It probably hasn’t escaped your attention that the champions delved into the January transfer window for the first time yesterday.
City signed Ivorian striker Wilfried Bony from Swansea and the newspapers you’re waking up to are full to the brim with news and reaction stories from Fleet Street’s great, good, average and wanting.
For my dollar, one of the best pieces out there is on the Guardian website, penned by Stuart James.
There’s some great anecdotal flourishes in James’s article which sets it apart from the other “Bony is a good football player…” style stuff served up elsewhere.
Let’s have a look-see…
“Bony is a predator, the sort of centre-forward who comes alive in the box, and his love of scoring has already rubbed off on Jeffrey, his eldest son, who challenged his father at the start of the season to a goal competition and was not willing to accept that any allowance should be made for the fact that one of them is playing in the Premier League and the other for an under-10s team in south Wales.
“I said to him: ‘But you’ll score 50 goals because your game and my game is not the same!’” Bony said.
“Brought into compete with, and complement, the talents of Sergio Agüero, Edin Dzeko and Stevan Jovetic, Bony is a rough diamond who offers something a little bit different.
“The first thing that strikes you when you see the 26-year-old in the flesh is that he is a powerhouse of a man. Once he plants those thighs the size of tree trunks, it takes some doing to get the ball off him.”
There’s plenty more in there, so go and have a read and whet those appetites for the arrival of Wilfried in Manchester after the African Cup of Nations next month.
City might be moving for another striker in the summer, according to French newspaper, Le Progres.
Alexandre Lacazette has been linked with the Club on a number of occasions and Le Progres believe that a €32m bid has been tabled for the prolific 23-year old.
Lacazette has scored 22 goals in 20 matches for Lyon so far this season.
Another piece of business concluded yesterday was the half-season loan of Matija Nastasic.
The Serbian joined Schalke until the end of the campaign with a view to a permanent switch in the summer and the 21-year old told Sky Sports he had no hard feelings towards Pellegrini, despite a lack of first-team action at the Etihad Stadium.
“Everything was alright,” he said, “It was hard for me - in six months I didn't play one game. I wanted to go because for my career it's best to play a lot of games.
"I hope City win the Premier League and go as high as possible in the Champions League.”
Good luck, Matija!
Finally, FC Barcelona boss Luis Enrique has seemingly ruled out the sale of prize asset, Lionel Messi.
Following Messi’s own admission that he doesn’t know where he’ll be next year at FIFA’s Ballon D’or awards evening on Monday, Enrique has moved to pour water on any suggestion that the forward could leave the Camp Nou.
"We all think Leo is going to be at Barca for many years," he is quoted as saying on the FourFourTwo website.
"That is what we all want as Barca fans. We are not thinking about him not being in the team next season.
"The thought of having a team without Messi is not even something we contemplate.
"We shy away from controversy, comments and rumours. We seek the best atmosphere in the dressing room."
Wilfried Bony: Man City complete signing of Swansea striker
Manchester City have completed the signing of Swansea City striker Wilfried Bony in a deal that could be worth up to £28m.
Bony has agreed a four-and-a-half-year deal at Etihad Stadium through to 2019 and will wear the number 14 shirt.
"It's a great feeling for me, it's a big honour to be here and it's a great challenge," the 26-year-old said.
He joined Swansea for £12m from Vitesse Arnhem in 2013 and was Premier League top scorer in 2014 with 20 goals.
The two clubs agreed the terms of the transfer at the weekend, with £25m cash up front and a further £3m in performance-related add-ons.
The deal makes Bony one of the most expensive African footballers in history.
Bony is on international duty with Ivory Coast at the Africa Cup of Nations and could potentially have to wait until mid-February before he can make his City debut.
"As a player it's always good to be part of one of the biggest clubs in the world and it's a good opportunity for me to be in that situation now - I'm really proud," Bony told Manchester City's website.
"I felt excited to wait for this moment and now it's come, it's fantastic.
"I think it's a great decision for me - Manchester City are in the Champions League. It's a motivation for me to give my maximum to be in that place."
City boss Manuel Pellegrini added: "He is an intelligent footballer who has skill and power. His goals record has been excellent since he came to England.
"He adapted very quickly to the game here and I think he will settle in at City quickly. We now have four top-class strikers and I am looking forward to seeing them work together."
Swansea earlier criticised the Ivory Coast Football Federation for claiming the deal had gone through before either club had announced it.
The Ivory Coast Football Federation said: "Bony has signed with Manchester City this Wednesday, 14 January."
But a Swansea spokesman said the Ivory Coast "have no right to comment".
Swansea later confirmed the deal in a statement that thanked Bony "for his superb service to the club".
Bony scored 25 goals in all competitions in his first season at the Welsh side and has scored nine goals so far this term.
The fee for Bony, who has also scored 11 goals in 32 games for the Ivory Coast, is almost double Swansea's previous record sale of Joe Allen to Liverpool in August 2012.
Man Utd and Chelsea taunted by Man City over £480m Lionel Messi deal
MANUEL PELLEGRINI has refused to rule out a blockbuster move for Barcelona star Lionel Messi.
Lionel Messi has been linked with a mega-money move away from Barcelona
Manchester City yesterday completed a £28million deal for Swansea hitman Wilfried Bony - and afterwards Pellegrini opened the door to a move for Messi.
"It's normal we are linked with the best players in the market," he said.
City are interested in Messi after he cast further doubt over his future by admitting he does not know whether he will stay at the Nou Camp.
Reports of a falling out with Barca boss Luis Enrique and have also increased speculation over the Argentina superstar's position.
Chelsea and Manchester United are also keen on Messi but Pellegrini's comments suggest he is on City's radar.
The 27-year-old has a staggering £210m release clause at Barca and would expect a six-year deal worth around £270m elsewhere, taking any mega move to £480m
or
Manchester City Preparing £480m Bid For Barcelona Star Lionel Messi
Manchester United and Chelsea are set to be blown out of the water by the Premier League champions…
Manchester City are reportedly open to making a world record offer for Barcelona forward Lionel Messi, and are willing to offer a fee that would surely be impossible to rival.
According to reports in The Sun, City boss Manuel Pellegrini has opened the door to the deal, speaking after after completing a £28m deal for Swansea City striker Wilfried Bony – the Premier League champions first deal of the January transfer window.
The City boss said: “It’s normal we are linked with the best players in the market.” According to the source, Messi, 27, has a £210m buy-out clause in his contract but put his Barcelona future in doubt after admitting he is uncertain whether he will stay at the Nou Camp.
But in addition to the huge transfer fee, the Argentine maestro would expect a six-year deal worth around £270m, taking any switch to a staggering £480m – a figure that would blow away most team’s chance of signing the player.
Pellegrini told reporters: “At times these rumours come out because of personal interests and not from the club but I’m not saying this has happened specifically in this case.”
Wilfried Bony Will Earn Extra £20,000 Every Time He Plays For Manchester City
Reports in the Guardian have confirmed that Manchester City have agreed an extraordinary contract with new £25m signing Wilfried Bony, who completed his move from Swansea City on Wednesday.
According to the source, in addition to his £100,000-a-week salary, Bony will earn an additional £20,000 every time he steps onto the field. The 26-year-old striker secured the appearance fee after being denied a higher salary by the champions.
City will also pay the Swans an additional £3m – taking the total value of the transfer to £28m – if Bony features in a certain percentage of matches and the club win every domestic honour plus the European Cup during his time at the club.
Bony, who has signed a 4½-year contract and will wear the No14 shirt, told the club website: “It’s a great feeling for me, it’s a big honour to be here and it’s a great challenge.
“As a player it’s always good to be part of one of the biggest clubs in the world and it’s a good opportunity for me to be in that situation now – I’m really proud.
“I felt excited to wait for this moment and now it’s come, it’s fantastic. I think it’s a great decision for me – Manchester City is in the Champions League.
“You remember at the end of last season I said that if I want to move it will be to a team in the competition because it’s a great tournament that I really want to play in and one that I want to win.
“It’s a motivation for me to give my maximum to be in that place. City is a big club with great players with a lot of experience; I believe we can do it.”
City star Yaya Toure pays his respects to victims of Charlie Hebdo terror attacks in Paris
Manchester city star Yaya Toure has paid his respects to the victims of the Charlie Hebdo terror attacks in Paris and their families.
The popular Ivory Coast international, who is currently in Equatorial Guinea for the Africa Cup of Nations, condemned the shootings at the offices of the satirical French magazine which left 12 dead.
Yaya, 31, who used to play in France for Monaco in the 2006/7 season before he signed for Barcelona, said he has friends in Paris and the situation was confusing.
The midfielder, who captains his country, also said in an interview ahead of the tournament’s first game that the media should be more respectful over religions.
Referring to last week’s attack, in which eight journalists and four other people were killed, he said: “When you hear something like that it’s a bit disappointing. I feel very sorry for the families - they lost their friend, father, or their husband, you know.”
He added: “Of course I have a friend in Paris, I have people who I work with.
“You get a bit confused, a bit afraid, because, as a Muslim, I have a friend and they are Muslim as well and I’m afraid of what is going to happen.”
Toure, who is a Muslim, spoke of the right to free speech but added that media outlets including newspaper and magazines should be more respectful in their attitudes to religion.
Asked about the magazine’s depictions and cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in its editions, Yaya added in the interview with CNN News in Equatorial Guinea: “As a Muslim I always believe in the way people can say what they want to say.”
But he went on: “For me, the most important thing is that we know something that sometimes the newspaper is doing a lot, and they’re trying to do too much, and sometimes they do it not with respect.
“Everybody has his point of view. Everybody has something to say about that. Of course it’s a newspaper trying to say something. But sometimes it hurts people.”
Ivory Coast are in Group D alongside Mali, Cameroon and Guinea. The tournament starts on Saturday.
Yaya’s Ivory Coast side kick-off their 2015 Africa Cup of Nations campaign on Tuesday against Guinea and are among the tournament’s early favourites .
Man City keeping tabs on Saints star
Manchester City are considering a move for Southampton striker Jay Rodriguez despite the recent signing of Wilfried Bony, according to the Daily Mail.
Rodriguez has been sidelined since April after rupturing his anterior cruciate ligament in a game against his potential suitors last season.
However, despite a setback in mid-December, he is nearing full fitness, and Saints officials are hopeful of the forward signing an improved contract at the club.
Rodriguez, who can play as a striker or on the wing, is refusing to make a decision on his future with the club until he returns from injury.
The £6m signing from Burnley was tipped to make the England World Cup squad last summer – thanks to a scintillating 2013/2014 campaign – until injury dashed his chances of inclusion.
Having bagged 17 goals in 40 games before being sidelined, he gathered interest from the likes of Man City, Liverpool and Tottenham.
The South Coast outfit are still ruling out the possibility of parting company with Rodriguez, but an offer in the region of £20m could tempt them into letting him talk to other clubs
Frank Lampard's controversial move to Manchester City exposes a potential FFP 'loophole'
Family Fortunes has probably never asked 100 people to name "something associated with Manchester City". But if the long-running quiz show ever did, it would be no surprise to see Financial Fair Play appear alongside Blue Moon and Colin Bell among the top five answers.
For, so synonymous have City become with Uefa’s cost-control regulations that they are almost invariably what first comes to mind whenever news emerges about the club’s off-field activities.
That was certainly the case last week when the Premier League champions came under the spotlight about the nature of Frank Lampard’s contract with them.
This was City after all, the club who spent an age arguing that they were in line to pass Uefa’s FFP tests only to be found guilty of breaching them last year.
Shaking off that stigma has proven impossible, meaning conspiracy theories abounded when they announced Lampard’s surprise arrival "on loan" from sister club New York City in August.
Even Arsène Wenger questioned whether the move had been used to "get round" FFP, despite the Arsenal manager – and everyone else for that matter – being unable to work out exactly how the Premier League champions might go about it.
All that may have changed following the revelation last week that Lampard was not on loan at City after all, but, in fact, had signed a permanent contract with the club.
Indeed, the emergence of the true nature of the Lampard deal has exposed a potential 'loophole' that, were City minded to exploit it, might help them balance their books for FFP purposes.
That is because, under Uefa’s rules, there is nothing to stop the club signing a player on a free transfer and selling him on to New York City or any other team owned by City Football Group when the transfer window reopens.
City would then be able to use the funds to help balance their books, without the deal having cost their parent company a penny.
Where that would definitely fall foul of FFP would be if any fee was deemed to be above "fair value", which Uefa regulations state transactions between parties considered to be related must represent.
However, in such an arbitrary arena as the transfer market, in which so many variables dictate how much clubs ultimately end up paying for a player, how do you even begin to quantify what "fair value" is?
Before the conspiracy theorists get carried away, it would appear impossible for this 'loophole' to apply in the case of Lampard, who would have no resale value to City at the end of his 12-month contract.
If the club really wanted to use his signing as part of some kind of FFP dodge – and there is no suggestion they are even aware such a ploy is possible – they would surely have tied him to a longer deal.
All this still begs the question of why Lampard did not simply sign for New York City and move to the Etihad Stadium on loan.
Considering the pummelling the player and the club have taken over City’s failure to report accurately the nature of the deal, it may have served both to lift the veil of secrecy that usually exists when it comes to transfers. Given the opportunity to do so this week, Lampard’s representatives refused to comment beyond the public pronouncements last week by the player.
City did respond and were at pains to point out that the contract was above board and that there were a multitude of reasons why it was constructed differently to a normal buy-to-loan deal.
One was that New York City were not registered at the time with Fifa’s Transfer Matching System – although that did not prevent David Villa signing a contract to play for the new franchise.
Unfortunately, City’s attempts to explain some of the other reasons did little to clear up a process that remains mired in confusion
Arsenal are ready to begin talks with Borussia Dortmund over a £63m deal to sign 24-year-old midfielder Ilkay Gundogan and centre-back Mats Hummels, 26. (Star)
Palermo say they have rejected interest from Manchester United in 21-year-old Argentine striker Paulo Dybala, whom they value at more than £30m. (Guardian)
Paris St-Germain, Porto and Juventus are all eying a loan deal for Manchester United winger Adnan Januzaj, 19. (Sun)
Crystal Palace are edging closer to meeting Swansea's £8m valuation for striker Bafetimbi Gomis, 29. (Times )
West Brom manager Tony Pulis is eying a bid for Manchester United midfielder Darren Fletcher, 31. (Express and Star)
Swansea are hoping to reinvest some of the money received for the sale of Wilfried Bony to Manchester City on a £5m bid for Stuttgart midfielder Alexandru Maxim, 24. (Telegraph)
Manchester United have opened talks with French club PSG over a £30m deal to sign 20-year-old Brazilian defender Marquinhos. (Le10sport)
QPR striker Charlie Austin, 25, has put other clubs on alert by stalling over a new contract. (DSSC)
Liverpool have identified Australia goalkeeper Mathew Ryan, 22, currently at Belgian side Bruges, as a possible rival for Simon Mignolet. (Express)
Tottenham have joined North London rivals Arsenal in the chase for West Ham's 26-year-old New Zealand defender Winston Reid. (Telegraph)
Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho is ready to cut his losses on wingers Andre Schurrle, 24, and Mohamed Salah, 22 - and may use the money to fund a bid for Real Madrid defender Raphael Varane, 21. (Star)
Everton forward Kevin Mirallas, 27, says he will decide where his future lies at the end of the season. (Liverpool Echo)
Nottingham Forest manager Stuart Pearce fears he will be sacked if his side are beaten by Derby on Saturday. (Mirror)
Manchester United have sacked one of their European scouts over racial slurs posted on his social media accounts. (Guardian)
Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino says striker Emmanuel Adebayor, 30, still has a future at White Hart Lane. (Evening Standard)
West Ham goalkeeper Adrian, 28, is hoping his good form could win him a Spain call-up. (Express)
Liverpool believe they can rival Chelsea's spending when their expanded Main Stand opens next year. (Independent)
Burnley remain on course to qualify for the Europa League via the Fair Play League this season. (Lancashire Telegraph)
Former Brazil forward Ronaldo, 38, says he will try to get back into shape with an eye on coming out of retirement with Fort Lauderdale Strikers. (Eurosport)
Argentine winger Jonas Gutierrez, 31, says playing for Newcastle United again after overcoming cancer will be the best moment of his career. (DSSC)
Midfielder Xherdan Shaqiri, 23, says he turned down Premier League offers in order to move to Inter Milan. (Sky Sports understands)
Crystal Palace winger Yannick Bolasie tweeted an image of himself and DR Congo team-mate Gabriel Zakuani - who plays for Peterborough United - en route to Equatorial Guinea for the Africa Cup of Nations.
Midfielder Cesc Fabregas and his Chelsea team-mates Cesar Azpilicueta and Mohamed Salah seemed to enjoy spending some time with young fans.
QPR striker Charlie Austin, meanwhile, was busy having a suit fitting .
Manchester United goalkeeper David De Gea's girlfriend has been selected to represent Spain at the Eurovision Song Contest. (DSSC)
A dog has been trained by his owner to imitate Real Madrid forward Cristiano Ronaldo at the command of 'Cristiano'. (101greatgoals)
more bollox shortly
