'I started earning my medals three years ago'

Vincent Kompany, Player of the Season-elect (why not), has been talking about his good so far this season. And he's characteristically modest and thoughtful:

"I am progressing - that is all it is. I think I have performed ever since I have been at City.

"I always think you can only be as good as your last game, so I have to do equally as well in my next match, or even better if possible. That is the attitude I have. Sometimes it works, sometimes not.

"The team is getting better, and I am getting older and have more experience. I am willing to learn.

"I started earning my medals three years ago - I started performing three years ago, and I am still working. The hard work is what is showing now."

He's certainly right that he's been earning medals for three years. The fact that he was signed before the takeover but is one of the first names on the team-sheet now is a shining achievement in itself. Of the other players we signed that summer, Pablo Zabaleta and Shaun Wright-Phillips are on the fringes, Jô is somehow still in the set up and Robinho and Tal ben Haim are long gone.

(It's worth praising Mark Hughes here for spending £6million on a talented but injury-prone 22 year old. Had Stuart Pearce not signed Joe Hart for £600,000 it would be the single best piece of business by City over the last five years.)

Kolo Touré, who looks back to his best alongside Kompany, had this to say:

“We are happy with what we are doing and happy with the way we are defending as a team. There are still some mistakes we can avoid but Vincent Kompany and myself feel comfortable in the way we are gelling as a partnership.

“Vincent is a very intelligent footballer who is great to play alongside. We all know the importance of having a sound defence and the whole team is playing its part in that regard.”

Kolo bows out in victory

Kolo Touré's Ivory Coast were eliminated from the World Cup this afternoon, finishing third in Group G despite being North Korea in their final game. Kolo played, as did his brother and MCFC target Yaya Touré. Yaya scored his team's first goal, with a very deft side-foot finish from the edge of the box. But with Portugal drawing 0-0 with a Brazilian side lacking the imagination of Robinho and Elano, Ivory Coast were sent home.

With Yaya Touré out of the World Cup, I think we might see him at MCFC some time next week.

Elano, Sven reunited in Soccer CIty

A special moment tonight for City fans as one of our finest players of recent years - Elano - played and scored in front of the world at Soccer City. All the more meaningful, though, was his emotional reunion with Sven-Göran Eriksson, the man who brought him to MCFC in that fantasy summer of 2007. To see the two of them together, albeit on opposite sides, in such a showcase occasion felt important.

And Elano did very well. He was well involved in that right-inclined midfield position, as Brazil dominated possession against a fairly limited Ivory Coast side. Luis Fabiano put them two goals ahead, and Elano scored the third early in the second half - darting into the box, receiving a cross from Kaká and sweeping the ball past Boubacar Barry with his left foot. But just as Brazil were threatening to step up from excellent to glorious Chiock Tioté jumped onto Elano's shin, who was stretchered off. I am praying it's bruising rather than a break.

There was other City involvement too. Robinho played, and had a few good moments but never quite recovered from the shame of a selfish 35 yard shot in the second minute when he ought to have slid Fabiano in. There was a comic moment late in the second half when the game had descended into discord and drama: Robinho was fouled, went to ground writhing and rolling but on seeing that none of his team mates had surrounded his assailant he had to jump back up and take the throw in. And of course the Touré brothers, who might play together at City next year, did well enough in difficult circumstances.

Sven and Kolo shut out Portgual

A former City manager - Sven-Göran Eriksson - and the current City captain - Kolo Touré - combined yesterday to shut out Portugal 0-0 in Port Elizabeth. It was one of a number of surprisingly good defensive performances this World Cup, as Ivory Coast displayed a defensive discipline which they had lacked before. Cristiano Ronaldo and his supporting cast could not break through, which leaves qualification from Group G wide open.

City target Yaya Touré also played.

Players look forward to Villa

Kolo Touré:

"You know how the best way to cope with pressure like this? Just relax and enjoy the moment," Toure told www.mcfc.co.uk.

"Football is such a wonderful job that you need to enjoy every minute and if there is pressure on you, just go out with a smile and be happy because I believe that will allow you to play your normal game and deliver the goods.

"It is not every season that you have the opportunity to challenge for Champions League football.

"We are in a fantastic position and it's up to us how we deal with it. Ultimately, it comes down to how much we really want to finish fourth."

Pablo Zabaleta:

“It is great to get to this stage and our destiny still be in our own hands,” said Zabaleta. “Aston Villa are a very good side with great attacking players and like us, they believe they can qualify for the Champions League.

“It will be a really tough game because they don’t lose very often and like to hit you quickly on the break. Of course, we are aware of that, but we have to win this game and I believe we will if we play anywhere near our best...

“That point could be the one that makes the difference in the end – we won’t know until the final table is published. Now we have two huge home games coming up within the space of a few days and we need six points...

“I’m desperate to play in the last three games so I can help the club into fourth spot because we are ready for it and our supporters deserve the best.”

No Kolo

One of the best things about yesterday was the sight of the two best centre backs at the club - Joleon Lescott and Vincent Kompany - playing together in the heart of our defence. Aside from Kompany nearly conceding a penalty to Yossi Benayoun, they were very solid against an admittedly witless Liverpool side.

I'm afraid to say that we're a better team without our club captain Kolo Touré in the side. Not only does Vincent Kompany improve on Touré's defensive capabilities, but Shay Given improves on his captaincy.

I'd like to see this arrangement survive for the rest of the season. (I am sure that in the summer we will spend big on a new centre back, regardless of who the manager is.) But I imagine that at least one of Lescott or Kompany will suffer an injury recurrence. And then there is Kompany's versatility - he could well lose his place in defence by getting moved into midfield.

But they've got Ricardo Fuller and Mamady Sidibé to contend with in mid-week, which isn't the worst preparation in the world for Didier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka on Saturday. I may have to revise my opinion after those games.

Lescott out for 5-6 weeks

From the official site:

Joleon had a ten-minute operation to remove the rogue chip of bone and will start his recovery programme in a couple of weeks after a precautionary delay for natural wear and tear on the knee.

Wednesday night's defeat at White Hart Lane was the first game he had missed since arriving from Everton and making his debut in the 2-0 Carling Cup victory at Crystal Palace in August.

Manager Mark Hughes, already without Ivory Coast centre-half Kolo Toure during January, hopes Lescott will be back in five to six weeks but could move for a defender in the transfer window.

This can only be bad news. The reason our defence has been so bad this season is because Lescott and Touré have failed to gel properly. Despite all the criticism he's been getting, he is not inherently a bad player. There are certainly questions to be asked of why it has taken so long for them to function as a unit (whereas Richard Dunne and James Collins have managed it at Villa very quickly), but a long disruption - particularly with Kolo on international duty - can only be a bad thing. Plus side, we get a new defender to moan about in January. My money's on Upson. Although if we're insistent on buying from the Premier League I'm increasingly impressed with that new Irish guy at Aston Villa...

Kolo's second best friend....

We all know that Kolo Touré's best friend at City is Emmanuel Adebayor, for obvious reasons. But who is the man that he will be calling up from Angola to hear about City's progress in January?

“It is a difficult situation, having to leave your club when we are doing so well,” said Kolo. “We are proud to represent our countries, but we will miss several important City matches while we are away and that’s hard for us and the club.

“Of course, I’ll follow our results over the internet – I’ll be checking what’s happening back at the club on a daily basis and I’ll be phoning the manager and Vincent Kompany, too. I’ll know exactly what’s going on and how we’re doing.”

Kompany, hailing from the Brussels-Capital Region of Belgium, is the only member of the squad whose first language is French that is not competing in Angola. Such are the bonds of the Francophone community.

More on Yaya

First we had Kolo - brother of Yaya - suggesting to the M.E.N. that Touré minor might just be interested in coming to City:

Asked if he would like to see City buy his brother, Kolo said: "I hope so. He is a good player, and if he could come to our team that would be great."

And he feels Yaya would jump at the chance to come to England: "He has had a few hard times in Barcelona. He doesn't play a lot, and he loves football and loves to play.

"If he can come, especially to a club in England, he would be really happy because the Premier League is a fantastic place to play football."

But then his agent Dmitri Seluk said that he most certainly would not:

"If Barcelona do not like Yaya there are eight clubs, the most important in the world, who are interested in signing him.

"If he leaves Barca, he will not go to Manchester City where, according to his brother Kolo, he would be welcomed with open arms. He would sign for a more important club."

I wrote about this the other day. I just can't foresee Barcelona letting us have Touré in January. Next summer we could have a decent chance. But if Hughes wants immediate reinforcements for the midfield then I think he will have to look elsewhere.

Kolo: 'Our mentality has to change'

Spot on from the captain:

"We need to impose ourselves as we have some gifted players in this dressing room.

"We can enjoy our football by passing it and controlling games. That's what we need to achieve now. The team needs time but as time goes by we need to improve.

"City is not the team it was before, a lot of things have changed and our mentality has to change as well.

"We cannot be happy with a draw or drawing four games in a row. Chelsea, Arsenal or Liverpool would never be happy with that, which is why they have been at the top, so neither can we."

Kolo, Petrov doubts for Scunthorpe

Mark Hughes has reported that both picked up knocks in yesterday's hilarious annual collapse against Fulham:

"Martin took a bang on a knee which has been sore for a while now, but hopefully it won't be too serious.

"Kolo landed on his heel near the end of the game - it's something he has been playing with for quite some time.

"It has been painful and he got a bang right on the spot again. Hopefully, both injuries will calm down over the next two days."

This is real shame for Petrov, who would have made his third consecutive start for ages. And with goals in consecutive games he was looking very good for the TLDORC Player of October. If he doesn't play on Wednesday it's still up for grabs.

Kolo to mentor Micah

And rightly so. He is the captain, and our most senior defender. Who better for Micah Richards to learn from?

"I am always speaking to Micah because I think he is a great lad - he listens to everything you say," added Toure.

"It is really important to me that I help him get back, because I think he is a great player and one day will be one of the very best defenders in England.

"We talk at training about different situations in the game. In the derby game, the game was nearly over and we went forward when we should have just stayed back in our box and kicked every ball that came in.

"But we have learned from that, and that is important."

Captain Kolo looks forward

We must not let the frustrations of Sunday distract us from the next few games:

“Fulham gives us the chance to get back on the winning trail and show another side to our character,” he declared.

The Carling Cup is very important to us and we are now 100 per cent focused on the tie tomorrow night. Winning a trophy of any description is a fantastic feeling and that is what we want to do.

“I wasn’t surprised when the manager sent out such a strong side for the last round at Crystal Palace because we have a lot of new players and it gave us more valuable on the pitch time to gel as a team. We did the job well that night and hopefully we will reproduce that tomorrow. We want to show everyone that we are one of the best teams in the competition.”

Praise for Shay

From his manager: (from the official site)

“Shay brings maturity and experience to his position,” heralded the manager. “It is not just his ability to keep the ball out of the net that benefits us but the way he commands the defence and reads the game. He is a great talker and organiser at the back.”

And from Kolo:

“Shay is a fantastic goalkeeper to play in front of,” enthused the central defender. “He is so calm and he reads the game very well and that is always a great thing for those in front of him. Shay is very experienced and whenever you make a mistake he is there at exactly the right time.

“Keeping clean sheets is not just about the back four and the goalkeeper though it is about the whole team defending as unit. We have to make sure we keep doing that and improve on it where we can.”

Premier League experience

The thread which draws together our transfer policy in 2009 - both in the January and summer windows - has been the elevation of Premier League experience above all our considerations in the selection of targets. Of the ten players signed in 2009, all but Nigel de Jong have been playing in the Premier League for at least two years, and most of them for much longer.

Shay Given had made 354 EPL starts on his arrival at City, Gareth Barry 353, Wayne Bridge 226, Kolo Touré 203, Craig Bellamy 185, Adebayor 86, Tévez 68 and Santa Cruz 53. Yes, Nigel de Jong was brought in from abroad but only after we failed to sign Scott Parker (195 EPL starts). This summer we have also pursued John Terry (261) and Joleon Lescott (109). So the pattern is clear, as is the recent focus on specifically top six EPL experience and on trophies won.

These priorities, and their impact on the team, are discussed by Hughes in a recent interview:

"When you look at the amount of games our new players have played in the Premier League, it is huge," he said.

"That was something we were lacking as a team last year and, at times, we were found wanting because of it.

"We didn't have the experience of seeing games out and banging out results.

"We have improved that right down the spine of the team, which is always important, with Kolo at the back, Gaz in the middle of the park and Ade up front. It gives us a good solid middle to the team."

I think our ground out win at Ewood Park is already testimony to the success of this policy. Neither our soft centred 2008/09 side, nor Eriksson's 2007/08 team won at Ewood Park, nor at many other similar grounds. Of course, there's still thirty seven EPL games left but based on the evidence so far it looks like a sound plan.

Nedum stays, signs

I've spent a lot of the summer going on about how I hope we only sign one centre back, because then we can partner John Terry/Joleon Lescott/whoever with Nedum Onuoha and thus maintain the Academy element within the team. I worried that the arrival of two centre backs would limit Onuoha's chances so far that he would be forced out.

I am delighted to have been proven wrong today: rather than agitate for a transfer, to keep his World Cup dream alive, Nedum Onuoha has signed a new five year deal. This says an awful lot for the Onuoha's patience and commitment to the club. Both Joe Hart and Daniel Sturridge have left the club in pursuit of first team football this summer (it is increasingly apparent that Sturridge will start more games this season for Chelsea than he would have done had he stayed at City), and while Onuoha would have been justified in doing so, he has committed his future to MCFC.

It is also a clear statement from Hughes, Bowen et al that they see Onuoha as a key part in our long term plans. As Hughes said today:

“Nedum is a very important part of my future plans for the team, and I am very pleased he has decided to extend his contract with us. Despite his tender years he has already matured into a very good defender who has made a significant impact on the first team,” he stressed.

“Nedum has huge potential for the future and is another shining example of the kind of quality our academy can produce for Manchester City football club.”

This firmly suggests that Onuoha will have a real part to play this season. But, presuming we sign Lescott (or Upson), he will be at best third choice. Yes, Kolo will have African Cup of Nations duty which will give Onuoha a few games. But probably not as many as he played in 2008/09 - 27 starts in all competitions. Where, though, does all this leave Richard Dunne?

Touré signs

The news that we all expected today: Kolo Touré has signed for City, on a four year deal. He is our sixth signing of the summer, our fifth for over £10m, but our first defender.

Mark Hughes was delighted on the deal's completion:

"I am delighted to welcome Kolo to Manchester City. It is no secret that we have been looking to strengthen our defence, and in Kolo I feel we have recruited a world class player. He brings a wealth of Premier League experience from his seven seasons with Arsenal,” he declared.

“Kolo has been a central figure in a very strong Arsenal team for many years, and I have been an admirer of him for a long time. He is strong, quick, reads the game well and will be an influential figure in the dressing room.”

Kolo Touré fits perfectly into the mold of our summer signings, in that he has the one attribute Hughes values above all others: top six Premier Leauge experience. Given Sheikh Mansour's demand that City finish sixth or higher in 2009/10, Hughes' response has been perfectly logical - to fill the team with players who have already achieved finishes of sixth or higher at their current clubs. Santa Cruz was a slight anomaly, having finished seventh in his one full season in the EPL. But then there was Gareth Barry, who achieved sixth placed finishes with Villa in 2008/09 and 2007/08. And Carlos Tévez who picked up two Premier League winners' medals in his two years at Manchester United. Then Emmanuel Adebayor, who came fourth then fourth then third then fourth in his four years at Arsenal. We failed in our pursuit of John Terry - two winners' medals and three second placed finishes in the last six years, but remain keen on Joleon Lescott: sixth then fifth then fifth in his three years at Everton. Touré fits this perfectly: in seven years at Arsenal they finished fourth three times, third once, second twice and won it once. So there's certainly a very clear pattern in our pursuit of targets this year.

A further point can be made about age. The short term nature of Sheikh Mansour's demands means that this is no time for playing the Wenger game - we need players at their peak. So it's 28 year old Touré to go with 28 year old Barry, 27 year old Santa Cruz, 25 year old Tévez and 25 year old Adebayor. Lescott is 26 (not 24 -thanks why3435).

So the pattern is clear. As, increasingly, is the jigsaw. Touré will start at centre half alongside whichever other defender we sign: presumably Joleon Lescott but possibly Matthew Upson or even someone else altogether. I did initially have my concerns that the signing of two new defenders would force out Nedum Onuoha, although other news today has refuted that claim.

Sky Sports: New Lescott bid

As the Kolo Touré deal drifts closer and closer to completion there is news of progress on the second front tonight; Sky Sports are claiming that a new bid for Joleon Lescott is immanent - an increase on the £15m rejected last week.

I'd be surprised if we got Lescott for less than £20m, unless we're going to throw in Nedum Onuoha too. I'd rather we just paid the cash.

BBC, SSN: Touré talks

From BBC Sport:

Manchester City are close to signing Arsenal defender Kolo Toure for about £15m, BBC Sport understands...

Newspaper reports that Toure has agreed personal terms with City are premature but the deal is expected to be completed by the end of this week.

Sky Sports are also reporting that we are close to agreeing a £16m fee, and that Touré will fly back from Austria for a medical soon.

Votes flooding in

Well they were yesterday. Slowed to a trickle now, but the percentages are pretty fixed. The clear winner, and with a very narrow majority of votes, is the proposition that we ought to buy both Joleon Lescott and Kolo Touré. In a strong second place with 37% is the buying of only Joleon Lescott. Then there's only Kolo Touré with 8% and sticking with Dunne and Onuoha at 2%.

So my defence of buying only one defender convinced only 47% of you. One thing worth bearing in mind in all this is that the African Cup of Nations in January and February 2010 means that Nedum Onuoha would get a few games even if we bought Lescott and Touré, but, unless either of them got injured, not as many as he needs or deserves.

And don't forget that Vincent Kompany isn't exactly going to get a lot of chances in defensive midfield this season.