Interest, but no Kjær bid

According to Palermo sporting director Walter Sabatini:

"It's true, he interests Manchester City a lot, but there haven't been offers," the official told Sicilian television.

"There has only been talk between me and one person from the English side, but I said we don't (want to) sell him.

"The buy-out clause is not available for January and I repeat, for the moment there haven't been offers."

Mancini had previously said that we're not interested in Simon Kjær. I think that if we buy a centre-back in January we'll go for somebody proven rather than promising.

Mancini denies Kjær link

It's always interesting to see foreign footballers and managers who work in England talking to the press in their homeland - you get a bit more honesty and therefore a bit more information than you otherwise would. Look at Nani's infamous rant against Sir Alex Ferguson this autumn. Today we learnt of Roberto Mancini talking about Palermo's young Danish defender Simon Kjær:

"At the moment we are in training and I have to think about other things," he told Mediterraneonline.it. "Could the Dane interest us? At the moment we have other targets. We're not thinking about Kjaer."

This makes sense. Kjær may well be the future of football, but does not fit with our immediate needs. With Kolo Touré on African Nations Cup duty, and Joleon Lescott and Nedum Onuoha injured, Vincent Kompany is currently our only available centre back. Kolo will partner him tonight, but then flies off to Angola. If we don't sign anyone it's going to have to be Kompany and Micah Richards in the FA Cup Third Round and Carling Cup semi-final, which is far from ideal. Signing young will players who will become good is very exciting, but what we really need now is an experienced centre-back who will come into the side and settle quickly. Whether that's Matthew Upson, Iván Córdoba or even Sol Campbell I don't know. As long as we can get someone in quickly.

PS Kjær used to play for City fans' favourite Danish side FC Midtjylland.