It was an embarrasing PA stunt. I have cringed mnay times when Utd have done similiar things. Suppose with the current giddiness you don't see anything wrong with it, however give it a couple of years..............

Come on mate if you had just won a trophy then fair enough but you have done nothing yet. It will look rather silly if you end up in mid table.

Rubbish, is that. Heard that myself. He only reported for pre-season last week.

Being saved from financial meltdown is far more important than a piece of silverware, mate.

Look at Salford's situation at the moment. If we became the richest RL club in the world overnight, and he promised us a new stadium and that money was no object when it came to new signings, would you know feel grateful? I think a flag stating our thanks to the owner is a good idea. After all, he deserves our praise more than the players.

You're spot on. Toure is not great in the air and is not the most physically imposing.



I think so too. Lescott is a big unit, for a footballer anyway. He would be a good foil for Toure. They both understand the full-back positions, one is left footed, the other right footed, and both are fairly comfortable on the ball and bringing it out of defence.

Kompany is too similar to Toure and Onouha probably needs a further year of experience (he's only 21 and he missed about 2 years because of injury).

We have been linked with Upson and Veloso. No thanks.



Richards needs to lose the bulk and improve his stamina. The lad has a lot of talent. He's still a kid. Last season he was slow and struggled to win the ball in the air. Without those, he is very limited.




I don't rate Hangelaand that highly. Because Fulham's attacking players worked so hard to defend their half, a lot of teams had to resort to simply pumping the ball in the air. Meat and drink to a giant like Hangelaand. IMO that made Hangelaand look far better than he is. He's good in the air, intelligent and a big physical presence but IMO he's not too sharp on the ground.

Richards hasn't played centre half for quite a while on the basis he is not good enough. He was playing the end of the season out at right back. His positional sense, as a centre half, is simply awful.

Nedum Onuoha will be the man alonsgside Toure assuming no-one else is brought in.

Only going from what was reported on another site. According to a livepool supporting work collegue , benitez has given the squad a few days off before they have to meet up in barcelona as there playing a pre season friendly there.

So what happened to Citeh's massive crop of promising youngsters?

As a club Man City have done nothing so far. But Sheik Mansour has made citeh into one of the biggest forces in the country. Citeh are back page news, they look like they'll be making massive progress and the club will be full of optimism.

If the whole thing crashes and burns it's not down to the Sheik, it'll be the management and players to blame. Sheik Mansour deserves gratitude for what he's done whatever happens.

Says on SSN that he's seeing his family in Northern Spain, but he can't get a direct flight there, so he had to pass through Madrid to get there.

I hope Rafa sets a deadline on this deal, the last thing we need is the deal dragging on all summer. Anyone here Perez saying we're being unreasonable?

What a prick

Most of them are still there aren't they or have I missed something?

Perez has set a deadline on the situation, 48 hours.

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You "cringed"? Extraordinary. I thought it quite close to moving when Sparky gave him the shirt, with obvious emotion.*

You don't ask for such 'audiences'. You get invited. And personally, I find it really rather moving that my team got invited – and behaved the way they did.





* JUst as I did when interviewing one Steve Bruce, just after the first double, when he'd been out to SA with the club.

That's what I would have thought, but I refer back to my post in response to a comment made by Robbie Rotten. We would struggle greatly at set-pieces and against the more physical strikers.

I'd be more than happy to have Kompany, Lescott, Toure & Onuha as a pool of of centre backs, with Richards as an emergency option.

The problem will be if we cant get Lescott without releasing Onuha as part of the deal. Must admit whenever I've watched Upson he's never really stood out. I quite like Carvalho but I think Hughes is trying to sign players under 30.

Do you think the rumours of Onuoha joining us are untrue then? popped up a few times now and re-surfaced again but that was saying Lescott will join you and Onouha and Alan Hutton will join us to replace him and provide much needed back four cover.

I know that question is aimed at Dave, but I may as well give you my opinion



I would be livid if that happens. Onouha is already a good player and has the potential to be an England regular. Hughes has made it clear that he doesn't want him to go.

If Everton did leak to the press that they want Onouha as part of a swap, then that was a very canny move. It wouldn't surprtise me as David Moyes is very intelligent.

Looks like a ploy to try and get Alonso to come out and say that he wants to leave.

It's completely out of our hands, I guess he's setting a deadline on himself. If Real don't cough up, then what a pointless deadline.

Did he say you're being unreasonable with regards to how much you're demanding for Alonso? If so, he's right.

I think we should go with Hangelland at Fulham. I like Lescott but wouldnt want to give Onuha up in exchange. Onuha is a good young player who will only get better in time and he will be a england regular in the future. I think Toure and Hangelland and that would be it for me for this window that leave sus with a team of

1. Given
2.Richards 4.Onuha 5.Hangelland 5.Bridge

8.Barry

11. SWP 7. Ireland 6.Robinho

9.Adebayor 10. Tevez

Thats quite a impressive line up which gives us cover in both attack and defence with a Bench of

Petrov
Santa Cruz
Bellamy
Zabaleta
Kompany
De Jong

We originally demanded €47m. We've lowered that to €35m. Real are unwilling to go past €27m. Why are they willing to match every other club's valuation of the players they don't want to let go, yet when we demand a fee they're suddenly holding US to ransom?

We don't have to sell and we don't want to sell, therefore, we dictate terms. They're being unreasonable because they consistently go spouting off to the media, if they want to force us to sell they meet our valuation, it's that simple. Moaning to the press about us not being fair on a club who have broken the transfer record twice this summer is just pure BS from Perez. Putting deadlines on a deal where we clearly don't want to sell is even more BS. If anyone should be putting deadlines on the deal, it should be Rafa, because they've f*cked us about for months.

You may as well indeed, it was aimed towards all right minded City fans



This one came out last week I think it was, on teletext, apprently just before or after the Lescott bid came in Moyes asked about Onouha. Didn't say much else at the time until now but according to the papers it looks like a deal will on be done as part of the Lescott one. Although Moyes is looking for cover across the back as we only have two for centre halves now.

I was quite impressed when I saw the story, not seen a great deal of him but from what I have I would be delighted if we could get him in. Think Hughes will only deal if Lescott is involved though. I do rate Onouha and it seems you do too, very highly.