Media round-up.

Even more rumours in the press today as City continue to be linked with more players in the January transfer window. Todays MEN first of all reports that Pearce will be handed a transfer kitty in the region of £10million, with Pearce admitting he has specific targets he will be making bids for come January; "We've certainly got a list of people that we're very interested in."In January we will be making offers for certain people. If we're fruitful and they fit into our financial structure fine. If they don't, we'll carry on looking."
The MEN again links us with previous midfield targets Steed Malbranque and Steven Pienaar, whilst Sky Sports states we are one of the clubs who 'officially' watched Marseille winger Franck Ribery in Tuesday's under 21 match for France versus England (who featured Nedum Onouha in the side). I caught most of this game and Ribery looked far more advanced than any other player on the pitch and has also been rumoured as a potential World Cup squad member for the full French side. He would be a fantastic signing but the other clubs rumoured to be watching him include Chelsea, Arsenal, Juventus and Milan.
One former Blue possibly headed back to the Premiership could be Paulo Wanchope, who is reportedly keen on returning from his move to the Middle East to link up with under-fire Portsmouth manager Alain Perrin.

Elsewhere, the MEN had a profile today of Daniel Sturridge, who is now making his mark on the reserve team following his first start earlier this week. The piece features heady praise from reserve/academy chief Steve Wigley but also reports on the threat of Sturridge being poached by one of the 'big London clubs' as he is yet unable to sign a professional contract as he has not turned seventeen. Wigley urged Sturridge to eschew the lure of Chelsea and to sign on at City, citing the opportunities that players such as Steven Ireland have had this season. Having not seen Sturridge play as yet, all I can go off is reports from people who have, but by all accounts he is a top talent who is only a year or so away from the first team. The laughable thing will be if he does decide not to sign on at City, then the compensation we will receive would be nominal considering the potential he has. A recent example involving Chelsea signing three teenage players from lower league clubs resulted in them paying less than £1 million in compensation for all three players. It is ridiculous as the compensation package does not seem to be weighted in any way towards a potential career a player may have with the club who are signing them, in so far as taking into account total appearances made, England caps and so on. A one-off fee hardly appears adequate compensation figure given the fact that the player has shown enough promise to warrant being signed in the first place.