Wednesday, August 20, 2008

A narrow escape?

The eleventh hour intervention by Wenger is sure to enrage
City manager Mark Hughes who believed the deal to be a formality after the
player had agreed in principle a move across the city.
Wenger, who is keen
to add cover at left back for Gael Clichy and values Silvestre's Premier League
experience, apparently made his intentions known to the player whilst he was at
the City of Manchester Stadium, with Silvestre abandoning the medical to head
straight to London to discuss terms.

>>telegraph.co.uk

Quite why we would be chasing Silvestre (let alone any left-back), given that defensive additions are hardly a priority at present is a complete mystery to me.

With just over ten days before the transfer window shuts, both the midfield and attacking areas (even more so given Bojinov's injury) are still pressing concerns which have not been addressed and to add a player who is at best a bit part at United is puzzling.

Both Ball and Garrido are solid ( albeit lacking in areas) and with Ben Haim also able to fill in there if required, adding Silvestre does not upgrade the position in any way and if this is an indication of the moves 'in the pipeline' that Hughes referred to at the weekend, then the closing of the transfer window perhaps cannot come quickly enough.

vote it up!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

disagree there danny. not about silvestre, glad he's not coming, dont rate him at all. but we do need a better left back. garrido is too slow and weak. Ball simply doesnt have enough quality at this level. tal haim is much better centrally rather than playing him out of position. i think both a LB and a right SWPinger are priorities. strikers - we can manage with what we have unless theres a really good deal out there...

cheers

andy

Anonymous said...

Really couldn’t disagree with you more. In no sense do I think that Silvestre is a top class full back. Indeed, in the last few years, I can point to derby victories where our goals have come directly from faults in his play. But to suggest that we are ok with what we have is simply falacious! I shudder when I think of how many of our goals against last season were scored from moves down the opposition’s right when Garrido was playing. Add to that the fact that Petrov is unsupported to the point of isolation when Ball was on the field and I think a new Left fullback is key. As for Ben Haim slotting in there, he was simply awful against Midtyland.

I agree that midfield and up front are priorities, but I can see little else but repeats of Saturday unless we get a quality full back in.

Anonymous said...

WE DONT NEED A LEFT BACK URGENTLY BALL IS SOLID AND I THINK WITH TIME LEARNING ABOUT THE PREM GARRIDO WILL BE CLASS, IT IS ABSOLUTELY TRUE THAT SILVESTRE WAS IN THE MIDDLE OF HIS MEDICAL WHEN HE GOT A PHONE CALL AFTER WHICH HE SAID HE WAS GOING AND WOULDNT BE COMING BACK. AS FOR THE MIDFIELD AFTER WATCHING JOHNSON RECENTLY ID SELL HIM AND REPLACE HIM WITH STEPHEN M'BIA FROM RENNES OR MANUEL FERNANDES FROM VALENCIA THEY ARE BOTH BETTER THAN JOHNSON AND YOUNG PLUS FERNANDES IS GELSONS COUSIN SO HE COULD PUT A WORD IN.