Tuesday, June 13, 2006

City transfer news and speculation

A little bit of transfer news and speculation over the last couple of days which is probably worth commenting on:

Mikkel Bischoff has joined Coventry in a two year deal - Bischoff was a Keegan signing who
never quite lived upto billing. His time was injury hit and ended up being farmed out
on loan on a number of occasions.

We are back in the race for Quinton Fortune - The midfielder turned down a move to Celtic after only being offered a one year deal and are set to go 'head to head' with Bolton. A move which would be disappointing for me as he would offer no more than extra depth in the squad positions.

Danny Mills is interesting Wigan - It seems that possible moves could stutter as a result
of the clubs insistence on a fee of £500,000 for him. Personally I would offer him on a free if there is genuine interest and the Wigan angle makes sense if Chimbonda is headed for the exit.


Reading are preparing a £2million move for David James - I can't see this getting serious consideration. James still has two (possibly three) years at the top and there is no candidate ready to take over as yet.

vote it up!

4 comments:

Danny Pugsley said...

I don't doubt James is probably concerned at the lack of progress (and ambition) at the club, but I can't seriously see him agreeing to a move to Reading and none of the top teams need to strengthen in that area.

With Mills, if indeed he has no future at the club and interested sides aren't willing to pay for him then let him go on a free. His wages are high enough to justify this and I don't think he will be a positive dressing room influence if he ends up being frozen out.

Quinton Fortune - I just think there are better players out there who we could/should be able to pick up.

Anonymous said...

Just a word or two if I may about SWP. We (apparantly) didn't want him to go in the first place. OK so far. HE then decided he was going, so we happily took the cash. Right. We haven't spent it, (well ok some on Samaras, but look at the wages we've saved on Fowler and Macwhathisname.) Therefore we must still have most of what we got for him. Right. His value after last season has plummeted. SO WHY THE F*** CAN'T WE AFFORD TO BUY HIM BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Danny Pugsley said...

My understanding (from the end of season interview with Wardle) was that the majority of the SWP money had been used to service the debts.

Assuming, it hadn't though and the board handed Pearce £10-£15 million to spend there are a couple of points regarding re-signing SWP:

* Would Pearce want to spend all of the money on one player - even it is SWP?

* Would Chelsea really want to sell SWP so soon after buying him?

* Would SWP want to return to the club?

Anonymous said...

Citys midfield needs strengthening.
Barton & Reyna will leave in 1 & 2 years respectively.
We need more strength and depth in midfield to supplement our squad. We need intensified competition for places. We need players to be focussing on keeping their jobs in preference to counting their wage rises, negotiating contract extensions or performing media interviews.
One thing I dont understand is why we arent pursuing players like Jarosik or Gera for 2m each. They are the type of versatile players we need in our engine room, to supplement Reyna et Al, at a price city should be able to afford. Manchester City now has a wonderful new ground and a fantastic setup, that should make it very easy to sell City to prospective players.
So why are we finding it so difficult to recruit the quality we need in our engine room?
Citys youth academy is generating a new future defence, but currently no future midfield, so city need to buy it and sooner than later. I feel Citys management are being given a free ride by Citys Academy and its about time they contributed an equal share to the rise in citys fortunes by training and motivating this current crop of players to succeed.