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

Madrid really have inflated the market

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.

Keep dreaming

Would you not be disappointed with 5th? Seeing as we've reached 5th the last two seasons, 6th the season before, and 4th seasons earlier without spending much.

I know it takes time to gel and all that just makes you wonder why buy all these players now for a high price because the majority of them will leave in 12 months for half the price, no doubt.

City have to make the Champions League or it'll be a complete and utter disaster for them.

The suggestion that they know what they are doing is bizarre. They are just slapping bids in left right and centre without thinking. Their approach in going for proven CL players is wrong IMO. Instead of signing a 29/30 year old Terry for £45m why not sign the next John Terry at 22/23 for £15m so they'll enjoy 10 years of quality rather than maybe two or three.

They approach squad building like a lot of us did in Football Manager on the PC when we got bored and cheated by giving our teams unlimited money.

The bitterness/jealousy is hilarious. Have you make similar posts about Real Madrid by chance? Because I'd be prepared to suggest that we've probably actually got the cash to spend and aren't having to borrow any of it – we certainly paid off the Barry transfer in one go; no installments.

£5 million for Zamora bwahahahahahahahahahahaha fergie was right when he said prices are inflated

That, IMO, is nonsense.

They were a mile off the pace last season. Yes they have strengthened, at great expense, but that doesn't mean they'll automatically be able to compete with very strong sides who have masses of experience of CL qualification.

They have a slight bonus for this season in that they aren't in Europe so they don't have that distraction, but IMO they'd probably still be better off by having a good year in the Europa League rather than getting straight to the CL and going out in qualification or the group stages.



Jesus ****ing Christ. That's so simple. Why hasn't anyone thought of doing that?

I'll tell you why. It's because no one knows who the next John Terry will be. They could spend 15m on the next JT and he could fall flat on his face and end up being the next Robert Fleck (I know Fleck was a striker, but I really can't be ar5ed thinking of defensive failures).



So what? They have a huge financial advantage at the moment and they are using. Just like anyone else would. That financial advantage doesn't mean they will automatically be successful though. And if they are a expensive failure, the majority of people will take a delight in that.

Is it just me thats happy to see city splashing the cash? Since the Premier League started all Utd have done is bought success according to city fans. If city don't win anything this year with a possible £200m outlay then their claims over the last 20 years are going to look rather silly.