The all-new City

Much has been written about the way in which Mark Hughes has overhauled the side over the past twelve months, with the deadline day sale of Richard Dunne a symbolic move given his links to the past.

Not only was Dunne the longest serving player, but he was clearly the most experienced City player with his 290 league starts.

His departure leaves only two current squad players with a hundred or more league starts to their name.

Even moreso, take the Academy-bred trio of Wright-Phillips, Ireland and Richards aside and there is not a whole lot of players who have much experience at the club - with the vast majority having less than a seasons worth of games to their name:

Player	Debut	League starts
Shay Given	2009	18
Joe Hart	2006	50
Micah Richards	2005	100
Pablo Zabaleta	2008	26
Nedum Onouha	2004	67
Joleon Lescott	2009	1
Kolo Toure	2009	3
Wayne Bridge	2009	19
Javier Garrido	2007	32
Vincent Kompany	2008	34
Shaun Wright-Phillips	1999	160
Nigel de Jong	2009	16
Stephen Ireland	2005	96
Gareth Barry	2009	3
Michael Johnson	2006	36
Martin Petrov	2007	38
Kelvin Etuhu	2007	4
Craig Bellamy	2009	9
Robinho	2008	32
Carlos Tevez	2009	2
Emmanuel Adebayor	2009	3
Valeri Bojinov	2007	3
Felipe Caiceido	2008	10
Benjani	2008	20
Jo	2008	6

Hughes has already stated that there will not be another transfer window like the one we have just witnessed, meaning that the core or nucleus of the side is now in place. New signings will of course be made, but these will not be in the same number and will serve to substantially improve on what is currently in place.

This current side is the one built for the future, and one that should have develop the sort of team unity and consistency that his a hallmark feature of teams which have been developed and become succesful.

Something that will bode well given our now raised ambitions.