As a slight aside: anyone remember Jack Walker?

If they could get away with it they would

Yes. Landlord of the Rovers Return in Coronation Street in the early days. Married to Annie Walker. Why do you ask?

if they can buy it they will

downing going to villa for £12million.....................

Madrid really have inflated the market

citeh offered £45 million but he turned them down

I was rather thinking of the late chairman of Blackburn Rovers.

Ashley Young on the move?

We have signed two strikers at present; maybe three by the time you read this. We had no strikers of any note last year who are anything above lower Premier League level; no proven goalscorer and no target man. Without signing three strikers, we could not hope to compete at the level we are aiming at

There is still six weeks left in the window to get us the commanding central defender we need, although that is not as desperate a need as others may think. In my opinion, Onuoha and Kompany are good enough for where we want to be and I think that is the latter's best position. Richards and Bridge are England international full backs and that still leaves Dunne and Zabaleta. I do agree we need one commanding centre back but we are trying, not even you could have missed that, and we have plenty of time yet.

As for midfield, well that was a major part of why the defensive record was so bad for me. Despite having an abundance of holding midfielders last year, we lacked the driving force and the leader who could get us playing further up the field, away from home. On our travels we were too soft in the centre and the weight of the opponent's pressure was costing the goals rather than through lack of decent defenders (notwithstanding Dunne's mad spells).

To an outsider, who simply saw City score lots of goals and concede not so many less, they thought the lack of decent defenders was the problem. Anyone who saw anything of us, anyone knows anything about it, knew that our problems stemmed from not having a striker, or set of strikers, who could keep the ball up their end of the field and a midfield that didn't have the strength to do likewise. The defenders were asked to do much more work than they should have done and even the best of them would have struggled in that team.

I have been very impressed about the way that Mark Hughes is going about this. Even if those who never watch City don't agree, those of us that do know that he is signing just the right type of player in just the right areas and I now trust that he will start to target the other areas as appropriate.

Hughes has already said he doesnt believe in having too big a squad, where senior pros have to train with the reserves. He also said that he wouldnt look to offload players until after he's completed his recruitment. Hence I expect an exodus from City at the beginning of August.

I think City's squad will end up looking something like:

Given, Taylor, Zabaleta, Richards, Terry or Toure, Lescott, Kompany, Onuha, Bridge, Garrido, Ireland, De Jong, Barry, Elano, Johnson, Wright Phillips, Petrov, Tevez, Santa Cruz, Bellamy, Adabayor, Robinho.

I think Hughes would like to eventually replace Garrido, Elano & Petrov but only if he can bring in like for like replacements and may leave that until January. And Bojinov might be retained if he has a good pre season.

Overall I think that's a strong squad. It may be capable of challenging for 4th place but 5th would be more realitic given the difficulties of getting so many new players to gel. And there will inevitably be a few tantrums when the teamsheets go up. But we should be serious contenders for the cups

To be honest, D.D., I thought City lacked balance more than anything last year. Robinho isn't a 4-4-2 player, he's probably best used in a 4-3-3. IMO, Hughes needs to utilize Ireland, and I think with the signings so far, he's going to do just that. I think Ireland is at his best when he's allowed to break forward and support the forward, when he gets in the box and links play with 1-2's and so on, I felt at times City were playing with Ireland high up the field, and then Kompany really deep in the midfield, but there was nothing inbetween, this is where Barry fits perfectly. He'll get on the ball in the middle of the field and keep things ticking, he can control things pretty well and he has great all round ability. I can see Ireland in the coming years moving into a role similar to that of Gerrard's with us, he just looks so good and dangerous when he's in the final third, you have to utilize him there as much as possible.

If Hughes was to use a formation similar to ours, a formation that is pretty standard around the premier league now, you could say de Jong is your Masch, Barry your Alonso and Ireland your Gerrard. Obviously it isn't as strong, but in terms of balance and ability, it's fantastic and shouldn't be bullied by the stronger sides.

Even then, City still have plenty of options, they could easily switch it to more of a 4-4-2 with a Tevez/RSC partnership, or a Tevez/Adebayor partnership, or move Robinho into the middle behind a big target man like Adebayor.

City look a top side already but even I have to question their defence, it's not just the centre back, I'm not that sure on Zabaleta, he's impressed at times but he's never assured me that he can cut it at the very top. Bridge is solid, but Garrido, even as back up? I'm not that sure on him, either.

City obviously have more work to do in the transfer market, but if Sparky can get a formation settled and hit the ground running, I feel they could overtake Arsenal with surprising ease.