Transfer Strategy – Where Do We Need To Strengthen?
8 Jul
Caleb Folan, Jermaine Easter and Freddy Eastwood. Three years ago, I vividly remember voting in a Manchester Online poll to choose which one of these three strikers I would like to see at City. We were struggling as an attacking presence, relying on the futile attempts of Bernardo Corradi and Georgios Samaras to lead our charge into Europe. The prospect of signing Easter, who had been enjoying his most prolific spell in front of goal for Wycombe, seemed appealing. Folan, with his undoubted physical presence, would be a decent acquisition, I’d felt. Eastwood was attracting interest from other clubs in the Premier League, but was it worth taking a punt on the Southend striker? Fast forward three years, and replace the names of Folan, Easter and Eastwood with Fernando Torres, David Villa and Zlatan Ibrahimovic. How times have changed!
Pre-season is always the time for speculation about which players will join the club. In years gone by, we have enthused about the arrival of Claudio Reyna, marvelled at the signing of Ousmane Dabo and been genuinely enthralled when news broke of Hatem Trabelsi joining the club. However, this particular pre-season is expected to be one of the most exciting yet.
Courtesy of the riches of Sheikh Mansour, City are now one of, if the not the, leading clubs in the transfer market. Any big name player with a lofty reputation and even higher valuation will automatically be linked with us. After last season’s spending splurge, which saw the likes of Carlos Tévez, Emmanuel Adebayor and Gareth Barry join the Blues, many expected this pre-season to be approached in a slightly more circumspect manner. And, in a sense, it has. Promising German international Jérôme Boateng has joined for a fee of around £11 million, whilst we have been linked with a number of other youngsters around the world.
My belief though is that we still need to continue our aggressive transfer strategy. To be the best, you have to beat the best, and we will not do so without the cream of the crop. There are certain areas of the team which, without doubt, still need strengthening, and we are in a fortunate position in that we have the financial capability to enhance our squad with top-class players. The three world-class strikers that I mentioned earlier (no, not Folan, Easter, and Eastwood) are all of the calibre that we need.
Roberto Mancini has already delved into the transfer market, and along with the afore-mentioned Boateng, has added the undoubted qualities of David Silva and Yaya Touré to a squad of which much is now expected. These signings are indisputably of the quality required, and although it may mean the likes of Stevie Ireland and Nedum Onuoha leave the club, surely these moves advance the prospects of our beloved club.
I look forward to what will be an exciting pre-season, full of speculation, rumours and intrigue. City need to grasp the opportunity that is in front of them to break into the Champions League places, as even greater reward will follow from that.
Thanks for reading and please take the time to vote in this poll. Any comments would be appreciated.
Greetings Steven,
It is very nice to see you blogging again and, I have to say, this post is to the standards that I so thoroughly enjoyed on th previous site.
I will say that I did “vote” that we should recruit more left backs – as long as we don’t get another defensive midfielder I shall be happy.
With the choice between the old names giving a bit of variation (in terms of the number of changes in divisions that we went through in those pre-when-we-were-good days) and now, when we have a chance of top flight European football, there is no doubt that I woul take now.
Yes this may mean sacrificing the English names for the sake of success – the likes of SWP et al – but times change and, if we want to win, we need to change with the times.
On an aside, has Matt asked you about golfing?
Interesting blog. Times have definitly changed but I reckon it was pre season 2007-2008 when Easter / Folan / Eastwood were being mooted. in any event, it’s seriously exciting times and with a bit of luck we are going to a build a team to domiate English football for the next few seasons. I hope city look carefully at temperament as well as talent. Once you’re properly on Twitter I’ll “introduce you” to some proper football connections.
Thanks Ricky and Av. I get a feeling the whole operation now is very professional, and credit must be given to Hughes I think for starting it off. Boateng has looked a class outfit during the World Cup, and Yaya wouldn’t be so highly rated if he was a nutcase!
Hi Steven, it’s good to see you have the blog up and running and also that you have some outside interest already. I particularly like the logo bit at the top; very stylish.
As for the signings, in hindsight it’s easy to have scorn at the links with the likes of Easter, Eastwood and Folan. Indeed, over the last few seasons none of their careers have particularly taken off; Easter is doing alright for the MK Dons after failing at Plymouth, Eastwood has failed to become prolific at Championship level and Folan has had an uninspired couple of years in the Premier League will Hull. However, three years ago, who could have said where any of those players would be in three years’ time. Any one of them could have become a Premier League star. A modern day analogy would be someone like Jordan Rhodes or Charlie Austin. Both are young and have shown great promise in the Football League. Would you not take them now as ones for the future in case they do become outstanding players at the top.
The difference is I suppose that those players three years ago were being mooted as big signings, but any young British player now would be seen as more of a “what’ve we got to lose on the off chance it comes off” acquisitions. The players that you have signed so far this summer are without question in another league and will almost certainly take your side on to the next level.
To finish this first comment on the new site I have one question and one moan.
The question is do you have any sort of nostalgic pining for the old days when a transfer was something to be poured over for weeks with the club trying to negotiate the best possible deal, taking the elation when it’s sealed with the disappointment when they fall through, all without really knowing how the player will effect your side, in these modern days of pick a player, give him enough money to feed Eritrea and all buy scarves celebrating it.
The moan is that I hope you do not continue with the arrogant usage of “City” on this site to refer to Manchester City. Fans from Birmingham, Stoke, Bristol, Cardiff, Coventry, Leicester, Swansea, Exeter, Norwich, Bradford, Lincoln and Elgin amongst others might get confused.
Many thanks for that comment Alec. I certainly have missed your wit and verbal adeptness over the last few months.
Of course it’s easy to scorn those possible signings now, although that was never my intention. I merely wanted to highlight just how far Manchester City (I will address that concern of yours later) have come in such a short space of time.
You have hit the nail right on the head with your summary of the youngsters coming through. We could easily afford to take a chance on any number of promising kids coming through. However, our academy is still continuing to produce very talented youngsters, who, if good eough, will have a great chance of breaking into the first team. Nowadays, it’s highly doubtful if someone like Willo Flood or Ishmael Mller would make the breakthrough, as times have changed, but a youngster like Stephen Ireland or SWP would undoubtedly progress.
In a sense, the transfer market has evolved for every club. Without doubt, it was exciting to sign a new player, unsure of their qualities, but full of excitement. There is still anticipation and excitement for a signing nowadays, but due to our status as a club, any new arrival would be expected to improve the side. But don;t get me wrong. It’s still hurtful to miss out on a major target, even though we have the finances to buy another replacement.
Now to address your final moan. Clearly I mean no disrepsect to the fans of clubs you have mentioned, although since this is a Manchester City blog, I feel justified in my use of the term ‘City’. Obviously, I’d welcome readers from the likes of Bristol and Elgin, but I would expect them to realise this is a blog primarily aimed at Man City, therefore reflecting my use of City.
2 Years ago?? That cant be right.
2 years ago we had just appointed Hughes. You sure you arent thinking back to the Pierce days?
Thanks Ant, I stand corrected. I’ll change the blog now.
I think it’s 4 years ago, 3 years ago was the start of Sven’s reign.
I remember when I got Hatem Trabelsi, Number 27 on one of my shirts……….what a mistake that turned out to be!
Aside from me mouring his acquisition (or however you spell that word) I enjoyed reading this Steven and it’s nice to have you back!
Boateng looked good in every world cup game he played BAR the semi-final were Villa tormented him. As for David Silva – bags of energy, young and he can score goals. I’m really looking forward to seeing him play and he will be on the back of my shirt….let’s just hope it’s not a mistake like Hatem was!
Many thanks James and Ched Evans is my hero!! I seem to remember Hatem having a great start to his City career, but it quaickly dovetailed after that! I too have been impressed with Jerome so far, especially in his third choice position. It surely bodes well for us!