Academy revamped

Following the departure of Jim Cassell and promotion of Andy Welsh, City have made a new appointment: former player Brian Kidd, as Technical Development Manager.

He's an old friend of Hughes: he was Assistant Manager at Manchester United when Hughes was a player there in the 1990s, and I imagine that this appointment was made with much input from the manager.

Brian Marwood (Football Administration Officer for those who had forgotten) had this to say:

“Brian has vast experience at both Club and International level and will help maintain the excellent development programme we have in place at the Academy,” stressed Marwood.

“As a top class coach he was much in demand when it became clear he wasn’t going to stay at Portsmouth and we are delighted that Brian has chosen to come and work with us. I know he scored nearly 50 goals in his playing days at Maine Road and is greatly admired and respected amongst our fans."

In a week when Richard Dunne left City, it is good that some bonds between the club today and the club of previous years are being re-formed.

MCFC accused of poaching

Quite a big news story breaking this morning - City have been accused by Rennes of poaching teenager Jérémy Hélan. This is obviously in light of RC Lens' successful case against Chelsea regarding Gaël Kakuta and Le Havre's attempt to hold Manchster United to account over Paul Pogba. Rennes' Technical Director Pierre Dréossi said:

'Manchester City must now realise the consequences of their attitude in the Hélan case as it is even more illegal than (Gael) Kakuta.

'We have referred this to FIFA. For us it was strange to have no discussion from City and now, in the week after the FIFA declaration on Chelsea, I would hope that it will be the same thing for Manchester City.

'Kakuta signed up for just a possibility of a full contract. For Hélan there was definitely one there, under the terms of the pre-contract agreement, because he had played for his country.

'Manchester United said it was not possible to negotiate with us but for City now this is dangerous, though we are not expecting a decision from FIFA for perhaps several years.'

Of course, Dréossi isn't exactly a disinterested observer here. But it does look like a potential long term problem for the club. I don't know the details here, but it's probably safe to say that Chelsea never thought the Kakuta case would end as it did. Poaching teenagers is pretty unsavoury and I suppose I'd rather City didn't do it. But the teams we're trying to compete it all do it. And in the cases of Cesc Fàbregas and potentially Kiko Macheda, it seems to work rather well. It's all in the game.

Robinho talks up Barça move

This is a story that has rumbled on for a while now. Guillem Balague told us last month that City had rejected Barcelona's approaches for Robinho, but suggested that a future move was quite possible. Since then it has been big news in Catalonia - El Mundo Deportivo - which is to FC Barcelona what Marca is to Real Madrid - has been full of stories of a potential move.

Barça are certainly interested. It is no secret they have been chasing a left-forward this summer, an alternative to the ageing Thierry Henry. They came no closer than Real Madrid in tempting Franck Ribéry to Spain, before failing to get either David Silva or Juan Manuel Mata from Valencia. And so Robinho is next on their list. But until today the suggestion that the interest was requited was only rumour. Rumour, as it happened, that I believed, but rumour nonetheless.

But Robinho has been talking freely on international duty, and this has made Tuesday's Guardian:

"It's not easy to say no to a club like Barcelona. They are European champions, they're in a lovely city and I like Spain a lot. I have always wanted to play at clubs like Barcelona. It's a great club, any player would be happy for them to show an interest. I'm happy that Barcelona have taken notice of me. Who wouldn't like to play alongside Xavi, [Andrés] Iniesta, [Lionel] Messi, [Zlatan] Ibrahimovic and all the rest. I like Barcelona; they're a great club."

There are two questions remaining. Does Robinho want to move sufficiently to force a transfer? Given his conduct at Real Madrid this cannot be ruled out. Just because we're rich does not mean that we are immune to player power. And, crucially, what does Mark Hughes make of all this? The state of his relationship with de Souza last season meant that his decision not to sell him this summer was rather surprising. Could this interest be the excuse he has been waiting for to get rid?

But even with our keeping Martin Petrov on deadline day I doubt we would sell Robinho without replacing him. And who exactly is there? Hughes is a big fan of Franck Ribéry but it seems set in stone that he will join Real Madrid after the World Cup. Presuming also that Iniesta, Arshavin, and Robben are beyond us, there are not that many names left. Given Hughes' fetishisation of Premier League experience, how about a big money move for Ashley Young or even Joe Cole, whose contract situation remains unresolved? I'm just thinking out loud here.

This could be one of the big stories of 2010.

Team changes

Hughes promises some changes to the team, to meet various challenges:

"There's an understanding that at times the next game or opposition might not be the right one for them to be in the side.

"I look at the opposition and the threats our players can make - against different teams you need different threats. That will always come into my thinking, and the players understand that. It's about making sure we have the right team for the right opposition."

This is certainly what we saw at Fratton Park last week: Robinho dropped for Craig Bellamy. There will be games, I'm sure, where we will switch from 4-2-4 to 4-3-3 by replacing one of the forwards with Nigel de Jong (or Vincent Kompany or even Zabaleta.) There will be times when a more direct attacking strategy will demand the inclusion of Roque Santa Cruz. But these are all scenarios where players are selected for a very specific game plan.

But a general pattern of rotation - as best used by Manchester United, and to a lesser extent by Arsenal - is unnecessary, given our lack of European commitments. And Hughes is clearly sticking with the best team possible in the Carling Cup. So if Zabaleta, Kompany, de Jong, Bellamy, Santa Cruz, Onuoha need to know that appearances will not come easily.

Robinho books ticket

I missed Argentina 1 - 3 Brazil, and while I am anxious that Argentina will not make the World Cup, it is a relief that Brazil have now assured qualification.

This guarantees the presence of a City player at the tournament, providing of course that we have not sold Robinho during the January transfer window.

But de Souza is not the first: de Jong's Holland qualified some time ago. I hope that he won't take umbrage at his bench role and leave between now and the World Cup.

Two blues on the plane, many more to come I hope. This is the first post in a series.

Robinho targets title

Bold words from the Brazilian:

"The club have set their sights high this year and backed that up in the transfer market," said Robinho.

"There have been great additions - now we need to understand we must be stronger mentally.

"If we can be like that this season and have what it takes to go for the title.

"The more I think about it, the more I think this year must be our year."

We have certainly started well. But before anyone gets carried away, consider what Martin Samuel wrote in today's Mail:

There has been much excitement over the perfect start to the season made by Manchester City. Four wins in four games with no goals conceded are not to be sniffed at, but it is too early to get carried away.

City have played Blackburn Rovers and Portsmouth away, Wolverhampton Wanderers at home and Crystal Palace in the Carling Cup. The minimum requirement from those fixtures would have been seven Premier League points and victory at Selhurst Park.

Anything less would have signalled trouble ahead. City have exceeded expectations but are not even close to the hard part.

Signings: trophy winners

(This is an update of a previous post.)

Two key themes run through all of our acquisitions under Hughes - particularly those made this summer: experience of the top six or so in the Premier League, and experience winning trophies. In Hughes' plan these two attributes will make a squad with the nous and the mentality to succeed under the immense pressure which now faces us. This shows the major trophies won by our current playing squad; it's quite an impressive record. Detail of top six Premier League experience to follow.

Champions League

2001 Roque Santa Cruz
2006 Sylvinho
2008 Carlos Tévez
2009 Sylvinho

Premier League

2001/02 Stuart Taylor
2003/04 Kolo Touré
2004/05 Wayne Bridge
2005/06 Shaun Wright-Phillips
2007/08 Carlos Tévez
2008/09 Carlos Tévez

FA Cup

2003 Stuart Taylor, Kolo Touré
2005 Kolo Touré
2007 Wayne Bridge, Shaun Wright-Phillips

League Cup

2007 Wayne Bridge, Shaun Wright-Phillips
2009 Carlos Tévez

La Liga

2004/05 Sylvinho
2005/06 Sylvinho
2006/07 Robinho
2007/08 Robinho
2008/09 Sylvinho

Bundesliga

1999/2000 Roque Santa Cruz
2000/01 Roque Santa Cruz
2002/03 Roque Santa Cruz
2004/05 Roque Santa Cruz
2005/06 Roque Santa Cruz

Brazilian Championship

1998 Sylvinho
2002 Robinho
2004 Robinho
2005 Carlos Tévez

Then there's Vincent Kompany's two Belgian Leagues, plus Robinho's three trophies with the Brazilian national side (two Confederations Cups and a Copa America too) and all sorts of minor trophies too. So it's a pretty impressive record all told.

Fulham date confirmed

It's going to be on Wednesday 23rd September at 8pm.

Something which gives us a really good shot at this is the fixture congestion Fulham are facing. The tie comes as the fourth in a seven game run Fulham have to play in just twenty days. They have Everton (h) on Sunday 13th, before travelling to Martin Petrov's old club CSKA Sofia on Thursday 17th, before Wolves (a) on Sunday 20th. Then it's this Carling Cup game with City, before Arsenal (h) on Saturday 26th, Basel (Felipe Caicedo's old club) at home on Thursday October 1st, and then a trip along the length of the Hammersmith & City line to the Boleyn Ground on Saturday 3rd.

It's a punishing schedule for any team, but it could well force compromises on Fulham given the limited size of their squad. And we can only hope that it's our game when they rest their best players. Because Fulham have a fantastic record at City: since the start of the 2005/06 season they have won only nine away games in the Premier League - and three of them have been at Eastlands.

City finally score from corners

As you all know, we've scored two goals from corners in our last two games. First Carlos Tévez headed in SWP's corner at Selhurst Park, before Emmanuel Adebayor converted Gareth Barry's corner at Fratton Park. Mark Hughes is impressed:

"We wanted to address our threat at set-pieces because last year it wasn't as good as it needed to be.

"We have great delivery from Gareth on the right-hand side, whipping in balls. If it's the perfect ball, irrespective of what the opposition do it's very difficult to stop the ball from getting to the key areas of the box.

"We wanted to have a better threat at set-plays, and that is what we have now."

This is interesting in two ways. On the most basic level, it's good that we can now score from set-pieces. We've been pretty useless from corners for years - so much so that when we do score from corners - Rolando Bianchi at White Hart Lane, Nedum Onuoha at home against Spurs, Dunne at home against Middlesboro - it feels like a big deal. Goals from corners count as much as any others and by successfully exploiting them we increase our chances of winning games.

But there's another point to be made here. There has always been something symbolic about scoring from set-pieces. It betrays a certain experience, a certain worldliness, a lack of illusions or pretensions. Think Mourinho's Chelsea, Allardyce's Bolton, Tony Pulis' Stoke City: teams that score from set-pieces are ones that have the nous to win dirty, in difficult conditions - things that City have never been able to do before - until this year. Hughes' insistence on buying players with EPL experience was meant to create a tougher team with a winning mentality; we had been too weak and soft-centred in previous years. The additions of Shay Given, Craig Bellamy, Gareth Barry, Kolo Touré, Joleon Lescott et al have given us that. And our newfound ability to score from corners is not only a by-product, but also a symbol of this new Manchester City team.

Dunne's departing shot

Dunne made some comments today in a press conference while on international duty for the Republic which left me feeling uneasy:

He said that it had not been his choice to leave and that he had been forced out:

"They signed the players and that was it. I wasn't given the opportunity to stay and fight for my place. That's what was annoying. I was told I had to go and that's the frustrating part about it.

"They told me they had accepted an offer so I said 'OK, but what if I want to stay and fight for my place?' They said 'it's funny, we need the money'."

These did not make particularly comfortable reading. As I wrote yesterday, Richard Dunne was MCFC's greatest servant of the modern era, a man who would run through fire for the club, who saved us from relegation under both Kevin Keegan and Stuart Pearce. Nine seasons, three as captain, over three hundred games, four Player of the Season trophies - it all adds up. So these accusations - that he was forced out against his will - were rather worrying. But they are nothing compared to what Dunne is quoted as saying in Friday's Daily Mail:

'The manager is very quiet, he does his own thing and I spoke with him a few times through the summer about what was going on. He was of the opinion that City needed two players for every position and that was the way the squad was going to work.

'The last time I spoke to him was in Africa after I had found out some other stuff. I said, "Where do I lie in the whole thing?" and he said they were trying to sign players and I would be part of his squad and I could fight for my place. He said I was still the captain and even last week he said to me he would rather I stayed but he was told we needed to get money in. I don't think it was his decision.

'They told me they have a certain amount of money they have to recoup each season to make things look better on the books. I could understand if I was being sold for £200m, it might make sense, but it was a bit strange really.

'It just needed people to be honest with me. I was getting phone calls from people saying Garry Cook was trying to sell me behind my back, two months after me going to him and saying if he has any problems to come and deal with me. I'm disappointed with people who say one thing and then do the other.'

There's quite a bit more than just this there - and there may be even more in other newspapers - so do read all of it. But these accusations, if true, are genuinely upsetting. Few City fans will quibble with Mark Hughes' footballing decision to replace Dunne with a quicker, classier, more astute alternative. I certainly do not. But to treat Dunne in such a way having made that decision; to deny him the right to fight for his place at City - and to do it all behind his back - is an insult to Dunne's service to Manchester City. Moreover, it is a failure of command from Cook, given how much emphasis the new regime places on acting with respect for the traditions of the football club.

Selling Richard Dunne was always going to be difficult. But it could have been done with dignity and grace. By this account, it was not. This leaves an unpleasant taste. And it betrays a quite unappealing side to our Chief Executive.