Khaldoon's comments

Interesting stuff from the chairman yesterday, talking to the press about transfer policy. There was some of the usual defensiveness about the failed Kaká attempt, but the main point was that Mark Hughes is in charge of the recruitment strategy:

"[The manager] Mark Hughes decides on gaps in the squad and makes recommendations on players that would fill the gaps. He comes to me and gives me option A, B or C for a certain position. With each player there's a different value and it's up to us to work with [the owner] Sheikh Mansour, determine a budget and see which player fits best."

I'm not really into the whole 'the press have an agenda against City' stuff, but anyone who still claims that Sheikh Mansour is just Florentino Perez with a keffiyeh clearly doesn't know what they're talking about. Would a galactico-crazed owner really have bought Craig Bellamy, Wayne Bridge and Nigel de Jong in January? Would their first summer acquisition have been Gareth Barry? Of course not. City's transfer policy is so clearly Hughes-driven as to be beyond dispute. One of the great things about the ADUG era thus far is that they have lived up to Khaldoon's promise of non-interference made in September 2008:

One thing I have made very clear to Mark is that any player he wants comes from him. It comes from his requirements, his plan for the Club. I’m a fan, but I am not an expert. It is Mark who runs the Club and Mark who makes the football decisions.

Regarding the details of that Hughes-driven policy, Khaldoon gives only this away:

“We will shrink our squad and add four to six players. Key for us is that we trust Mark and any acquisition is based on his view.”

A net decrease in squad size is a must this summer. I'm sure we'll get rid of all the deadwood from the Pearce and Eriksson eras, as well as a few Academy players who will never quite be good enough - Ched Evans, Kelvin Etuhu etc. And for the four or six coming in, I think we'll end up with a centre back, a centre forward or two, a backup goalkeeper, a backup left back and maybe a new winger too. But we'll see.