Update from the City of Manchester Stadium
First off I would like to welcome you all to my regular update spot, I will try my best to keep all you loyal fans up to date on the developments here in Manc Land. Expect to see updates posted twice a week around Wednesday and Friday.
So after my appointent as manager of Man Citeh I took some time to examine the quality of my current squad. And I am happy to say that I like what I see so far. We have some good players here and I hope to build on that this season. But don't worry, I will also be trying my best to bring in some top quality players too. Unfortunately due to the clubs financial status I will only have 2.85 million to spend on new players, but I will try to make this money count and I have a few ideas in mind as to where it will go.
Looking through the squad I have pinpointed the areas I will be looking to improve over the next few weeks. My attention was brought straight away to the lack of right wingers. The only option we have at the moment is the ageing Trevor Sinclair. I still consider Trev as a player who can help us out this season, but I will be looking to bring someone in who can compete for the starting position.
Another area I will be looking to strengthen is my left back. At the moment I see only Ben Thatcher as a possible left back, and will be looking for a backup in this position.
In other defensive roles I feel we have good cover. Plenty of centre halfs, and after seeing Micah Richards in training I will definitely be playing him as my main right back/wing back. He has a natural goal scoring ability and I want to see him getting forward a lot.
In the centre of midfield we have a number of talented players who can play in a holding role, but I like to play attacking football and will look to bring in a more attack minded player soon.
Up front we have a lot of talent in Vassell, Corradi and Samaras. We also have Dickov who will bring a lot of experience to the strikeforce. But it is my opinion that you can never have too many goalscorers in your squad as you never know when someone will lose his composure in front of goal. So I will be looking to add another proven goal scorer up front.
The progress so far:
After examining the squad and identified what I am looking for I hit the transfer market looking to bring in some top players at low prices. My first offer was made to Crewe for their young England star
Billy Jones. But after some negotiations the deal fell through and he instead chose to move to Paul Rouch's West Ham.
My first signing as Man City manager however was to bring back an old face on a season long loan.
Robbie Fowler will be coming back for another chance to show his natural goal scoring ability. Previously being condemned to the Liverpool reserve team I thought he might be eager to get back into first team football. And he certainly showed that in our first friendly at
Yeovil. A dissapointing 1-1 draw, but Robbie made an immediate impression by netting the equaliser. MotM going to Micah Richards in this game.
Another loan player has now been added to the squad, with 18 year old Brazilian midfileder
Denilson moving from Arsenal to City for the season. I see the young man as a very hard worker, and someone not scared to show the opposition who's boss in midfield.
So only 1 more addition before the next friendly. This time we travelled to Serbian team
Radnicki and gave them a convincing 5-0 thumping. What really impressed me with this game was that the goals came from all over the field, with Vassell, Distin and Corradi making it 3-0 at half time. The serbs were then reduced to 10 men before Jihai and Dickov capped the game off. MotM in this game was handed to Distin.
No real transfer news as yet, but attacking midfielder Matt Jansen has been brought into the squad as a trialist. A young man with a lot of talent but currently without club. He was given the start in the next friendly against another Serbian team, also with the name
Radnicki and gave an impressive performance before being handed the MotM award. The game was won 2-0 with Samaras and Sinclair grabbing the goals.
So 8 goals so far in the friendlies, and all of them scored by different players, this is something I am very happy about.
A bit more luck on the transfer market now and I have managed to capture the signing of 17 year old attacking midifleder
Vurnon Anita from Ajax for 180k. Another young player that I see as having a great future in the game. I will expect him to learn a lot from our more expereinced players. Also added right winger
Michael Silberbauer to the squad for a fee of 1.8 million. Michael is a Danish international who has managed to net 8 goals in 25 games for his country.
The final piece of transfer news for today and possibly the most exciting. Young starlet
Lebohang Mokoena has agreed to join City for a fee of 200k. An application has been submitted for a work permit and I will be hoping that in the next few days he will be given the green light to join us. Yet another player I see with a bright future. I will look to slowly introduce him to the team on the right wing. But he is still young and is more of a player for the future.
Final information for this update, another friendly against an unknown team
Mladost and a 1-0 victory. Robbie Fowler again grabbing the only goal and the MotM award. So already looking to prove himself again.
More to follow on Friday
Come back on Friday for news on Mokoena's work permit as well as other transfers I have in the pipeline.
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