The hunt for Mpenza

The story began, recalls Sturrock, in the Belgian city of Mechelen. It was the late 1990s and Sturrock was the manager of Dundee United. He was over in Belgium on a scouting trip and blown away by two brothers playing for the away team.
Fast forward to the summer of 2008 and Mpenza had just left Man City after a largely disappointing 16 months. He occasionally impressed but failed to make a regular first-team spot his own. The striker felt he had a point to prove and was keen to stay in England, only nobody was biting and this time it was Sturrock who got the call.

>>bbc sport.

A nice post from Paul Fletcher on the ever improving BBC Sport site, and an interesting look at a lengthy pursuit for Paul Sturrock that finally paid off, with Mpenza seemingly set for a big role at Plymouth this season.

Given the current situation, it is easy to forget that for the most part of the first half of last season, Mpenza was given the responsibility of leading the front line on his own - and performed admirably enough.

The importance of Mpenza's goals when he first arrived at the club under Stuart Pearce shouldn't be underestimated either given our flirtation with the relegation area that season.

Good to see Mpenza land somewhere after being released this summer.

Ten released as the transfer window kicks in

Manchester City can confirm a final list of 10 players that have not been retained for the coming season.

Of the 10 released, four were members of the 2007/08 season first team squad, with the other players young Academy lads or reserve team regulars.

Paul Dickov, Geovanni, Emile Mpenza and Jihai Sun are the senior players not to have been offered new contracts by the Club.

The other players released are Irish defender Garry Breen, fellow countryman Michael Daly, Filippo Mancini - son of former Inter Milan boss Roberto Mancini, striker Ashley Grimes, Faroe Isles Under 21 international Christian Mouritsen and finally young Italian goalkeeper Andrea Giombetti.

>>mcfc.co.uk

A busy couple of days around the Jo transfer, with the usual summer clear out of youth players deemed not good enough to make the grade along with those first team squad players Mark Hughes has decided do not fit into his plans.

No real surprise amongst the ten names announced and some quick thoughts on the comings and goings:

None of the youth players were likely to even threaten the first team squad, but good to see that both Grimes and Breen have been picked up.

There were reports that Sun Jihai may move back to China but he gets a move to Sheffield United who look to be amongst the front runners for promotion this coming season. A long standing player, Sun never quite showed enough during his time at the club and can be considered fortunate to have remained this long.

Dickov is likely to move to Blackpool, where he had a succesful loan spell last season and will be a serviceable player for them. The move to bring him back to the club originally was a mistake, and his record during the past seasons bears this out, and is a sad indictment of the state we were in when he was picked up by Stuart Pearce.

The interesting moves are the signing by Hull of Geovanni, and if reports are to be believed, Mpenza to follow him to the KC Stadium. Both are good pick ups for a side looking to (against the odds) survive in their debut season.

Some thought Geovanni unlucky to not receive more of an opportunity last season and he did show cameos of his talent but whether it was form or fitness did not appear to win Sven over. He possesses talent though, and whilst I can't disagree with the decision to release him it is a good signing by Hull, and he should be complemented by Mpenza, who at the very least provided a good return from what was a free pick up during 2006/07 when we were struggling at the wrong end of the table and he scored some goals which were crucial in the final outcome which saw us stay up.

He featured heavily during the first half of last season (mainly through the Bojinov injury and sidelining of Bianchi) but feel out of favour towards the latter stages and again, you'd like to think the club have progressed well enough to be able to allow the likes of Mpenza to move on.

A busy few days then with the squad now de-camped in Germany ahead of a very early start to the season. Whilst Ronaldinho looks likely to be a no-go, further arrivals are expected, particularly if Hughes's comments are any kind of indication:

"The balance of the squad isn't as it should be. There are certainly areas that we can look to improve and make sure we are strong in. That's an ongoing process. I have to get to know the players".

Whilst it may not be in time for the early UEFA games, I'd be amazed if we didn't bring in another defender, a pair of midfielders and maybe even a striker before the Premier League campaign kicks off as Hughes looks to add to a squad to be able to challenge at least a top six position this season.

Mpenza rejects potential moves

CITY striker Emile Mpenza has turned down the chance of first-team action elsewhere to stay at Eastlands.

Belgium international Mpenza, 29, was wanted on loan by a number of Championship clubs for the last few weeks of the season.

Mpenza has started just eight of his 14 Barclays Premier League appearances this season, scoring twice, and Leicester were one of the clubs apparently keen to offer him more time on the field.

>>mcfc.co.uk

Mpenza was clearly not keen on a short term move away from the club, but given his contract expires at the end of the season, with the direction the club is heading (and despite him being a fixture at the start of the season) his future is very much away from Eastlands.

Mpenza out

EMILE Mpenza has been given a week off in a bid to help him
heal to the point where he can play a part in City's top six push.One niggling
injury after another have left the Belgian international striker kicking his
heels on the sidelines as Sven-Goran Eriksson's men attempt to maintain momentum
in their assault on the top six.

>>MEN.

At the very least, and whilst hardly prolific in terms of a goalscoring record, it can be argued that we have looked more potent from an attacking sense when Mpenza has featured, providing more of a threat physically than either Vassell or Bianchi, and occupies the defenders to greater effect which can create more space and room for the likes of Elano and Petrov to operate with - something that by and large they have struggled with of late as teams begin to focus more attention on them.

Elano & Petrov too good for geordies

Newcastle become the latest club to feel the force of Sven Goran Eriksson's blue revoloution.

Despite taking a suprise lead through the impressive Obafemi Martins, Newcastle held the lead for just eight minutes. In reality they were lucky to get eight minutes as a city side clearly high on confidence and with lynchpins's Elano and Petrov, finally looking like they are approaching full fitness, pulling the strings that newcastle could clearly not live with.

Emile Mpenza was the first to trouble the geordies after Shaky Given fluffed a routine clearance.
Martins scored and to be fair the game was in the balance at this stage. Second half was a different matter all together with Elano pulling the strings in the middle and Petrov roasting the Newcastle right back when ever he wanted. Petrov Equalised with a tap in during the first half. Mpenza who had his best game of the season bagged the second straight after half time and Elano finally wound the game up with a goal that all i can say about is watch match of the day. In truth city should have sewn the game up much earlier with chance after chance from petrovs marauding runs down the left.

However that would be nit picking and city where simply too good for fat sams game but limited troops.

On the pitch Petrov and Elano are as close to genuine world class as we have seen in a long time, off the pitch Franks billions and Svens undoubted world class make these happy happy days to be a blue.

mcfc

bbc

Goal machine

From mcfc.co.uk:

Emile Mpenza is already setting himself targets for next
season after inking in his permanent deal at Manchester City.
The
28-year-old Belgian striker settled in well after arriving on a short-term deal
in February, so with his new contract now tied up, does Emile think he'll be
able to improve City's striking fortunes next term?
"I hope so! I think next
season I will be more at home here because I will have trained with the team
from when we come back in the summer. If that happens, I think I can get 10
goals or more next season.

10 goals? Our troubles are over...

City 0 - Liverpool 0

Just under 46000 at Eastlands, bathed in glorious sunshine, to watch City continue there recent good form saw a decent performance against a Liverpool side who despite their good form appeared to have their minds on the upcoming Champions League.

Liverpool started a tad more brightly and had the best of the first twenty minutes gradually setting the game to there pace which also suited the heat. Pennant went close and should have given Liverpool the lead as he gave Michael Ball a bit of a first half roasting.

For City Mpenza was again impressive and for a guy under 6ft certainly wins a lot of headers and competes for everyone. The centre halves again looked imperious. De Marcus Beasley also had ,in my opinion, by far and away his best game for the club.

The problem for city as the second half wore on was again the lack of any real clear cut chances been created , Beasley rattled the bar with an excellent shot and two good penalty appeals were turned down by Uriah Rennie. Playing 4-5-1 at home shows that Pearce doesn't believe we have enough to beat teams even at home, two ways of looking at this one is that he is a realist and would prefer to set up for a draw and see if we can snatch the first goal a position from which we invariably go onto win , secondly that he has no ambition and is pretty clueless when it comes to the attacking side of the game.
I think the second opinion is slightly harsh , but, at this stage of the season we are all but safe it may have been worth having a go at a Liverpool team with bigger fish to fry. Particularly given our recent home form on which Pearce will inevitably judged.

The game also marked the 18th anniversary of the tragic events at Hillsborough which led to the death of 96 Liverpool fans. Even as a 13yr old I remember watching those events unfold.
Liverpool fans unveiled a couple of banners, one which had something to do with Celtic fans ? Not sure why !

Just one final point if you are going to call for 'justice for the 96' and unveil banners to underline the point , make sure somebody stood ten yards behind you don't unveil a flag proclaiming 'Italian bizzies are Scousers' . It makes you look like hypocritical at the best, attention seeking idiots who dishonour there own dead at worst.

Mpenza looking long-term

From mcfc.co.uk:

“....It’s nice because I have started the last three
games for City and scored in the last two, but now it’s possible for the team to
start looking up the table and that’s the most important thing. It’s always nice
to score but I really enjoyed today’s goal because we have moved up the table
again.
“I think it’s possible for us to go even further up the table, maybe
into the top 10. If we can win the next game that’s where we should be looking,
that’s the right position for this team. It’s getting better for us after each
game at the moment.”
“I’ve enjoyed being at City since I arrived and I think
it’s going well for me. I’m just going to keep working hard, but I like it here
and if I get some more goals then maybe we can talk when the season is finished.
“I’ve been to London and Birmingham in the past, but Manchester has
everything and I think it’s a great vibrant city – it suits me down to the
ground.”

Pearce strikes with Mpenza

In what could either be described as an inspired move, or a desperate act today saw the club sign Emile Mpenza on trial.

Seeing him play previously, Mpenza was a quick, direct striker who had the ability to score goals. Quite what wrong to see him starring at Schalke 04 to ending up in Qatar I don't know, but he could provide Pearce with another (or make that 'an') option in attack and perhaps lessens the need to put quite so much burden on Daniel Sturridge.

Fitness wise he is supposed to be upto the job following an appearance in a 3-0 victory over Blackpool so I guess he now has an opportunity to make Pearce offer an extended deal come the summer should he suitably impress.