TLDORC October awards

A strange month, probably with as many bad things as good. We managed three wins and two defeats (two of each in the Premier League), but never really played that well. The best display came in a 3-0 home defeat, and it was followed by what was certainly the worst performance of the season and maybe the worst of Roberto Mancini's tenure. The most worrying thing was the crumbling of the defensive unit. In September we conceded four goals in six games. If you discount the West Brom match (Cunningham, Boyata, Mee, and Vidal in the back four) then it was two in five. But in October we shipped nine in five. We're still well placed, in both the Europa and Premier Leagues. But an improvement in November would be nice.

Newcastle United (h) 2-1 (thoughts, ratings, reax)
Blackpool (a) 3-2 (thoughts, ratings)
Lech Poznań (h) 3-1 (thoughts, ratings)
Arsenal (h) 0-3 (thoughts, ratings, reax)
Wolverhampton Wanderers (a) 1-2 (thoughts, ratings, reax)

Player of the Month

Not as difficult as recent months, when a number of excellent performances have vied for recognition. There were a few decent performers in October: Joe Hart,Vincent Kompany, Nigel de Jong - but only one excellent one. The winner is obvious: David Silva. This was the month where he revealed to us in the clearest fashion yet just how good he is and just how good he might be for City. There had been a glimpse here and a spark there before October but this was certainly his best yet.

It all started in Blackpool. He wasn't starting, but he came on with the score 0-0 and City being frustrated by the very impressive hosts. Within minutes of our introduction he created our first goal. He drifted into a channel between defenders - he has a sense of space unlike many other players in England - and clipped a left-footed cross to Carlos Tévez who flicked the ball into the corner. There were goals for both teams before Silva scored the best individual goal scored by a City player in years. He bluffed to shoot and cut inside a defender, before repeating the trick precisely to evade another. Charlie Adam came to close him down but he just curled the ball past him and into the corner.

Against Lech Poznań he was just as good, but over the course of 90 minutes. It was a virtuoso football recital: pass, move, touch, feint - the whole lot. In terms of quality it was beyond anything even Elano produced; you've got to go way back to Ali Benarbia and Eyal Berkovic to get close. He didn't score, but his crosses for Emmanuel Adebayor's second and third goals were just perfection: the first floated in from the by-line, the second swung in past two defenders from deeper and wider.

In the next two games, both of which we lost, he showed that he was more and just the replacement for Elano I so want him to be: twice, in difficult circumstances, he fought hard for the team. He forced two good saves in the Arsenal defeat (both times with technically excellent shots), and at Molineux looked like the only player with any interest in our winning the game or with any idea of how best to do it. He even leapt into the air to contest a header with Richard Stearman when Yaya Touré brainlessly chipped the ball up to him.

He was certainly our best player in October. He is, I'm sure, the most talented player we've had at City in my life-time. Never before have we had someone so close to the elite of world football. While I enjoy the novelty of this, I also enjoy the ways in which it calls back to former City players. Because Silva - and I don't think this is sentimental or facile - does recall Georgi Kinkladze in the way he runs with the ball. And he does, drift and glide around off the ball like Ali Benarbia, with the same sense of trigonometry and incision. In short, he's a synthesis of my two favourite ever City players and I love him already. The best of it is the fact that there is clearly so much more to come too. He also takes Goal of the Month and Performance of the Month too.

Silva scores for Spain

David Silva scored the third goal in Spain's 3-1 win over Lithuania last Friday.

It's the best header I've seen in years.

You can see every perfect touch and feint here.

Silva love in

You can barely move this morning but for people telling you how good David Silva is.

There's Yaya Touré:

“David is a very important player for us,” said the former Barcelona ace. He has very nice qualities. I played against him in Spain, so I know all about his technique.

“He scored a good goal and after that kept possession very well in a good team performance.”

Vincent Kompany:

"He's an amazing player," he said. "Like every foreign player he needs time to settle in the Premier League. But we've seen a lot of his quality in training already. There will moments this season when he will be very important for us."

And Roberto Mancini himself:

"I think David is a fantastic player," said the City manager. "It's a different situation playing different football, but after one month he's ready to go 100 per cent for the team. He will be an important player for the future.

"David is a strong player. He's played for Valencia in the Champions League for many years. The Premier League is different and every player needs one or two months to understand English football.

"David can play in every position. For Valencia he played either right or left wing, but I think this position is the best for him. People may say he's too small, but he knows how to play football. Arsenal have two or three players like David and they play very well."

Indeed they do. Yesterday certainly felt like the start of something. City fans do love imaginative players (I'm not claiming this as a unique quality of City fans but you know what I mean), and so there is a willingness from the fans to give him time. But Robinho scored on his debut, Elano took West Ham to pieces on his, Eyal Berkovic had a great debut - and so the bar is quite high. But Silva's excellence last night should remind people what a treasure we have in our hands, and how all patience and forgiveness will surely be rewarded in time.

I'm a fan, to say the least.

Silva to start in Salzburg

Roberto Mancini confirmed as much, while talking about the Spaniard's deployment:

"The thing with Silva is that we have been able to work with him only a couple of days at a time since he arrived. He had just signed for us when he went off with his national team to play in Mexico [during the August international break]. Then he came back and very quickly was off again with the national team again, this time to play in Argentina – another long trip.

"I thought he did very well when he came on [Silva was an 85th-minute substitute in the 1-1 draw against Blackburn Rovers on Saturday] but I always said that he would need time because it is very different here than playing in Spain. The internationals are over now and I think it will be time for him to play in the team from the next game."

Good news, for sure. I must admit to being worried when Shaun Wright-Phillips started ahead of him on Saturday. Which league games would Silva play if not those at home against weaker opposition? But I suppose his international commitments have to be accounted for. (At the risk of sounding like Alan Green, a midweek international friendly in Buenos Aires, where all twenty-two starters and eight of the nine used substitutes play club football in Europe is ludicrous).

But Silva was so much more intelligent than anyone else who played on Saturday that giving him just five minutes seemed strange. Had he come on for SWP at half-time, say, it might have been a different game. I'm not getting worried about this yet - players do take to adjust to the pace of the Premier League, just look at the improvements in Luka Modrić or Samir Nasri. But I don't see how that improvement can come about without just a touch more trust from boss to player.

David Silva wins the World Cup

David Silva won the World Cup last night. I wish I could say this made him the first City player to win a World Cup, but he's still technically a Valencia player. And I'm a stickler for technicality. Rather, when he signs he will become the second player to join City having won the World Cup. Patrick Vieira was the first.

Silva was an unused substitute, which must have been a personal frustration given his role in Euro 2008. Perhaps it was good, though, that he was not on the pitch given the tackles that his new team-mate Nigel de Jong was throwing about. De Jong and his co-bully Mark van Bommel were tasked with terminating Spain's passing with extreme prejudice and both were lucky to stay on the pitch after some brazen fouls. De Jong's flying kung-fu stamp on Xabi Alonso's thorax was punished with only a yellow card, when a red would have been more appropriate. I've said before how much I dislike de Jong's malice, and this was one of the worst.

That said, I would have loved him to win it. Not just because he, unlike Silva, is currently a City player but because of all our playing representatives at the World Cup, he feels ours in a particularly meaningful way. But Spain were deserving winners, on aesthetic and moral grounds, and de Jong was one of the main reasons for that.

Boateng bags bronze

All three of the remaining City players at the World Cup will go home with medals, as Germany beat Uruguay 3-2 in the third/fourth place play-off. Jérôme Boateng will join his new team-mates three weeks for now with a World Cup bronze medal.

He moved to right-back, having played left-back in recent games. This was interesting, I've got a feeling he's just as likely to play right-back than centrally this coming season, certainly if we sign David Luiz. I don't think he's a natural full back, but he was very assured this evening. There were none of the defensive lapses that spoilt his semi-final (it certainly helped that Martín Cáceres didn't get forward half as much as Sergio Ramos had), and he had some good moments going forward.

When afforded some space in the second half he swung in two perfect crosses from the touchline: the first was headed in by Marcell Jansen to make the score 2-2, the second was just missed by a flying Stefan Kießling. His best moment was yet to come, as he won the ball in defence and surged up the pitch, linking with Thomas Müller in a counter-attack as direct and exciting as anything Germany produced against England and Argentina, even if it was ultimately unsuccessful.

He could well be our first choice right back. He's certainly better than Micah Richards: he's got all of his athleticism plus a whole lot more technical ability. He's different from Pablo Zabaleta, not quite as canny or as reliable and so we could choose between them depending on the context. But he looks promising and I am excited about seeing him in blue.

Nigel de Jong and David Silva will compete for the World Cup tomorrow evening.

Pre-season plans

(This is as much for my benefit as anyone else's: I had to write this down to clarify it in my own head.)

After a week of pre-season training in Carrington City fly to Portland, Oregon tomorrow afternoon for the second stage in their summer programme. They will meet up with the Touré brothers and spend a week training at the Nike headquarters before playing Portland Timbers - a second tier side - on Saturday.

I think that the following day - Sunday 18th - the squad fly to New York where they will be met by England's brave heroes Gareth Barry, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Joe Hart (who, to be fair, did nothing wrong.) They will contest the New York Football Challenge at Red Bull Arena (actually in New Jersey) with games against Sporting Lisbon and Hans Backe's New York Red Bulls on Friday (23rd) and Sunday (25th) evenings respectively.

There's two more games in the US: Club América in Atlanta on 28 July then Internazionale in Baltimore on 31 July. I imagine we'll fly back to Manchester on Sunday 1 August. Training at Carrington will restart on Monday 2 August, joined by the last World Cup leftovers: Carlos Tévez, Jérôme Boateng, David Silva and Nigel de Jong. (I don't know when Vladimir Weiss and Roque Santa Cruz will start training, I guess Weiss will join with the England players and Roque with the final four.)

Once back in Manchester we've got a friendly in Dortmund on the Wednesday night and then against Valencia at Eastlands on the Saturday. Then it's another free week before White Hart Lane the following Saturday lunchtime. So the whole programme is six weeks long and contains seven friendlies.

My question, though, is how likely the last four joiners are to be able to play our first game? Their first day of pre-season will be twelve days before we go to Spurs. I'm not a fitness expert, so am very keen to hear from anyone who is. Our chances of getting anything there are slim enough with Tévez, de Jong, Silva and Boateng on the pitch. Without them it does not look good at all. Keen to hear your opinions on this.

Boateng out, Silva into final

And so the personalities of the all-Manchester City World Cup final are decided: Nigel de Jong on one side, David Silva on the other.

Silva came on for the last five minutes as Spain closed out the lead brought to them by Carles Puyol's second half header. He played quite well, twice running with Fernando Torres on counter-attacks but not getting the ball. His high point was probably winning a disputed corner off Bastian Schweinsteiger but he had one or two other nice touches.

He was more assured than Jérôme Boateng. Playing at left back, Boateng was teased by Andrés Iniesta and tormented by Sergio Ramos. He could have been booked three or four times over and was substituted for Marcell Jansen early in the second half. He's clearly a natural centre-back but I suspect he'll start at right-back when the regular season starts. Just a hunch.

De Jong v Silva is on Sunday night.

City guaranteed a World Cup winner

Short of teams or players being expelled from the tournament, it is now certain that a Manchester City player will pick up a World Cup winner's medal on Sunday.

Last night Holland knocked out Uruguay, who ultimately fell down on their lack of Manchester City players. If they'd had just one blue they might have done better, but there's one thing connecting the three remaining teams, and it's us.

Nigel de Jong didn't play last night, owing to suspension, but I'm sure he'll play the final. His replacement Demy de Zeeuw, who looks like de Jong from a distance and plays a bit like him too only last 45 minutes. He was replaced by Rafael van der Vaart at half time. While it's possible Bert van Marwijk will start with the 4-1-4-1 for the final it's highly unlikely, particularly given the necessity of shutting down either Andrés Iniesta or Mesut Özil.

Jérôme Boateng and David Silva go head to head tonight.

Where will David Silva play?

What about the actual football, then; where will David Silva play, and how? Fortunately he adopts different roles for club and country, which should present us with some options.

He is best known to English fans for his role in Euro 2008, where he played on the left of a four-man midfield. He is left-footed, but don't expect him to be Martin Petrov. He's less quick, he's less direct but a lot more imaginative. Quite a few Premier League players deploy a creative player from the left, such as Steven Pienaar or Niko Kranjčar. We don't necessarily need to do this, because we do have the option of Adam Johnson, who could be an heir to Martin Petrov but might be something else entirely. I imagine this will be our most common arrangement, largely because of Mancini's enthusiasm for two strikers.

Should he decide against two up front, we have the option of playing a variant of 4-5-1, with David Silva in a central role. This is how he plays for Valencia, as since Juan Mata has arrived to play on the left, Silva has moved into a freer role behind David Villa. This brings the most out of his movement between the lines, his imagination and creativity. This is particularly likely to be deployed in European games if Mancini feels as if we need an extra man in midfield. One final option is to play with a lone striker but to push Silva wide, allowing three more cautious central midfielders. Silva did this for Spain against Switzerland but it didn't really work. He's better drifting inside.

What does David Silva mean?

So what, in the context of the recent and distant history of Manchester City, does the signing of David Silva mean? Does this represent a more valued acquisition than, say, Robinho and Carlos Tévez? I'm fairly confident that it does.

The first question surrounds the attractiveness of MCFC as a destination for players, and what David Silva's decision tells us. We presume that there is a positive feedback loop between our success in conventional terms (wins, points, trophies) and the quality of the players we can buy. As we improve we can buy better players who will help us to improve more. While this is broadly true our resources have allowed us to jump a few steps in the process. And our two highest profile acquisitions, Robinho and Carlos Tévez, both players deserving of Champions League football, joined because of particular personal circumstances: Robinho's desperation to leave Real, and Tévez's insistence on personally humiliating Sir Alex Ferguson. Even those slightly lower profile signings: Gareth Barry, Manu Adebayor, Kolo Touré, had fallen out with their clubs.

David Silva is different, though. He is well-settled at his current club, who have just had their best season since 2005/06. He is one of the stars of the side - even more so with the departure of David Villa. At 24 he is in no rush to make a step up. He has been repeatedly linked with Barcelona, Real Madrid and Manchester United. So for him to choose to join City is a significant moment. Of course the money is a factor. No-one with base-line intelligence could suggest otherwise. But there's a difference between an ambitious, wage-profligate side who finishes tenth and an ambitious, wage-profligate side on the brink of Champions League qualification. This is the difference between Kaká, Samuel Eto'o and John Terry turning us down in 2009 and David Silva signing for us in 2010.

This is particularly pleasing because I had doubted that our failure to qualify for the Champions League would limit our ability to sign players of this level. Had we made fourth I had little doubt we would be able to attract authentically world class players. (By which I mean, the best three or four players in that role in the world. Carlos Tévez might just be one, as might Nigel de Jong.) But without Champions League football I thought we would miss out. David Silva probably fits within my definition of 'world class.' Taking his category to be 'dextrous, imaginative creative players who can play off the flank or behind a striker' he's not quite on the level of Andrés Iniesta or Wesley Sneijder but he is probably better than Rafael van der Vaart, Luka Modrić and so forth. He certainly has as least as strong a claim to be recognised as 'world-class' as Tévez does. And, because of the lack of the unique circumstances mentioned above, his decision to join us seems weightier and more significant.

Finally this is a big move for Roberto Mancini. As attached as I am to some of the Mark Hughes buys, it is vitally important that the squad be refreshed with players fully supportive of Mancini and his methods. It was the same with Hughes' gradual sidelining of the Sven-Göran Eriksson players. It's a difficult process, it inhibits performances but it is absolutely necessary to success. In this way, and in others, I hope the arrival of David Silva is the first of many.

David Silva: Some background

So where to start? How about Arguineguín, the town in Gran Canaria where David Silva was born on 8 January 1986. Within our squad that makes him three months older than Vincent Kompany and roughly ten months younger than fellow Spaniard Javi Garrido.

He grew up through the youth system at Valencia, spending one year on loan at SD Eibar in the Segunda División and then another at Celta Vigo in the top tier. While out on loan he worked his way through the Spanish youth sides, going to the now-famous 2005 FIFA World Youth Championship in the same squad as Javi Garrido. Silva and Garrido reached the quarter-finals, where they were knocked out by an Argentine side captained by a fiery midfielder from San Lorenzo called Pablo Zabaleta, who opened the scoring.

On returning from his loan spell Silva was straight into the Valencia first team, where he has been ever since the start of the 2006/07 season. It only took him a few months of impressing for Valencia to make his international debut at the age of 20. It was during this season that Silva first came to the attention of most English football fans - me included - from his performance in the Champions League quarter final at Stamford Bridge. He scored an astonishing goal with that hammer of a left foot he has. The Guardian's Kevin McCarra wrote that he 'whipped an extravagant, wonderful drive', the BBC's Ian Hughes was very positive, commenting on Silva's 'dropping deep behind his strike partner David Villa, start[ing] to dictate the tempo.'

From there on, further progress as Valencia continued to do surprisingly well on the pitch given their off-field concerns. He won his first senior trophy in April 2008, setting up two of Valencia's goals in their 3-1 Copa del Rey final win over Getafe. It was an omen of things to come. He had played his way into the first team for Luis Aragonés' Spanish side, where he played on the left hand side of midfield. (Now is as good a time as any to underline that David Silva is not Martin Petrov. He might be a left-footer who plays on the left but don't expect him to charge down the flank and whip crosses in. He's much more nuanced than that.) Silva had an excellent tournament, impressing with his intelligent movement and creation as Spain passed their way to glory. He scored the third goal in their semi-final defeat of Russia and performed well in the final. Whatever else he does in football Silva will always be a member of that great Spanish side two summers ago, the finest European Champions of my lifetime.

Injuries disrupted his next season but he was sufficiently impressive to prompt Sid Lowe, the best writer on Spanish football in the English language, to write this of him:

As [Pepe] Reina recognised, "he might barely measure 1.50m but he has talent to die for". Former Liverpool winger Antonio Núñez declares him "among the most impressive footballers I've played with" – and Núñez played with the galácticos. El País says he has "a mine in his left foot", which might sound dangerous – especially for his left leg – but is a reflection of his talent, and there's temperament too: Silva is a tough, feisty little sod, Luis Aragonés insisting he has the "most balls" in the Spain squad, a former team-mate recalling the repeated kickings he took by cooing: "he just took it – he must have horchata [Valencia's cold milk drink] for blood." He certainly has mala leche, the bad milk Spaniards equate with fight...

Not bad for a footballer rejected by Madrid, who joined Valencia at 14 and was singled out as a special talent at 15 only to be dismissed as a "fútbol sala player" and a "myth" by one dressing-room heavyweight when he was promoted to the first-team squad. Not bad, above all, for a player starting his first match for four months on Saturday night; his first since the opening day; his first since overcoming the ankle injury that forced him into injections before every Euro 2008 game and an operation in September. It was, said Marca, "a blessed return". Silva had "arrived and kissed the saint", which might not have pleased Roger Moore but delighted Valencia's fans. The ones that bothered to turn up, anyway. "Silva," Marca insisted, "has changed Valencia's face". Victory, El País added, was "all thanks to Silva".

Since then it's been more of the same. Continued excellence at a club who could not break through the increasingly Old Firm duopoly of Spanish football. His stats have stayed at roughly the same level: just under ten goals, just over ten assists each season. As Juan Mata has grown into the side Silva has moved in off the left, drifting right or playing central behind David Villa. But as it became clearer that Valencia would never really challenge Real Madrid and Barcelona so it was also clearer David Silva would leave. He was repeatedly linked with those two and it is a surprise a move did not materialise: there are whispers about his fitness, which I am sure will have to be managed. But we have certainly bought a star.

David Silva signs

Big news. The deal for David Silva to join Manchester City has been finalised and announced by the club. He is to join once Spain's involvement in the World Cup is over, for a fee reported in Spain to be €32million (£26m). The player said:

“The time is right for me to seek a new challenge, and I am thrilled about playing in England with Manchester City. I believe the Premier League is one of the best competitions in the world and I want to bring success to City and win trophies for them."

"I want to say that I always hoped to come to Manchester City and I am excited about my future there. They are a club with a great future with fantastic players. I want to be an important player in Manchester City’s history."

I'm thrilled. This news is not a surprise; the Spanish press had been reporting that a deal was close for a while now, as regular readers will know. But things can be both predictable and exciting; just look at Christmas Day. I'm lining up a series of posts on David Silva which will come up this afternoon. But what I will say is that he is a dreamy footballer, a player of real intelligence and nuance. And if we build the right stage for him he could well be the man to lead us into the promised land of the top four.

AS: Silva says yes, clubs yet to agree

A slight backtrack on the David Silva story in today's AS. Apparently the clubs have yet to reach an agreement on a fee, although Silva himself has said yes to us. Today's Mail says we might throw in Roque Santa Cruz, so I suppose that explains the wrangling.

Spanish reports: Silva agrees to join MCFC

Reports from Spain this afternoon are claiming that David Silva has agreed to sign for Manchester City.

This report in Marca is quite clear. It says that the agreement between Silva and MCFC is 'total', as is a deal between the two clubs, quoting reports from Spanish radio station Onda Cero.

This report, in Diario AS goes further. It says that the deal is for five years, at €5m/year (roughly £80k/week). It suggests that Roque Santa Cruz might be thrown into the deal, but says that everything is agreed and will be formalised soon.

Of course, nothing can happen while David Silva is in South Africa but unless Chelsea match our bid we might well see firm movement on this soon.

Progress on Silva

There has been some progress on our move for David Silva in recent days. Valencia deputy chairman Javier Gomez said yesterday:

"As has been said, there is interest from Manchester City and we have permitted them to talk to the player, but we have reached no agreement and we have not talked about a fee."

This runs counter to Guillem Balague's claim that we have agreed a fee of £29m with Valencia. It's hard to know who to believe here - it's in Valencia's interest to say nothing has been agreed, just as it is in Balague's interest to put news-breaking stories on his website - but it does sound like we're moving in the right direction here.

The key to the deal, though, is not an agreement with the club but with the player. And Silva's agent, Julio Llorente, has questioned his client's enthusiasm for a move to City:

`We won't know where he is going this week because we're weighing up offers from three clubs and one of them is Chelsea. If Silva doesn't want to go (to City), the transfer isn't possible.'

This suggests that Silva would not see a move to MCFC as the fulfilment of a life-long ambition. And understandably so. As much as I love Silva as a footballer, and would delight in seeing someone with his skill and wit in a City shirt, I don't really want us to sign players who are not enthusiastic about playing for the club. It didn't exactly work well with Robinho.

Striker departures rumoured

Just two rumours of interest in today's papers, both involving the possible departures of diffident dreadlocked strikers of ours. Not that I want to draw too much of a comparison between Jô and Emmanuel Adebayor: 14 league goals for £25m is better value for money than one league goal for £19m.

But if we sign Edin Džeko then Adebayor's future will be perilous, and so the Mail on Sunday's suggestion that AC Milan enquired after him this week is quite plausible. He would probably improve them.

Less plausible is the rumour in the News of the World that Jô might be included as part of a fee for David Silva. Valencia were interested in him when we signed him two years ago but if we want to convince them to give us their best player it's a funny way of going about it. He would not exactly be a like-for-like replacement for David Villa.

'City got in touch with us'

Confirmation in Saturday's Guardian from Valencia President Manuel Llorente that we have been in touch to negotiate for David Silva:

"The news is true," the Valencia president, Manuel Llorente, said. "City got in touch with us to ask for a meeting but then they informed us that they could not come and that they intend to do so a little further down the line."

The reason for the postponement is not clear but there have been preliminary talks about rearranging for next week and the fact Valencia appear willing to entertain City's two main negotiators suggests the Spanish club would let the player go, providing the price is right. "We would not sell for below €30m (£25.6m)," Llorente said.

This shows how serious we are about Silva. But our buying him or not will not be dependant upon negotiating a fee with Valencia. It hinges on Silva's enthusiasm to trade Valencia, and a potential move to Real Madrid or Barcelona in the near future, for Manchester City. And that sounds like a strange move.

Silva linked

Today's serious transfer rumours cover two players: Edin Džeko and David Silva. I've blogged on Džeko, now it's Silva time. Danny Taylor says that he is 'the primary target', while Mark Ogden writes that we are confident of getting our man and will table a 'substantial offer.'

This is a different category of player from Edin Džeko, Jérôme Boateng and so forth: he's a regular target of Real Madrid, Barcelona and Manchester United, and so for us to be linked with him implies that we may yet attempt the galáctico chasing our fifth place finish might have precluded. We have been interested in Silva before, Hughes wanted him in the January 2009 window but Valencia asked for £135m when we enquired after his and David Villa's asking prices.

Which demonstrates that any move to City for David Silva would be one more cash-driven than perhaps any transfer yet. Valencia, having already sold David Villa to Barcelona for €40m this summer, do not need to sell. That's not to say that they cannot be persuaded with an ocean liner-sized offer. But I can't see our getting him for this side of €50m. What's more, I can't see David Silva waking up every morning wishing he was a Manchester City player. He's now the key man at Valencia, who will be playing Champions League football next season. He could comfortably step up into either of Spain's top sides. He's already won a European Championship and could well win a World Cup this summer. Manchester City is not an obvious move for him right now.

So I suppose this is one of those transfer rumours that I am not too excited about, because I can't see him playing for City with much enthusiasm. That's not to say, though, that he would be anything but a privilege to watch in a City shirt. He is a footballer of real nuance and craft, a left-footed creative wide player unlike many others in the Premier League. He would provide a refreshingly different option for us. I can't see this one happening, and I'd love to see him play for City I suppose. But this one doesn't quite make sense to me just now.

On the hunt for strikers

Hughes must have done a lot of media on Thursday, because there's all sorts of interesting things floating about. And there's quite a few stories in the Friday 'papers about our pursuit of a new, expensive, top quality centre forward.

Most focus is given to Hughes' comments on Roque Santa Cruz. Speaking about the long-time transfer target who has missed most of this season with injuries, he said:

"We have to make sure that any player we bring to the club is likely to be a success," Hughes said. "You look at all things when you bring in a player, and the injury record is one of those things. You have to do your due diligence; if you don't, then mistakes can be made. Our targets may well change because you can't put all your eggs in one basket. Roque was fit and strong for me in that first year when I was his manager [at Blackburn] and he played exceptionally well. He's a very talented player but thankfully he's not available when we play them on Saturday."

To me this sounds like a real cooling off. Roque Santa Cruz made sense as a signing last summer, and in January. But after a very quiet season, and with a summer window and bags of money to throw at this, he may no longer be the best we can do. I was surprised, then, to read Daniel Taylor's claim that RSC remains 'likely' to be 'the first piece of transfer business for City this summer.' Should Hughes' concerns over Santa Cruz's injury be too much, Taylor mentions Peter Crouch as a possible alternative.

Ian Herbert's take on the situation is rather different. He writes that Hughes' position on Santa Cruz 'remains unclear' due to the injury situation, which sounds closer to the mark. The other option Herbert talks up though, is at the opposite end of the market - another bid for David Villa:

An over-reliance on Craig Bellamy has already illustrated that another striker is Hughes' prime target. Barcelona's Thierry Henry is another in whom Cook has taken an active interest. But Villa, 27, fits the clean-cut image which seems to be among City's considerations in their pursuit of marquee names and also has the maturity which – Bellamy aside – the club's current collection of strikers lacks. City's biggest challenge would be persuading the player, a home-loving Spaniard who seems more disposed to joining Barcelona or Real, to sign. Silva, 23, an attacking midfielder capable of playing on either side of the pitch, may be a more promising prospect.

This is an immeasurably more attractive prospect. We know that Hughes tried to sign Villa (along with Valencia team mate David Silva) in January, but we walked away having been quoted a ludicrous price. There's no disputing that we can pay off a hefty chunk of Los Che's debt this summer in exchange for Villa. The problem, though, is the one we had with Kaká: How do you persuade a world class footballer to play for a mid-table side? We got lucky with Robinho - his discontent in Madrid was such that he was willing to take a chance on a move. But this summer Villa is likely to have offers from three elite clubs: Chelsea, Real Madrid and Barcelona. And while he may just countenance leaving Spain to play for Chelsea, can he be persuaded to pull on a lighter shade of blue next season?

It's a question we're going to hear regarding quite a few players this summer.