Champions League

It Isn’t Only Big Names Attracting Attention At Eastlands

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It was widely reported after Manchester City were taken over by ADUG that they would be moving heaven and Earth to sign the biggest names in world football: Messi, Kaka, Ronaldo, Rooney, the list goes on.  Despite clear intent to sign Kaka these claims have proved to be wide of the mark and that demonstrates how seriously the clubs owners are taking the project.

Clearly ‘marquee’ players will arrive, but only where they will offer something to the team and they may also be moved on when they can no longer offer what the side needs.  Many football fans and people in the media are incredibly shortsighted, for example with Robinho.  If you believed everything you read on the backpages you would assume he was a total flop at City, where in reality his signature and quality performances in his first season put us on the map, the importance of which cannot be underestimated.

The signing of Aguero was quite clearly a big deal – he is a fantastic talent and one of the top strikers in world football, his image and name will do a lot for the club, his performances on the pitch however will do even more.  With the rest of Roberto Mancini’s Summer targets however, he is putting the needs of the team first and worrying about the name and image second.

We were in the market for a left back and a central defender to cover for the outgoing Wayne Bridge and Jerome Boateng and it would be easy to assume we would go for Gerard Pique, Nemanja Vidic or Ashley Cole, a global footballing figure, a big name.  With consumate ease though that approach was shunned and the relatively unknown Stefan Savic and the decent enough Frenchman Gael Clichy were instead recruited for a combined figure of what we received for the outgoing Boateng.

Of course that final point wasn’t covered in the press, it doesn’t sell newspapers. Their attitude is clear, but the facts remain, you don’t have to be a superstar to be a great option at Eastlands.  The most recent evidence of this is Italian winger Alessio Cerci.  The 24 year old is clearly not particularly well known in this country, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t a good player.

The under 21 international is known as a bit of a flair player, but at times his final product is supposedly questionable, where have I heard that before? His best asset is his lightning pace and apparently when he is on form he can be a real handful for fullbacks to deal with.  It has been reported that it would take £6million to secure the player and at that price he may be a decent addition, generally Roberto Mancini has got his transfers spot on, and his approach of taking quality over name is one that I can definitely buy into.

Clearly the ongoing Samir Nasri saga demonstrates further that on occasion a player can deliver both something the squad needs as well as the ability to the be the ‘poster boy’, but the attitude that City look for how recognisable a player is first, is quite frankly laughable.  Clearly opposition fans will probably not change their mindset and to be fair why should they, if it was another club in the same position as City I would be jealous too, but I do think at times the clubs owners don’t get the credit they deserve.

In previous transfer windows we have thrown money about as if it is going out of fashion, but maybe this window has started to demonstrate that there is a long term plan on the table and there is a sustainable scheme in place for the future.

Whether City sign Cerci or not remains to be seen, but it could once again prove the doubters wrong and demonstrate that you don’t have to be a world football superstar to play at Eastlands. But anyways, moving on… who is going to write a story about City offering £100million and a private jet for Cristiano Ronaldo?

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I am a huge Manchester City fan, but also a fan of football as a game. I like to watch games at all levels, from Blue Square Premier, right up to the Premier League where I have a season ticket at City. I really enjoy writing for This Is Futbol because it allows me to give my thoughts on the very latest pieces of football news. I also run thoughtsfromtheinvisibleman.blogspot.com for all things Manchester City.

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  • CiTyBlUe says:

    Cerci is not the winger we need, we have plenty of flair wingers like Cerci in Adam Johnson, SWP, Milner and Weiss. I am getting bored with wingers that cannot whip in crosses rather than try walk past defenders, we need a winger who can whip in crosses all day long like Juan Mata.

  • Maxxi says:

    he’s better then AJ with good crosses ,AJ 60min at best i smell rat in AJ fukkn media getting into his head superstar wannabees…chelsk 25m offload his arse, Weiss by miles better

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