And then we'll have an asset worth £25-£30 million not wanting to be at the club. Whether he gives his all or not, we'd be daft to keep him if he is that desperate to go. £10 million he cost us, so we willt reble our money on a plyer who had 2 poor seasons out of 4.....if we're looking on the bright side!

It's not the actual purchasing, it's information on ticket availability, opening days of sales, loyalty points required etc (i.e the Blackburn game), that's the problem.

Where has the page dedicated to all such information for home and away games disappeared to?

Very true and a Cup run is becoming a 'must' now. There are few excuses anymore. A trip to Wembley and a top six finish would do every City fan right now I think.

I think a top four spot is probably beyond us but I'm not sure that Arsenal are too established to be caught now. The top three are not catchable at prsent but Arsenal are starting to look very vulnerable.

The fact is that there it would be extremely difficult to find an adequate replacement. I can only think of Pirlo, Xavi, Carrick or Fabregas as the calibre of player I'd like to see at Anfield. I doubt we could get any of those. Aquilani is rumoured to be the first choice replacement, and he can't even hack life in [iSerie A[/i.

I think most players would struggle to hack la liga whilst they're Serie A players, he's never even played in Spain.

I'm not that big a fan of Aquilani, he has talent but I think he's too weak for English football, too lightweight, like.

If we were going to go down the young, unproven route, I'd rather we signed Hernanes from Sao Paolo, who I believe has the potential to surpass Alonso.

If the levels of giddyness from city fans get any higher I can see there being 250,000 on the hill at Blackburn again for their first league game.

Edited my original post, you get the jist.

I dont get the hype. Alonso isn't even that good. Like lots of midfielders in the world he is a tidy player who can pass the ball, whats the big deal?

What does your Blue mate think? You know the one who hates the club?

[url=http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/sport/sport-headlines/chelsea-report-city-for-acting-like-chelsea-200907201917Even [iThe Daily Mash[/i[/url is getting in on the story.



[url=http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/sport/sport-headlines/millionaire-footballers-remain-terribly-working-class-200812301482And ...[/url

Where did I say that? You compared City's defensive signings and strikers with Chelsea and United defenders and forwards. I simply compared United and Chelsea's defenders to yours.

Arbeloa is so good, that you brought in someone else to replace him.




£12m? How did you come up with that figure? How do forumistas come up with such figures?



It's not just about how a team performs on paper, is it?

What are them trabs

Gerrard's wearing on that pic on the daily mash site?

I don't know about anybody else but IMO Arsenal have got two magnificent deals out of selling Kolo Touré & Emmanuel Adebayor to Manchester City for a combined £40m+, If i was looking at the Arsenal team at the start of the 2009/10 season Robin Van Persie & Eduardo would have been my first choice pairing and the fact they have Nicklas Bendtner who is still only 21 & Carlos Vela the higly rated 20 year old waiting in the wings won't affect them too much i don't think. Given the fact Touré wasn't even a regular last season and the purchase of Thomas Vermaelen for €10m gives the indication that Arsène Wenger was already planning for the loss of Touré, Arsenal have more than enough cover in Central Defence with Gallas, Vermaelen, Senderos, Djourou & Silvestre, Should they sign a Battling Holding Midfielder i wouldn't be suprised seeing Arsenal challenging at the very top...

I'd like to see an Arsenal side if Wenger was to stick with the same squad and everyone was fit something like this:

-----------------------------Manuel Almunia-----------------------------
Bacary Sagna----William Gallas--------Thomas Vermaelen----Gaël Clichy
----------------Samir Nasri--Cesc Fàbregas--Tomáš Rosický--------------
-------------------------------Andrei Arshavin-------------------------------
--------------------Eduardo---------------Robin van Persie----------------

That Arsenal team you named looks so unbalanced and weak.

Maybe be so Arsenals weakest area is Central/Holding Midfield, The attacking talent they have to offer is up there with the best in the Premiership...

Toure signing completed, but what will delight most City fans is Onouha signing a 5 year deal.

At least he'll get a year to prove himself when Tourés contract runs out...

I think it's unlikely Wenger won't play a big man. The attacking players need somebody to play off, somebody to hold the ball up and find them in space. Adebayor was excellent at it, Bendtner is pretty woeful IMO, and he'll be playing even more this season.

Sometimes it's not all about having fantastic attacking players, but getting the balance of the team right. I just can't see how Wenger will fit in Arshavin, Eduardo and RvP in the same team. Maybe play Arshavin as a winger, but even so, they still look pretty average.

I know it's only a friendly but Anderson and Valencia have both scored in the first half against Boca

Lets hope they can carry oninto the season.

It's interesting that for all the wailing from fans of other clubs, and the likes of Bacon Face, that we are going to have a team full of strikers and nobody else, the striker summer rota reads like this:-

IN

1) Santa Cruz
2) Tevez
3) Adebayor

OUT

1) Jo
2) Vassell
3) Evans
4) Sturridge
5) Caicedo
6) Bojinov

Not enough strikers, in my book. I think we need to go out and sign someone. No point in having all those billions gathering dust.

Klaas-Jan Huntelaar could well be the Big Man Arsenal are interested and again would be a very good signing IMO, Bendtner get's alot of stick and people need to realise he's only 21 years old and still maturing and lacking consistency, Granted when he's bad he's terrible but he isn't as bad as a lot of people make out. There is no way i would describe Arsenal as average and i think they will suprise a lot of people this season...

When did Valeri Bojinov leave?, I think he's a talented footballer and was very unlucky to get the knee ligament injury which looks to have cost him his future at Manchester City...

You still have Crack Bellamy, though.

Just read Onuoha has signed a new deal. Doubt he's going anywhere near Merseyside Blue then

Delighted with both.

I always thought that Toure was a fantastic player until he sort of disappeared off the radar. Hopefully a change of club will get him back to the level he was at.

I was a little worried that Onuoha would have been used as bait in a Lescott deal because I just happen to think that Onuoha is going to be an England regular in the not too distant future. It would have been a shocking bit of business.

Thankfully, Hughes seems to have his head screwed on a little bit more than he has been given credit for. I'm beginning to believe that the Chairman's faith in him will end up being vindicated. In the transfer ins and outs, I think he is calling everything spot on.

Whilst some still lick the ass of Sven, he went out and signed eleven players, the vast majority of which had never played in England and were wholly unsuitable for the Premier League.

Almost without exception, Hughes has brought in players who are in tune with what is required, have Premier League experience and won't be fazed by the frenetic nature of the game.

Hughes is at a club aspiring to be in the top four. Sven is at Notts County. Sums it up for me.