Buying From Our Premiership Rivals 2007: Manchester City
By James Collins On Fri 3 Aug 2007 |
Like Newcastle, the Manchester City that begins this season will be a very different team to the miserable excuse of a team that finished last season. Fans from both teams can look forward to a brighter season with new owners, new managers and new players. But does all the upheaval create an opportunity for Newcastle to sign any players from Manchester City?
Of course, one player has made the move from Eastlands in the form of the controversial Joey Barton. The Liverpudlian’s position was untenable at Citeh, but the £5.8m transfer is good news for Newcastle, as Barton the player offers what the inferior Scott Parker promised, but could not deliver. However, a Barton departure was inevitable, and contract clauses and the fragile financial situation of his club at that time ensured an easy departure.
Now with chairman Frank Sinatra controlling the purse-strings, it would be difficult for any club to make an acceptable bid for any player Manchester City that Sven Goran Eriksson wants to keep. Thus bids for two most eligible players (not including new signings) in Micah Richards and Richard Dunne can be ruled out. Thus if Newcastle were to look at signing a Citeh player, we’d be looking at another Sibierski, i.e. a last minute, short term and cheap deal that is better than nothing.
Even then, such a player may prove difficult to find amongst Sven’s men. While we have had problems in defence, yet been strong in quality in midfield and attack, last season’s Manchester City challenged Watford when it came to having the worst attacking players in the league. Naturally, Sven has done well to bring in players that can keep last seasons flops away from the first team, and you wouldn’t want to see any of these failures in a black and white shirt.
One possible Sibierski exists at left back howeve in the form of journeyman Michael Ball, who despite being average and unlikely to get many games at the City of Manchester stadium, at least holds the distinction of being able to play at left back, which cannot be said of any regularly fit, over-21 player that currently plays for Newcastle. In that sense he would be better than nothing if no-one else was secured by deadline day - however it has to be hoped that will not be the case, and with today’s links to Leighton Baines and Dragutinovic, there is reason for optimism on this front.
Who would you like to sign from Manchester City? How will both new-look teams fare this season? Have Your Say.
Arsenal
Matthieu Flamini
Justin Hoyte
Johan Djourou
Armand Traore
David Dein (as a potential Chief Executive)
Aston Villa
Aaron Hughes (Has moved to Fulham)
Birmingham City
Gary McSheffrey
Sebastien Larsson
Blackburn Rovers
Ryan Nelsen
David Bentley
Morten Gamst Pedersen
Benni McCarthy
Bolton Wanderers
Nicholas Anelka
El-Hadji Diouf
Gary Speed
Chelsea
Wayne Bridge
Khalid Boulahrouz (Has moved to Sevilla on loan)
Derby County
Giles Barnes
Lewin Nyatanga
Everton
Mikel Arteta
Jospeh Yobo
Fulham
Franck Queudrue (Has moved to Birmingham)
Papa Bouba Diop
Liverpool
Sami Hyypia
Manchester City
Michael Ball
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You see I was talking in terms of size and fan-base and financially .. as teams like I said we are about the same position-wise.
Oh and I never said anything about dislike.. simply implied that they had lost respect in my book due in part to their chairman (it’s not just the human rights/ corruption thing-he just annoys me) and I’m sure you’ll agree we lost a lot of respect because of our previous chairman.
Sent in on: August 9th, 2007 at 7:41 pm
jay jay: I would say we are about on par with the citeh.
Also, if you plan on disliking city fans because of their chairman… I think you can finish this one.
Sent in on: August 9th, 2007 at 1:37 am
man city have some good youngsters that would all be usefull in our squad…
michael johnson, ismael miller, nedum onouha,
daniel sturridge. although they wouldnt sell any of them.
add into that joe hart and micah richards and citeh have more english players with promise than the media give them credit for.
the one young players with great potential imo they might sell that could be usefull as a potential dyer replacement is stephen ireland.
Sent in on: August 6th, 2007 at 8:20 am
blue joe! ‘on par’? lets not be silly now.. newcastle utd has a much larger fanbase, larger stadium (which it fills comsistently) and are near enough in the top 10 teams in the world when it comes to receiving revenue. sure our league positions are about the same but when you talk about a clubs size its these aspects tht you refer to; otherwise readingfc would be considered a bigger club than newcastle…
then again, until recently i had a lot of respect for man city supporters, it takes a real fan to support a real team — unlike manyoo.. however now with that human-rights abusing money-wasting owner you have now.. the respect is quickly decreasing.
Sent in on: August 4th, 2007 at 10:41 am
Out of all of the installments of this series so far, this is the least offensive.
They are purely theoretical and I, for one enjoy them as they fill up the close season boredom.
Citeh dans are traditionally quite classy I think and can speak objectively about football in general.
The article does a good job of explaining that the two clubs are in very similar situations and that it would be difficult to tempt any players away from Eastlands as Newcastle is not an obvious step up. For this reason I cannot understand the comments made by Messrs Cummings and Blue Joe.
Keep up the good work lads and try and get back to the days of daily updates and top 10 ratings etc.
Sent in on: August 4th, 2007 at 2:36 am
What always surprises me is that people, pundits, talk about Newcastle as if they are a huge club and great exptation in comparison with City when in fact we are pretty much on a par.
Perhaps it is because we have been over shadowed for so long by the Salford reds. I hope thats about to change
Sent in on: August 3rd, 2007 at 3:00 pm
I don’t see what the point of these articles titled, “who would you buy from…”
HTT you do it every year, and they are useless, and rubbish.
Howay man stick to more relevant topics.
Sent in on: August 3rd, 2007 at 1:34 pm
Excuse me, but did I not read a quote from the Chairman this morning saying that the £80M debts are too high to support and that there is an onus on prudence. He also said that Big Sams strength is finding and buying players. It looks to me like this can be translated into “we’re not giving Sam any money and he’ll have to do what he did at Bolton”, or “if Sam wants any money, he’ll have to flog Michael Owen”. It looks to me chaps like the past few managers who have done nothing but waste money (KK excepted) were the last. We will turn into Bolton Wanderers while Man City have a manager who will probably do the business. Next season the same article will start “Like Newcastle, the (insert team name_ that begins this season will be a very different team to the miserable excuse of a team that finished last season.”. Bad times ahead.
Sent in on: August 3rd, 2007 at 1:33 pm
I’d sign Danny Mills, forgotten in Manchester but dependable and skilled
Sent in on: August 3rd, 2007 at 1:33 pm
Your comments about Ball are a bit misguided. He was on loan at City last season and was one of our better players and much deserving of the full-time contract he signed with us a fortnight ago. He is also currently (despite the signing of the young Spanish left-back Garrido yesterday) our first choice left-back. I thus can’t see this apparent ‘journeyman’ footballer leaving us anytime soon.
Sent in on: August 3rd, 2007 at 1:32 pm
Why is Manchester City interesting to Newcastle Supporters? Surely you have your own problems to sort out? (Our Joey for a start!)
Anyway the best of luck for the coming season… At least you have someone who resembles a decent Manager now… and as fellow, loyal, long suffering fans we can empathise harmoniously.
Sent in on: August 3rd, 2007 at 1:28 pm
“Barton the player offers what the inferior Scott Parker promised, but could not deliver”
Hahaha if Parker couldn’t deliver what you expected write off Barton now! Can’t pass, can’t take a corner, soft in the tackle, no discipline and worse of all he thinks he is as good as Gerrard!
Enjoy!
Sent in on: August 3rd, 2007 at 1:24 pm
I was hoping we would appear out of the blue and pip City to the signing of Elano.
Didn’t have the best of Copa America’s, but can play on either wing, as an attacking central midfielder or upfront.
Utter class.
Sent in on: August 3rd, 2007 at 1:23 pm