Oliver Kay has a report in
The Times today of our summer transfer plans, and the wish-list drawn up by our 'Player Acquisition Group' of Brian Marwood, Roberto Mancini and Mike Rigg -
an old Mark Hughes loyalist somehow still Technical Director. The report states that we are not looking so much for galacticos as younger, hungrier players from abroad:
Manchester City are lining up bids to sign Mesut Özil, the Werder Bremen attacking midfield player, and Mirko Vucinic, the Roma forward, as they prepare a series of raids on the Bundesliga and Serie A at the end of the season.
City have been linked with a succession of superstars — most recently Cesc Fàbregas, the Arsenal captain, and Fernando Torres, the Liverpool forward — but their immediate priority, with their prospects of Champions League qualification still in the balance, is to intensify their pursuit of players such as Özil, Vucinic and two defenders, Jérôme Boateng, of Hamburg, and Leonardo Bonucci, of Bari.
I like this news. Even if we make the Champions League I'm not desperately keen on yet more failed pursuits of established stars. The John Terry, Kaká and Samuel Eto'o sagas were all fairly undignified even aside from their being unsuccessful. When Chelsea were in the position we are now in they didn't get Luis Figo or David Beckham but Petr Čech, Arjen Robben, Michael Essien and Joe Cole: from Rennes, PSV, Lyon and West Ham respectively - young, hungry players with something to prove. Its only been since they started signing huge names that they've stopped winning titles. There's a much longer post to be written on this which I don't have time for today, suffice to say that I think it's in the long term interests of the club to pursue the kind of targets mentioned above. Throw in the fact that signing players from abroad is more exciting than signing players from Premier League, as the relevant excitement factors of the summers of 2007 and 2009 demonstrates.
