Assorted City stuff

• In the unlikely event that you read this more than you read Purely Man City, have a look at the average player ratings for the season so far. It's a very interesting tool in looking at relative performance levels. The most noteworthy points: the primacy of that integral isosceles triangle: Dunne, Richards and Hamann; the talented imports (Petrov, Corluka and Elano) all scoring lower than the spine of the team; how bad Vassell is and the lack of foundation for my natural sympathy for Ireland and Garrido. But do check it out.

• Kit price slashing suggests something new next year. We're only one year into this design, so it's either the replacement of Thomas Cook.com with Singha Beer (as people keep on saying on Bluemoon) or the termination of the le Coq Sportif deal. I can see that Thaksin might want to replace LCS with a higher profile manufacturer, as part of his brand expansion drive. So maybe Adidas or Nike next year?

• There's been more movement, albeit in the other direction, on the Giovani dos Santos story. This doesn't seem like anything other than a player trying not to upset the Barca hierarchy. After all, Rijkaard, Laporta, Beguiristain et al are still his bosses for the next few months at the very least. He's not going to publicly say that he can't wait to play alongside his mate Nery next year. Anyway, it's only March.