Vassell evicted

Darius Vassell is considering a return to England after he was evicted from his Turkish hotel because his club Ankaragucu failed to pay the bill.

The 29-year-old has voiced concerns over the club’s financial problems following a recent change in ownership. Players’ wages have frequently been paid late, training has been cancelled and now he has been thrown out of his hotel.

Vassell, who has scored twice in seven games, said: ‘I don’t know what’s happening. I have been told that I have to leave the hotel.

>>mailonline.

Vassell mobbed in Turkey

This is a great picture just for the sheer bemusement on Vassell's face.


I had imagined that Vassell would likely end up at a top level Championship side (or even one of the promoted clubs) but maybe he fancied the challenge of playing abroad at this stage of his career.

It is easy to dismiss his time at City, but when he arrived at the club he was not far removed from the England set up and had a decent reputation. He did arrive at a time when we were struggling and perhaps was not up to taking on the kind of responsibility demanded of him. It may have also have not helped that he only seemed able to find the net against Aston Villa.

During his latter days at the club he often found himself out on the right, or during the second half of 2008/09 out of the side completely. I'm not sure many of us had heard of Ankaragucu, but it might be one more side to look out for next season.

City career stats

	Apps	Sub	Goals
Total (Club)	124	(14)	22
League	103	(12)	17
FA Cup	12	(1)	3
League Cup	3	(1)	1
European/Others	6	(0)	1

Players released

CITY have confirmed the list of players released from the club.

Danny Mills, Daniel Sturridge, Darius Vassell, Glauber Berti, Didi Hamann and Michael Ball will all be playing their football away from Eastlands next season. Goalkeeper Richard Martin has gone, report www.mcfc.co.uk as have youngsters Matthew Brown, Ian Daly, Gregor Hartley, Ben Morris, Curtis Obeng, Chris Ramsey and Angelos Tsiaklis.

>>MEN.

No surprise with the names of Mills, Vassell, Glauber, Hamman or Ball on the list. Quite cleary none have any future with the club given the changes we have undergone the past couple of seasons.

It is worth noting though that when Vassell, Hamman and Ball arrived at the club they were very much components of the squad at that time. Vassell and Ball in particular played key roles when they first arrived before being marginalised during their latter days. Hamman's time was perhaps blighted through injury yet had a very big season in 2007/08 where he showed the form that he displayed during his days at Liverpool.

Whilst not unexpected (and the move to Chelsea will now surely be imminent), it also a very understated exit for Sturridge.

As for Danny Mills, the less said the better.

Vassell heading to Turkey

Darius Vassell has travelled to Turkey to hold talks with Ankaragucu over a prospective move to the Super Lig side.The former England international appears to have no future at Manchester City with manager Mark Hughes linked with a host of big-name signings.

>>sky sports.com

I love this comment from Ankaragucu chairman Cengiz Topel Yildirim:

"We've completed the pre-negotiations with Darius Vassell."We aim to secure a big signing as this year is our centenary".

Vassell mugged

Vassell, 28, was robbed of his designer watch and jewellery on his return home from the club's Christmas party.

Vassell was not injured during the incident, but was threatened by the two offenders.

It is understood the attackers had not specifically targeted the former England international, but struck while the player reportedly disputed his taxi fare.

The raid took place at the junction of Palatine Road and Barlow Moor Road in Didsbury at about 5.30am on Sunday.

>>Sunday Sun

It is reported that Vassell was 'relieved' of almost £23,000 of bling, and giving where the incident occurred, it sounds like some 'quality' time at Friday's could have been on the agenda.

City 4 Bolton 2

A ninth straight home win for city in an entertaining game which saw the blues lose a lead and then come from behind to keep the fantastic home record intact and move back into 4th place.

City drew first blood through the impressive Rolando Bianchi, who gave the best performance from a centre forward for city season. A slip from Gardener let in Vassell who squared to the ever impressive Michael Johnson, who cleverly played in the Italian to finish from six yards.
City then backed off the pace and allowed Bolton to come into the game, and mistakes from both Dunne and Corluka resulted in well crafted and well finished goals from the ever despicable spit the dog and Kevin Nolan, who in my opinion was lucky to see the match out with at least three second half yellow card offences going unpunished.

2-1 down at half time with Bolton in the ascendancy and thoughts of Gareth Southgates damming verdict on svens half-time motivational speeches crept in.

Not to worry as it appears Sven did the 'fight them on the beaches' speech and we blew Bolton away with a second half performance that yielded 3 unanswered goals with and own goal (might be hammans?) Vassell and Kelvin Etuhu netting his first senior goal for the club. Add into that at least two late gilt edged chances as Bolton, to their credit, pushed right up.

Megson whined on the radio about mistakes and them matching us blow for blow, well his facts were sadly incorrect (see the sky report) whilst he managed to neglect to mention both their goals came from our mistakes. I really do hope Bolton go down.

Spurs in the cup on Tuesday and hopefully a tenth straight home win, Elano back fit with a bit of luck, the ink dried on the Nery Castillo loan deal and i think we can maybe say it's been a good week ??

No excuses, a call to arms for all blues get down and back the lads on tuesday night.

Vassell set to move on

Sven-Goran Eriksson, the Manchester City manager, is waiting
to hear whether Darius Vassell has decided to join Derby County.
Vassell is
yet to even win a place on the bench during City's 100 per cent start to the
season, and Billy Davies, the Derby manager, has inquired about the 27-year-old.
The former England striker has held discussions with the Midlands club after
being made surplus to requirements at City following Eriksson's massive summer
recruitment drive.
"It is a fact Derby are interested in Darius - but I have
not heard any results," Eriksson said. "I should find out more soon."

-The Times.

I think if the story is this far advanced then it would likely be that Vassell will move on, and the only spanner would be if another side threw their hat into the ring.

It is fairly clear that despite the England connection - and don't forget Vassell was a regular in Eriksson's England squads, that Vassell will not get a look in now at the club and will have to move on if he wants to get regular football.

It is fair to say that apart from brief flashes, Vassell's City career will be looked upon as a disappointing one as all the frustrations that Villa fans saw were evidenced at Eastlands. It did look promising during the early stages following his arrival and he built up an impressive partnership with Andrew Cole but once Cole went down injured (and subsequently departed) so Vassell's fortunes went.

Very much a confidence player, for all of last season he looked hesitant and unsure of himself - although playing on the left wouldn't have helped, and as the new broom has swept in he finds himself cast aside - and he could well be the first of a number to head to the exit door over the next week.

Vassell bid rejected

Manchester City can confirm that they have received an offer
from Besiktas for Darius Vassell, which has been rejected by the Club.
The
player is part of the 22 man squad currently on the pre-season tour of
Sweden. -

mcfc.co.uk
All very brief stuff, with no indication of whether the reason is a financial one or whether Vassell is seen as a key part of the squad for the forthcoming season.

Personally, I would say it is more to do with (despite recent arrivals) the squad still appearing thin as opposed to Vassell being one of the first names on the team sheet, but perhaps also that our new financial position means we don't necessarily have to consider every bid that comes our way.

Stories suggested Eriksson was not overly impressed with Vassell's contribution against Doncaster and it seems that like much of last season, any chance he does get will again be out wide as opposed to through the middle.

Preston North End - Preview

Deepdale , 18/02/2007 - 1.10pm - live on the bbc

Just over 5 years and a week to the day since our last meeting we renew hostilities with PNE in tomorrows 5th Round FA Cup tie , due to be played in front of a capacity Deepdale crowd.

Despite a 4 game run between 1998-2002 the clubs have rarely crossed paths. in fact you have to go back to 1965-66 season to begin to see any history between the teams, the same year incidentally that Preston last made the FA Cup quarter finals ! And just to add salt to the wound they have failed to knock out top flight opposition since 1979.

To the present day however and Preston currently lie around 8 places behind City, sitting 4th in the Championship and with many pundits backing them for an FA Cup 'shock'.
On the injury front both Teams are missing Strikers, Samaras is likely to come in for Darius Vassell, whilst Preston must choose between Dichio and Mellor to replace Brett Ormerod.

I remember, too well for something the happened the best part of a decade ago, City been given a real chasing in our dark division two days by a Preston Team with Gregan, Eyres, and Basham giving us a bit of a football lesson that day.

I have a feeling we may be handing out the lessons this time.

Predicition - 0-2

Shooting Stars

'Its just not good enough' as the bloke about ten rows behind me has taken to near constantly singing. He has a point if he is referring to the 'strikers' currently plying there trade for city.
The worst thing about today is probably the fact that it wasn't too bad a performance shooting aside and Reading for 60mins were there for the taking , but too there credit showed why they are knocking on the door of a Uefa cup place by not been at there best and managing to pick up three points. Credit to those who travelled as well , thats one of the biggest away turnouts and city in a long time.

City started pretty brightly and did manage to dictate most of the early play with Ireland and Barton managing to gain the upper hand in the midfield and Vassell looked lively upfront. Not too sure why we are playing the 3-5-2 at home though , maybe Pearce thinks it cute. Barton failed to the lift the ball over the keeper in the best chance of the first half , and the weight that is been put on his shoulders too produce goals seems a bit too heavy for the lad.
Reading did however fire more than some warning shots and had a Lita goal turned in dubious circumstances.

City also managed too have a great chance though Vassell just after the break but he contrived too miss from all of 6 yards and that little voice in your head goes oh-ho.

And so it proved to be as Leroy Lita , who Richards had managed to out muscle for much of the game and keep quiet, popped up on the end of two precision balls (though I will be have a long hard look at richard dunnes positioning when I see them again) to nail shut the game for Reading.

So lets have an in-depth look at our strikers for the remainder of the season :

Bernado Corradi - Not good enough
Georgious Samaras - Not good enough
Darius Vassell - Not good enough
Paul Dickov - Wasnt good enough 3 yrs ago
Ishmael Miller - Unproven
Danny Sturridge - Unproven

Hmmmmmmmmm.
When 36000 people can see week in week out what the problem is why the hell did we end up going to within 30 minutes of the close of the transfer window to be turned down for a striker ??

Villa 1 City 3

Firstly, apologies for the lack of preview for last nights game but I've been a little busy over the past couple of days. Rest assured, it will be back for the Watford game and given last nights score could the 5-2 finally be on the cards?


So, we finally end our away day run of games without a win which stretches way back into last season and at least we made sure it wasn't a whole calendar year without a win.


I've not caught any highlights of the game as yet, catching most of it on the radio - and in particular I'll be looking forward to seeing Distin's goal. I read a little bit of the build up to the game from a Villa perspective and most accounts were wary of the threat of Vassell, which I discounted because he hasn't shown a great deal so far this season for one reason or another and he is currently the 'lucky' occupant of the left midfield role.


Still, it was inevitable I suppose that it was to be Vassell who gave us the lead and shock of all shocks we go and make it 2-0 through Joey Barton. Half-time away from home and 2-0 up - surely the game is as good as done. Well, not quite as we allowed Villa a foothold back into the game before Distin restored the situation to earn us the full three points.


Under Martin O'Neill Villa have surprised many this season - and their only previous defeat was away at Chelsea, but of late they have drawn games as opposed to have been winning so I felt we were in with a chance of getting something from the game, particularly with our good record at Villa Park.


Three points was perhaps a little more than expected but welcome nonetheless.






Reaction:

"Obviously going back to your old club gives Darius
a bit of a lift, there is no doubt about that. I think he loves Villa. He had
great times at Villa but he enjoys coming back and putting on a show.
"He has
done that every time we have played them and credit to him. I am asking him to
play out of position on the left-hand side of midfield but the work he did
attacking and defensively was fantastic for the team.
"It isn't his best
position but there's not been one moment where he has turned around to me and
said 'I don't want to do this role'." Stuart Pearce on Darius Vassell.

"We were second best in the first half. We got
ourselves back in the game in the second period and at 2-1 I thought we might
force an equaliser but the third goal was crucial and they won comfortably in
the end.
"We did not play well enough in the first half. We are not famous
for coming out of the traps quickly. But I still see no reason for us not to be
competing at the start of the game.
"From our view point they scored some
very poor goals which was disappointing as we have not been giving many
away". Villa boss Martin O'Neill.


Match reports:


The Telegraph
The Independent
Fox Sports