on. About a week ago when the Daniel Agger to Manchester City rumours were at their peak, Liverpool were linked with Atletico Madrid's Diego Godin as a replacement for the Danish defender.
The Merseyside club were linked with 26 year old Godin by swathes of the British media including The Mirror and Daily Mail, but now they won't have to chase him anymore because Marca say Manchester City have gone cold on Agger - due to his fee and desire to stay at Liverpool - and that the Premier League champions are now looking at Godin themselves.
In Marca's paper edition, quoted by TMW, they say that Manchester City have already made an offer for the Atletico Madrid player and are about to enter into serious negotiations for his transfer, moving on from any possible Agger deal.
Diego Godin joined Atletico Madrid from Villarreal in 2010, he's an experienced Uruguay international with over 50 caps for his country. He was part of the squad which won the Copa America last year and he won the Europa League with Atletico Madrid last season.
Marca say he's valued at €10m and Manchester City wouldn't find that fee a problem given what they were looking at for Agger.
Sport Witness
All systems go for Roberto Mancini at Manchester City
Manchester City are not about to abandon their attacking, free-scoring style, despite experimenting with a new 3-5-2 system in pre-season.
The Blues have worked hard on the new formation and stuck with it when they took on European champions Chelsea in the Community Shield on Sunday.
The traditional 3-5-2, using two wing backs and packing out the centre of the park to stifle the opposition, was described as ‘the death of football’ by Dutch great Johan Cruyff 20 years ago.
But City, conscious of the fact that the 4-4-2 or 4-2-3-1 system they used last season was sometimes heavy going against defensive and committed opposition, have looked at new ways of opening up teams who park the bus.
And this 3-5-2 will, promises tactical coach David Platt, be a long way from the sterile set-ups of the past.
It is also unlikely to be City’s default formation, but rather another string to their tactical bow, a means of keeping other teams guessing ahead of kick-off, and a Plan B if the tried and tested tactics don’t quite work.
Last season City occasionally switched to three at the back. They did it to great effect against United in the FA Cup, when they were 3-0 down at half time and had lost skipper Vincent Kompany to a red card.
It proved a masterful switch, and an attacking one, as the Blues fought their way back into the game and almost snatched an unlikely draw.
Pablo Zabaleta and Aleks Kolarov were transformed into attacking wing backs, and the system also allowed centre backs Stefan Savic and Micah Richards to join the attack. In fact, it was a Richards gallop forward which teased a foul from Rio Ferdinand, leading to Kolarov’s goal which made it 3-1.
But the 3-5-2 was also used as a means of closing out games, of defending leads by adding an extra body in central defensive areas, with wide midfielders covering back and still offering an attacking threat.
The system City used against Chelsea at Villa Park was clearly an attacking one. It looked clunky in parts, not least when Eden Hazard tested Savic and found him wanting, forcing Mancini to take the young Montenegrin off at half time.
That is why Mancini has been keen to sign Daniele de Rossi, Javi Martinez or even both. They are players who could slot into a back three and are comfortable bringing the ball out of defence and passing it, but are equally competent as conventional central defenders or defensive midfielders.
Yaya Toure and Jack Rodwell could also play in a back three, and Gael Clichy slotted in neatly to that role in the second half against Chelsea – and said afterwards how much energy he had saved by not haring up and down the left flank!
Platt is insistent that the new system is not the template for the coming season, and also that it is very much designed to put the Blues on the front foot and use the sumptuous attacking talents of David Silva, Samir Nasri, Carlos Tevez, Sergio Aguero, Mario Balotelli and Edin Dzeko.
"All pre-season we have played with an offensive back three," said Platt. "We went to it last year a little bit to close games off, but what the manager has tried to work on all pre-season is the ability to be able to go to a back three if we want to, and be more offensive than defensive with it.
"The problem is that when you give the ball away you are more susceptible to a counter-attack, and we did that for both goals against Chelsea.
"Robbie wanted to have a go at it this season, and we had discussions about it. Last year we flicked into a three at times, but we did it tactically, such as when we were 2-0 up with 20 minutes to go and someone puts a big striker on, to snuff out the space.
"Then it was done more from a defensive point of view in the last 15 or 20 minutes when teams were throwing everything, and the kitchen sink, at us.
"To add that other string to the bow, we had to have a good look at it from more of an offensive point of view, where we would have the wide centre-halfs coming out and playing with the ball rather than staying narrow, and we are getting the wing backs high."
Revealingly, Platt said Mancini had leaned towards reverting to four at the back with the Community Shield at stake, but decided he wanted to see how the new formation worked against top opposition.
"We have done it in pre-season and we talked about going back to the safety of a four but we thought that doing it in a game like Sunday was a possibility," said Platt. "We thought we might not have learned a great deal about whether it works from our pre-season games due to the nature of the opposition.
"We are pleased with the way it has gone. It has given us another string to our bow, but whether we line up that way against Southampton, I don’t know."MuEN
JACK RODWELL will develop into a big star and silence his critics at Manchester City, according to assistant manager David Platt.
“He has very good potential and is already a good player now,” said Platt of City’s £15m signing from Everton.
“We feel we have the right platform here to develop him.” Express
Roberto Mancini's anti-Everton jibe showed a distinct lack of class
Manchester City's manager needs to check his facts before rubbing a selling club's nose in it about a perceived lack of financial clout
Everton's Darron Gibson hammers home the only goal of the game in January's defeat of Manchester City at Goodison Park. Photograph: Nigel Roddis/Reuters
Something may have been lost in the translation, not that Roberto Mancini has much need of an interpreter any more, or the Manchester City manager may not have expressed himself quite as precisely as he might have wished, but his remarks on signing Jack Rodwell from Everton must have made David Moyes flinch. "Rodwell is a good player," Mancini said. "He is young, and now for the first time he is at a club that plays to win, so it will be different for him."
Manchester United never said that when they prised Wayne Rooney out of Goodison Park. It was perfectly obvious to all concerned that whatever the player's initial loyalties, Everton were simply not in a position to turn down £23m or block Rooney's progress to a club that could offer Champions League football on a regular basis, but Sir Alex Ferguson managed to complete the deal without rubbing the selling club's noses in the fact of their poverty.
It is news to most Evertonians that Moyes and his players do not play to win. They play so well, in fact, on an extremely limited budget, that Mancini only recorded his first victory against them last season. The previous season Everton beat City home and away, motivated to a degree by Moyes's simmering resentment at the perceived lack of class the Mark Hughes regime demonstrated in tempting Joleon Lescott away from Merseyside.
Everyone at Everton understands that everyone is potentially for sale – the same situation applies at just about every Premier League club from Arsenal downwards, although Arsenal do not always appear to realise it – and given that even Manchester United were unable to hang on to Cristiano Ronaldo it could be said that these days only Chelsea and Manchester City, thanks to their generous backers, are not selling clubs.
That's the way football is now, there's no particular shame in it, though for Mancini to assert that just because City are rich and have recently won a couple of trophies they are one of the few clubs that plays to win is a step too far. It might be true, Rodwell will certainly win more with City than he ever would at Everton, but it was an undiplomatic and unnecessarily insulting way of outlining the difference between the two clubs. If only City, United and perhaps Chelsea are playing to win, the rest of us might as well go home.
Mancini should ask himself whether Everton were playing to win at Old Trafford at the end of last season, when with nothing in particular at stake, they refused to lie down and came back to shock Ferguson and United by claiming a 4-4 draw, denying the home side two points that went a long way to allowing City to get back into the title race.
With their fiercely competitive ethos under Moyes and their proud record of punching way above their financial weight, Everton are the very last team to deserve being dismissed as non-triers. Moyes's team actually do very well, considering the reward in terms of trophies and medals these past 10 years has been nil, to keep coming back for more and keep making bigger teams fight for every point. Everton keep their fans fairly happy, on the whole, which is no easy task when you start each season knowing pretty well you are not going to win anything and you know for sure your chairman will not be flashing the cash to bring in a David Silva or Eden Hazard.
If Premier League football is about anything it is about teams like Everton, whose professional pride and competitive work ethic gives the moneybags teams someone to play. As their owner Bill Kenwright knows only too well, there are only so many billionaires out there willing to write blank cheques to turn ordinary clubs into extraordinary success stories, and at any given time there can only be two or three clubs attempting to buy up all the best players.
Ironically, Everton were among the "big five" clubs agitating for the changes that eventually brought about the Premier League 20 years ago, and compared to the other four – Arsenal, Spurs, Liverpool and United – they have probably fared the worst in the brave new world. Yet only two of those clubs, Arsenal and United, have won titles in the Premier League era. No one 20 years ago would have foreseen Liverpool going so long without a title, just as no one could possibly have envisaged Chelsea and City getting the sort of financial help to transform themselves into major players on the European stage.
But at least Everton are still going. They are still producing players good enough to sell, which is just as well given their bank balance, and they have resisted the temptation to chase the dream, as Peter Ridsdale so memorably put it, by spending beyond their means.
Other aspects of recent football history which would have been viewed with amazement 20 years ago include the rise and spectacular fall of Leeds United, and the perplexing series of takeovers and shadowy ownership deals that have brought Portsmouth to the edge of extinction. Pompey, like Everton, are a grand old club to play for and to support, and ought to be regarded as part of the furniture of English football. Seen better days, perhaps, and both stadiums belong in a museum, but what an atmosphere on matchdays. What a solid groundswell of local support.
It would appear from the latest bulletins that local support is just about all Pompey have left, and unless the fans' co-operative that is trying to buy back the club can find sufficient funds to prove itself viable, the club could disappear.
Not shortly to come back in a slightly altered guise, like Rangers, but disappear without trace. The only identifiable financial asset the club is trying to cling to is the parachute payment from relegation from the Premier League in 2010. Maybe clubs have always gone out of business, even in football's boom years financial survival has often been tricky, but Pompey were in the top league as recently as two years ago and won the FA Cup in 2008.
Yes, that may have played a large part in their downfall, and doubtless many mistakes and miscalculations were made, but in terms of what might have been envisaged when the Premier League came into being 20 years ago, going bust four years after running around Wembley with the FA Cup would not even have cropped up in anyone's wildest dreams.
Just like Everton having to put up with a Manchester City manager telling them they don't play to win. Guardian
OTHER BOLLOX
With Manchester United set to sign Arsenal skipper Robin van Persie, Old Trafford striker Javier Hernandez, 24, could move the other way. Daily Mirror
Midfielder Luka Modric, 26, is expected to travel to Spain within the next 48 hours for a medical and to agree personal terms with Real Madrid after Jose Mourinho's side offered a package that guaranteed Tottenham close to £35m. Daily Telegraph
Sunderland have opened talks with free agent Louis Saha, 34, as negotiations continue with Wolves over 25-year-old striker Steven Fletcher. Daily Mail
Chelsea defender Sam Hutchinson, 23, is wanted on loan by Nottingham Forest. Daily Star
Arsenal have expressed a willingness to sell 24-year-old midfielder Alex Song, but the club are yet to agree a fee with Barcelona. Evening Standard
QPR, Aston Villa and Sunderland are all interested in signing Tottenham and England striker Jermain Defoe, 29. Metro
Blackburn have rejected a £500,000 bid from Norwich for 27-year-old goalkeeper Mark Bunn. Lancashire Telegraph
Everton are preparing a move for Liverpool midfielder Charlie Adam, 26, who will be allowed to leave Anfield for £5m. Daily Mirror
The Scotland international could be replaced by Real Madrid midfielder Nuri Sahin after Liverpool moved ahead of Arsenal in the race to secure a loan deal for the 23-year-old . Guardian
Pablo Hernandez has made more than 100 appearances in four years for Valencia
Everton's move for Olympiacos striker Kevin Mirallas has advanced to the stage where manager David Moyes has opened talks with the 24-year-old's club. Independent
Swansea have lined up Valencia winger Pablo Hernandez, 27, as a potential replacement for Scott Sinclair if the 23-year-old is sold. the Sun
Liverpool owner John W Henry says Liverpool are still paying the price of the previous failed ownership regime. Liverpool Echo
Former Arsenal midfielder Ray Parlour believes the sale of Robin van Persie, 29, shows Arsenal can no longer compete with the biggest clubs. talkSHIT
Midfielder Dan Gosling, 22, is on standby to start Newcastle's Premier League opener against Tottenham as first-choice pair Yohan Cabaye and Cheikh Tiote are struggling to be match fit. Evening Chronicle
AC Milan have signed a 10-year-old girl from East Dunbartonshire after she impressed scouts while on a family holiday in La Manga.
Metro
MORE BOLLOX SOON ....
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