Castillo joins the exodus

Nery Castillo is set to bring a disappointing spell at Manchester City to a close by joining Real Betis.

The Mexican has failed to settle at Eastlands, with injuries preventing him from making an impact in England.

His one-year loan deal from Shakhtar Donetsk was due to run until January, but City are prepared to release him from that contract.

>>sky sports.

It's perhaps hard to sum up Castillo's time at the club as it can't really be argued that it was a spell that was littered with underachievement - more frustration as he never really got going in a City shirt.

Somewhat of a surprise when Sven brought him in last January (with him part funding the move don't forget), but he suffered a broken collarbone so early on after joining us and didn't get much of a look in, let along a prolonged spell once he returned to fitness.

Truth be told, he did look far too slight to cut it in the Premier League and it was always difficult to tell exactly his position or where he would fit into the side, and once Mark Hughes took over you felt that Castillo would not be his type of player and he would ultimately move on.

Whilst the squad does appear light in certain areas, one thing the club has done well since the end of last season is clear the dead wood in the ranks, something which willdefinitely benefit the younger members of the squad as they should be afforded a greater opportunity over the coming season.

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.

Castillo signs initial loan deal

MEXICO CITY, Dec 14 (Reuters) - Mexican forward Nery Castillo is to go on loan to English Premier League side Manchester City after a failed attempt to adapt at Ukraine's Shakhtar Donetsk, his agent said.

Castillo, who shone in this year's Copa America with a brilliant goal against Brazil, moved from Greek club Olympiakos Piraeus to Shakhtar in July for a reported 20 million euros ($28.9 million).

He failed to impress at Shakhtar, however, and played only a handful of games, starting mostly on the bench and occasionally being left out of the squad.

Manchester City, sixth in the English top flight and coached by former England manager Sven Goran Eriksson, had expressed interest in Castillo when he made it known he wanted to leave Olympiakos.

"There has been an agreement with Manchester City so that Nery can be with the club for one year on loan and so he can prove himself, so he can play active football," his agent, Jose Luis Padilla, told Mexican television.

"Nery just wanted to play and that was not happening at Shakhtar," Padilla said. "Nery is now in England to iron out in the next few hours the final details of his contract."

Padilla said Manchester City would have an option to buy Castillo at the end of the loan period.

-reuters.

So, in keeping with the tradition of transfers since Sven has been at the club, another player arrives without a great deal of speculation in the press until the signing is all but confirmed.

It makes you wonder quite what sports desks are sourcing for transfer speculation given the names that continue to be linked with us, yet nothing really surfaced regarding the signing of Castillo.

I don't know too much about him, but Sven's judgement thus far has been commendable so it could well be another talented addition to the squad. Given his lack of plaing time this season though, it may well take several weeks to get him acclimatised to the demands and rigours of the Premier League.

More on Castillo can be found at his Wikipedia page, impressively updated already to show him as a City player.

Castillo link in doubt

Reported Manchester City target Nery Alberto Castillo has
agreed a €15million (£10.1million) move to Shakhtar Donetsk, according to
widespread reports in Greece.
Castillo was thought to be high on Sven Goran
Eriksson's wish-list, with cash-rich City ready to offer in the region of
£10million to secure the talented Mexican.

-Sky Sports.

Duo close to signing?

Manchester City target Nery Castillo claims Olympiakos are
prepared to sell him.
Castillo has been strongly linked with a move to
Manchester City with Sven Goran Eriksson keen to bolster his attacking options.
City are believed to be willing to pay £10million for the Mexico striker and
Olympiakos are now thought to be ready to listen to offers for the highly-rated
attacker.
Talks between Castillo and Olympiakos about his future broke down
on Friday and he says he was stunned to find out the club were prepared to
listen to offers for him.

-Sky Sports.

Manchester City hope to agree a £7m deal to sign Juventus'
Italy Under-21 captain Georgio Chiellini within days, BBC Sport
understands.

-BBC Sport.

Ordinarily I've being trying to shy away from posting about most of the rumours that have been appearing, as frankly most of them have been well wide of the mark, but with both of these reports the past couple of days there does seem to be more substance to them than solely from the imagination of a bored staffer at one of the national newspapers.

Chiellini would certainly be an upgrade to the defensive positions, whilst from what I have heard about Castillo has generally been positive.

I don't doubt that Eriksson will continue to be looking to upgrade the squad, but ideally I imagine he would want pretty much his 'full' side to be in place for next week against Valencia - when it seems there is some post-match entertainment being laid on.