Friday 9 January 2009

Balague on City transfer targets

The Revista de La Liga team do a podcast, and on this week's Guillem Balague talked quite freely about City's transfer targets for this January. It's pretty interesting stuff.
  • Graham Hunter said what we already knew about David Villa. That City could very easily pay whatever Valencia wanted for him, but there is very little chance of Villa himself agreeing to join, having just signed a five year contract in the summer. Guillem Balague then said that, knowing him personally, he didn't think David Villa would want to move abroad.
  • Balague then said that City would sign a 'big big name' in January, and the presence of such a player (alongside a coach such as Benítez or Mourinho) could convince top players to sign for City.
  • Yaya Toure has, according to Guillem, already spoken to City and said that he is not interested for now - he is currently at a club who could well win the league and the Champions League. But he could be willing to talk in the summer.
  • Marcos Senna is interested in a move to City, but after talks MCFC have decided that he is not the man for them - because he's too old and so there could be no return on the investment. Balague said this was bad decision because we could really do with Senna (true), although "unless of course they get this big star who plays in this position". I have no idea who this could be? What big stars are there, that play holding midfield, that we could conceivably buy now? Help me out here...
  • Of Villareal 'keeper Diego López, Balague said that the rumour at Villareal is that he has already agreed terms to join City. But he said of it 'he doesn't really know about it.' Hunter said that Fabio Capello thinks Diego Lopez is the best Spanish goalkeeper, ahead of Casillas, Reina, Valdes etc and would be a good investment for City.
  • We wanted Arteta, and spoke to him. Moyes, though, said he would leave 'over his dead body'.
  • Graham Hunter said Barcelona are very scared of a City approach for Samuel Eto'o, given that contract talks between him and the club are faltering.

7 comments:

newsoftheblues said...

lopez is a class goalie...he is very expereinced and far better than givem

TLDORC said...

At 27, he's too young to be a mentor for Hart in the way that Friedel or Jaaskelainen could be. That's not a bad thing per se, but we do need to think about whether we want to replace Hart or not.

newsoftheblues said...

i simply dont rate hart as good enough yet. I think we suffer at the back through not having a commanding goalie, some one of lopez stature can simply add confidence to a back four and he can organise. Hart has to accept that he must wait for his chance, he must know he''s been very fortunate.

In the interest of the club, rather than hart we should be signing some one like lopez

Unknown said...

Who's the midfielder? I cant concentrate, my work is going down the pan with all this stuff...

BluePeter said...

Whoever comes in as an adjunct to Hart needs to be organised and vocal.
I really rate Hart, but he must accept he is 'a work in progress' and needs to learn.
Having sat behind the goal at the Forest game one thing became very apparent: we don't communicate as a back-five.
With the captain in central defence you would expect that to be a given, only Dunne hardly opened his mouth.
Hart as the last line of defence needs to be vocal and commanding. he isn't at the moment, but that doesn't mean he won't become that.
So the additional 'keeper, to my mind, needs to be the number one; needs to be confident, experienced, vocal and committed and needs to be able to take the initiative.
It doesn't matter whether he is English, Irish, Spanish of Martian, so long as he is a good communicator and is commanding with, dare I say it, the 'Schmeichel' factor
If Lopez can do that as well as everything else, great. We already know Given can.

However, one thing is blindingly obvious when trying to attract the best players in the world - image.

City don't exactly have the best footballing image, so we need to accept the fact we are going to find it difficult to attract the best, because in some if not most cases, money is not nescessarily the prime motive for moving.

Winning trophies, the perceived standing/glamour of the team's location, the glamour (or lack of) of the club itself and of course the manager, all come into play.
So while the greatest club in the world undoubtedly ticks certain boxes, it may not tick enough - no matter how much money is thrown at a player.

Therefore we have to build this month to keep us in the PL and hopefully in the top ten; that may help us progress further in the UEFA Cup.
Because next season is totally different and I would imagine the City line-up in the final game of this season will be a lot different to the one that starts the first game of next season.

newsoftheblues said...

bluepeter.

spot on, i actually agree with everything you have written there

Anonymous said...

Who's the midfielder...?

Essien? Gatusso? Frings?

Although I am beginning to lose the will to live with all this speculation...

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