Dunne and Barton hit-out and challenge the squad

Ahead of the biggest game of the season later today and the newspapers this morning are hardly paining a picture of a happy camp at City at the moment.

Joey Barton has been claiming that some of his teammates do not share his own ambitions, and talking to Sky Sports he said:

"I want to win trophies, I want to play in the UEFA
Champions League and I want to play in the European cups. "I want to play at the
highest level and I want to test myself and I don't think anyone can have any
qualms with you for wanting that.
"Whether it's this season or next season
we all have to strive at this football club to achieve it, every single one of
us.
"There's no point me wanting to achieve it and ten others not, and I
don't think that's the case.
"I think at the minute it's a case of five or
six wanting it and five or six not.
"I think as soon as we get the playing
field level and eight, nine or ten wanting it then we'll start achieving
things."

However, it is perhaps Richard Dunne's comments to The Observer which are perhaps more scathing:

'We are not scoring enough goals and two or three
players are going missing when things go against us,' he says. 'At home, in
particular, we seem to go into our shells, or at least some of us do. That's the
disappointing thing. We are not a good enough team to win games with just seven
or eight players, we need everyone to pull together. We can't afford to have
players hiding. I feel let down by certain people and I'm sure the manager does
too, but it's not his fault. The squad is not big enough for everyone to be
pushed and when that happens you get people operating in a comfort zone.
'When a manager only has limited funds to spend on new players, the ones he
does bring in need to hit the ground running, and that hasn't happened either.
Foreign signings are always going to need time to adapt, but at this stage of
the season you need to be giving 100 per cent. It should be a matter of personal
pride.
'We go to Blackburn as underdogs and we are away from home so to some
extent the pressure is off, but in the league we have got a really hard run-in.
We are not going to be able to survive just by picking up points from bad teams,
we are going to have to beat some good teams. We've got to
improve.'

Whilst The Times has a similar piece, but adds:

"Managers live by their transfer deals. I’m sure the
manager feels let down but it’s not his fault if the personal pride in a player
is not there.” I don’t think we’re scoring enough goals,” Dunne said. “I think
there are a couple of people going missing during games. And we’re not

good enough team to have just six or seven players turn up every weekend. We
need 11, 14 players putting effort in. If your skill isn’t holding up the least
you can do is put the effort in.
“There’s the likes of Joey Barton who you
know you can rely on to be there fighting every week, but there’s others who go
into their shells. It’s a lack of self pride and they need to understand in
their own minds what they’re doing. They’re hiding from the rest of the team.”

Whilst not uncommon for Barton to speak his mind, it is quite rare for Dunne (even as captain) to be very vocal in the press - and even less so for it to be with a critical tone.

I don't think he is particularly the type to stir up trouble within the club, and perhaps, ahead of such an important game and stage of the season, he is playing a little psychological game here and aiming to throw down a challenge to the team as a whole that it is time to stand up and be counted.

Takeover speculation grows

Apologies for being a little late on this one, as I have been planning to post up on it for the past few days or so. There has been more talk of takeovers over the last week, resulting in the share price seeing a steep increase and news that the board were meeting yesterday to discuss the potential of a takeover and the groups believed to be in the running.

The Times ran a good piece today which suggested that there were two front-runners to take control of the club - an unknown American consortium, and a British-based one headed by former-City player Ray Ranson.

Interestingly, the article suggested that the American bid holds the upper hand but there are believed to be concerns over how their bid will be structured (with it being leveraged) and this could 'let the Ranson consortium' in:

Highly regarded by many supporters, Wardle and Makin
risk being cast as villains if they fail to strike a deal financially workable
for an incoming investor. Of greatest concern to the club’s fans, however, are
the intentions of the American investors who are thought to be leading the race,
the identity of whom the club has kept a closely guarded secret.

The Times understands that the American bid is
leveraged and could result in the club, who have existing debts in excess of £50
million, falling deeper into the red, a nightmare scenario for supporters who
fear that the club could be saddled with a debt in much the same way Manchester
United were when the Glazer family took over at Old Trafford.

Although this is something that the MEN does not subscribe to, offering an alternate view on proceedings:

Ranson, who unsuccessfully tried to buy Aston Villa
before American Randy Lerner took over, has, it is understood, had a lukewarm
response at the City of Manchester Stadium.
More talks are planned with the
mystery Americans later this week, after today's board meeting at City has been
given an update on the takeover saga.

The Americans have been checked out
- along with all four would-be investors - and would not saddle City with debt
and the hush-hush talks with them are now set to move from the "preliminary
stage'' to more advanced discussions.

It is an interesting angle that The Times approach, and there is the suggestion that Wardle and Makin may have a decision to make which - in blunt terms, would either be in the best interests of the club or themselves.

No one doubts that the pair have the best interests of the
club at heart, but there is a belief in some quarters that they may have to
accept a loss on their loans in the long-term interest of the club.

It seems that takeover talk is beginning to gather momentum, and is now a case of 'when' rather than 'if' the club will see new ownership, and one thing that all reports I have seen suggest is that Makin and Wardle do have the best long-term interests of the club at heart and are keen to secure the best deal possible.

With the Supporters Trust announcing on Five Live last night that they have the potential backing to secure upto 15% of the clubs shares - although I know for sure they are not part of any of the groups looking to bid for the club, this could be perfect timing for the Trust to be up and running and be able to come on board and work with new owners - wouldn't it be perfect PR at least for any incoming group to be seen to engaging the fans as a whole as one of their first moves?

City 0 Watford 0

The evening started well with a trip to the Christmas market in Albert Square prior to the game and very nice it was too. Well fed and watered from the various stalls dotted around the market we then preceeded to the ground, only to get stuck in traffic and then encounter a flat tyre en route.

Eventually getting to the ground around fifteen minutes late the fun for one evening was very much over as a 0-0 draw against a side who had won just one game previously this season was certainly not expected.

A surprise for me was the performance of Watford. Admittedly I've not seen a great deal of them this season but what I have caught they looked to have been a little unlucky in some games and was expecting a plucky side who knocked the ball around neatly.

However, they seem to have adhered to the mantra of 'percentage' football in a bid to escape the drop this season with an emphasis on powerful midfielders and long, direct balls into the opposing defence. Some credit must be given to them though as it was a tactic that unsettled our defence at times - and in particular Richard Dunne didn't have his most comfortable evening. Impressive for me though was the performance once again of Distin - who gave little away to the highly touted Ashley Young.

For much of the evening though it was a sense of frustration on our part, as the team (and midfield in particular) lacked a cutting edge and failed to convert posession and territory into too many quality chances. When we did carve out opportunities, the Watford keeper managed to pull off a couple of smart saves - from a Barton free-kick and Corradi snap shot being the pick, and he definitely improved through the course of the game after looking a little shaky on balls into the box early on.

I thought that until Hamman came on for the last ten minutes no-one was prepared to put their foot on the ball and actually seek out options . Too often, aimless balls were played more in hope than anything else and we conceded possession back to Watford far too often.

There was a late penalty shout when Corradi went down under a challenge when poised to shoot, but for me it was debatable if there was contact and it looked like he was looking for the penalty as opposed to hitting the target with any real conviction.

Although he may have got that decision correct, there were many that Mark Clattenberg got wrong during the game - Mahon of Watford was lucky to escape further punishment for a couple of poor challenges on Joey Barton, whilst too often he was quick to blow the whistle and was not helped by some inconsistent decision from his linesman.

One thing I pointed to in my preview was that I felt that Giorgios Samaras was due a big-game as for all the progress his partnership with Corradi had shown he needed goals, but it was a performance that offered little and too often he and Corradi appeared distant and uncohesive.

Watford will certainly be happier with the point they earned, and it was a hardly a result or performance to raise the confidence as we head into Saturday's derby at Old Trafford.

Reaction:

"We knew it was going to be tough, we did not
expect
them to turn up and roll over.
"We knew we had a fight on our
hands and
credit to them, we have to give them a bit of credit because they
are making it
tough for teams to beat them and are playing to the best of
their ability."
- Joey Barton on Watford's tactical approach.

"I think the first half we attacked very, very
well, we
played what Watford play at, we have put a few things right I
thought.
"The
second half, we had some defending to do, Man City were on
the up and we had to
make sure we defended and we did.
"I thought we
defended superbly well in
the second half. All in all, I think City are in
good form at the moment, so to
come here and get a point is good for
us."
- Watford manager Aidy Boothroyd.

Match reports:
The Times
Independent
Glory Horns

Poll watch

The Times did a neat piece on Graham Poll's Saturday afternoon, something I thought I'd post up considering there are a few of you over the last week who found the blog after googling for 'Graham Poll' (along with various descriptions of his character).

Rumour round-up

There have been a couple of stories floating around over the weekend suggesting a couple of arrivals into the club in January.

Robert Koren of Lillstrom could be one player coming in, with it reported he and his advisors will head to Manchester this week, with former City player Uwe Rosler (now Lillestrom coach) apparantly a key player in the deal.

The Sunday Mirror meanwhile, suggests we are ahead of Blackburn in signing Zamalek striker Amr Azki, whilst another striker - Anthony Stokes of Arsenal has been linked with ourselves, Middlesbrough and Everton. Stokes, just eighteen is currently on loan at Falkirk in the SPL.

Tribalfootball suggests we will make a(nother) move for SWP in January, whilst Micah Richards' call-up to the full England squad led the way for the inevitable stories of a move south to Arsenal.