A bit about Nigel de Jong

For those of us who don't watch much German football, there was an interesting part of Jonathan Northcroft's Sunday Times article (inexplicably not online) yesterday about him. Here is the relevant section.

Yesterday City were on the brink of completing a transfer that seems piffling compared with their move for Kaka but which would have been considered a coup in normal circumstances. Nigel de Jong, Hamburg's Dutch midfielder, is to join them for a fee of about £13m, on wages in excess of £90,000 a week. Real Madrid bid for De Jong but found themselves gazumped.

De Jong, according to Hamburg's manager, Martin Jol, who does not want to lose the player, "is the type who will thrive in the Premier League. He's tough and can build up the play, and that's a rare combination. He's like Michael Carrick only smaller. He's a very good professional who lives for football and over the past two seasons has been maybe our best player."

De Jong, like Wayne Bridge, who arrived at Eastlands at the start of the transfer window, is the type of tough, diligent pro to whom manager Mark Hughes has been attracted throughout his management career.