Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Ben Haim signing confirmed

Manchester City have signed the Israel defender Tal Ben Haim from Chelsea on a four-year contract, ending a 13-month stay in London during which he made just 10 Premier League starts and was fined for criticising the club's management. The fee for the 26-year-old is officially undisclosed, although it was previously reported that City were preparing a £5m bid.
>>guardian.co.uk

Merely confirmation of what had been widely expected given reports over the past few days, although the undisclosed fee adds a little intrigue as to whether the touted figure of £5 million was paid.

A good player, and one who lost his way at Chelsea a little following Jose Mourinho's departure but will add depth to an area which, whilst strong, is a little light.

As I've posted before though, it will be interesting to see exactly where he will fit in, and what impact this will have on the current incumbents (most likely Micah Richards and Vedran Corluka. It is unlikely Ben Haim will switch one bench for another so it could be that Mark Hughes is preparing to push either Richards or Corluka into midfield - which for me, could be a big risk unless he does opt for a 4-5-1 formation - perhaps with two holding midfielders to allow the creative talents of Petrov and Elano to really flourish.

Although he won't feature tomorrow evening in the second leg against EB/Streymour, it may become a little clearer over the next ten days when we have a packed week of pre-season fixtures.

vote it up!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I bet he will play LB.

Anonymous said...

with 7 being on the bench in the PL plus suspensions,injuries UEFA GAMES (Thurs)and intl games during the coming season Ican see TBH playing atleast 30 -40 games this season.
I doubt very much that MH style of play will allow us to get into Europe thru the Fair play League.

Anonymous said...

PLAY LEFT BACK DOUBT IT BUT FIRST TEAM FOOTBALL HAS TO BE ON THE CARDS OTHERWISE HE WOULD HAVE SIT ON CHELSEAS BENCH NEXT YEAR I THINK HE WILL PLAY CENTRE HALF IF HE PLAYS AND RICHARDS TO RIGHT BACK I HOPE THATS NOT TRUE AS IM A BIG BIG BIG FAN OF VEDRAN CORLUKA. THE LEFT BACK THING WOULD MAKE THE SIGNING OF BEN HAIM POINTLESS I REALLY DOUBT HE WILL PLAY THERE ALTHOUGH I THINK WE WILL SIGN A FULLBACK, I PERSONALLY LIKE MICHEAL BALL HE IS THE ONLY ONE WHO WILL FOR INSTANCE STAMP ON SOMEONE WHEN NEEDS MUST HE IS A GOOD FOOTBALLER TOO ALTHOUGH A TINY BIT SLOW SOMETIMES AND SLOPPY PASSING LETS HIM DOWN AND I THOUGHT GARRIDO WAS USED AS A SCAPEGOAT FOR PETROVS POOR TRACKING BACK LAST YEAR I WAS IMPRESSED UNTIL HE GOT DROPPED BUT HE WAS ONLY PLAYING LIKE A SPANISH LEFT BACK WOULD ROARING UP AND DOWN THE WING BUT NO COVER SO I DONT THINK WE NEED A LEFT BACK LET GARRIDO LEARN THE ENGLISH GAME AND HE WILL BE A BELTER.

Anonymous said...

For the first couple of League games he'll be playing centre back, almost certainly with Micah, as Dunney is suspended after seeing red at Middlesborough.

After that, we'll have to wait and see. Four players (Dunne, Richards, Ben Haim, Corluka) covering three positions is hardly a major problem for keeping them happy. It's Nedum who'll miss out most, I reckon.