Rumour Mill: City Add Another Belgian?

Insanely short post today, but potentially an interesting one as it appears another youngster has joined the ranks.  According to the Daily Mail we have completed the signing of a 15 year old Belgian defender, so yes I think you can definitely assume this is one of the future.


Information is scarce on Mathias Bossaerts who is currently at the academy of Anderlecht, but a little digging online revealed these quotes from the Belgian Under 16 coach Bob Browaeys:

“He is one of the biggest talents from his generation....He resembles Vincent Kompany, he is a physically strong and modern defender. I’m not surprised that a club as Manchester City is interested in him.”

Clearly any player likened to Vincent Kompany has a lot to live upto, but if he can develop as expected he could be an excellent addition and will only strengthen us going forward.  With compatriots Boyata and the City captain already on the books he should fit in without any trouble.

We are blessed with several good young defenders, with Dutch starlet Karim Rekik, who arrived last Summer, impressing and midlands boy Reece Wabara close to the first team squad things are looking pretty good in that department, and obviously with FFP in mind this recruitment of young talent is essential to our continued growth as a club.

Could The One That Got Away Make A Return? I Certainly Hope So...

The academy at City is regarded as one of the best in the country, and understandably so.  If you look back over the years, the amount of Platt Lane graduates still involved in professional football is numerous.  Under the stewardship of Jim Cassell the youth development arm of the club flourished, I am not going to list all of these graduates but there are many of them at all levels of the game.  


Of all the players to come off the Academy conveyor belt the best were clearly Micah Richards, who has made our right back position his own, Shaun Wright-Phillips, who has had a career in the top flight, and the focus of this piece, Daniel Sturridge a striker with the potential to be one of the best in the league.  His departure still bothers me to this day and for a long time I have thought about how much i'd love him back in Manchester.

The striker joined City when he was 13, moving up North from Coventry and straight away he began to make a name for himself.  In his first year he won the Nike Cup (largest under 15's football tournament) with City and in doing so he finished top goalscorer and was named player of the tournament, an accolade he shares with Carlos Tevez.  The following season he fired the club to the final of the FA Youth Cup, at 16, he was the youngest member of the team, but his 4 goals en route to the final in addition to the 2 he scored in defeat to Liverpool secured him a professional contract that came into play when he turned 17.


He played a bit part for a couple of seasons, balancing games for the reserves with first team appearances, mostly from the substitute bench, he was also hampered with injury, but in the 2008-2009 campaign he became an important member of the first team squad making 26 appearances over the course of the season.  It was a great shame that towards the end of that year it had become quite apparent that the youngster would move on, talks over a new contract reached an impasse and he moved to Chelsea, who at the time, looked like winning everything in sight.

Clearly at the time many of us labelled Sturridge greedy, believing he had taken the big pay day (something he has always denied) to go and warm the Stamford Bridge substitute bench, and for a couple of years it looked like a pretty bad move as the games came extremely infrequently.  It is unclear whether the powers that be at Chelsea realised just how talented the forward was, in fact I do wonder if his 6 month loan spell at Bolton for the 2nd half of last season saved his Chelsea career, he notched up an explosive 8 goals in 12 games for the Lancashire club, this really did make people sit up and notice, and for me personally the whole thing was hugely depressing.


If Sturridge had stayed at City I genuinely believe he would be further along in his development than he is now, not to say he is a bad player or that he could possibly fail to meet his potential, but he would have played much more football with us even with the stars we were beginning to sign at the time.  This season the 22 year old is playing an important part in the first team at Stamford Bridge, and the goals are flowing, but that doesn't take away from the fact that he is supposedly getting frustrated at Chelsea.

I do wonder if he now regrets the move, seeing where we are compared to where his new club are.  There is a big chance that AVB or whoever is in charge come the end of the season will miss out on Champions League football, where as we could theoretically end the campaign as Champions, had he stayed, he could have won an FA Cup medal and potentially a Europa League as well as the Championship.  His honours with his current club show 1 league title and 1 FA Cup, and lets be clear his role in these successes were minimal to say the least.


So why is he supposedly frustrated?  Reports in the media claim that he is growing tired of being forced onto the wing to accommodate the misfiring Torres and the ageing Didier Drogba.  I can entirely understand this irritation he is certainly looking like a better prospect than the Spaniard and with the Ivorian in the twilight of his career, surely the England international should be getting more of a go in central areas.

As is probably abundantly clear from this, I have always been a huge fan of Sturridge and I hold my hands up and say that I would love to see him back at Eastlands, granted we let him go for essentially nothing, and to bring him back would cost about £20 million, but look at it this way, he is a proven Premier League goal scorer, if theoretically we are to sign a new forward to replace Tevez or whoever, why should we spend £30 million plus on someone like Cavani or Lavezzi?  I genuinely believe that Studge has the ability to be a top top striker and at only 22, he is exactly the age of player that we should be looking at.


Roberto Mancini has made his feelings clear in the past and again recently he has reiterated that he really admires the player, so is this one a possibility?  I suppose a lot depends on how the season ends for Chelsea and whether the player is willing to swallow his pride and return to the club that made him what he is today.  There is also a doubt as to whether he would be accepted by the Eastlands faithful, but I would welcome him back happily.  Sturridge got away once, but if we have the chance to bring him back, surely we should jump at the opportunity?

New Development Plans Reveal Long Term Interest

Ever since Manchester City were taken over by the Abu Dhabi Royal Family there has been a lazy argument claiming that they have no interest in the club, the City or even football.  Anyone willing to do a little bit of research however would have learnt that there was nothing in those arguments whatsoever, and the announcement coming from the club today will go a long way to putting that silly argument to bed.

The club are hoping to create the best training facilities in the world for their first team, but also the best youth training facilities as well.  The remit of the development however goes further than just the game, one of the cornerstones of the plans is to aid the redevelopment and rejuvenation of one of the most deprived areas of Manchester, the needs and the thoughts of the local people are extremely high on the list of priorities.

As anyone interested in the game is aware, City have always been highly successful in youth development, but they have exhausted their current set up, and with these plans they will be able to go onto the next level and make the club the most attractive prospect in world football for young players from both Britain and further afield.  As well as a 7,000 capacity stadium (which will also be available to local community groups) there will be a state of the art education centre and accommodation for upto 40 players.  11 full sized youth training pitches (which again can be used by the community)as well as a half sized pitch, a specialist sports rehabilitation and injury centre, and all round facilities capable of the training of 400 young players.  As we are all well aware the future of football clubs isn't big spending to secure the best players in the world, the ideal model is a club nurturing the best youngsters who will eventually fill the first team and it is that process that sets the scene for this development.

The first team currently train at Carrington next door to Manchester United, but that site is no longer suitable for a club with the ambitions of City, the facilities are good but could be improved and these needs will all be catered for on the new site.  The ability to train in house will obviously be preferable for the players and it would make the match day experience for the first team squad much easier.

The focus however is on so much more than football, and whilst this is a football site I think it is important to not forget about the bigger picture, the club will be creating 160 construction jobs and 90 permanent jobs, 80% of which will be earmarked for local people, that is as well as a new 6th form college that will be part of the newly formed Etihad campus.  Local infrastructure will be greatly improved with the construction of 2 new metrolink stations and the environmental impact is clearly wonderful with this old brownfield site being totally transformed.  What is currently an eye sore is going to become one of the best facilities of its kind in the world.  The planting of tree's and hedging will ensure the site improves the aesthetics of the local area and this thinking is partly responsible for the huge positive feedback that the club has received.

People who raised question marks over the figure that Etihad have put into the club have clearly lost sight of the bigger picture, the sponsorship deal covers not just the stadium but also this forward thinking and impressive development centre.  There are clearly not just benefits here for the club but also the community that live around the site, anyone still questioning the mindset of our owners will now have to find something else to moan about because the notion of them getting bored and walking away at this point seems totally laughable.  The full scale ideas and thoughts behind the scheme can be seen here, hopefully any doubters can now be put in their place, Sheikh Mansour losing interest after a couple of years? Do me a favour...

A View From The Reserves: Who Could Step Up This Year?

A few names stand out when you look at the reserve team squad, but are those players capable of making a step up and helping the first team this season?  We suffered a bit of an injury crisis towards the end of Winter last year, but this season we will have more players than ever to help the cause, and clearly others might be ready to make the step up.

Some of them you have to say seem further away than ever, Michael Johnson at one time was a key part of our first team squad but even when he was recovering from injury at the back end of last season he just didn't look the player that he once was.  As someone that attended the vast majority of games at Ewen Fields, I could see flashes of the old Johnson but the whole package seemed to be non-existent.  He was still neat and tidy on the ball, but there was no lung bursting runs through the centre of the pitch, and quite simply he didn't look overly mobile.  I expect his future will lie else where and with no sign of him so far this pre-season you would imagine his exit is pretty imminent.  It is a massive shame really because for a long time it looked as if Johnson would be a future star, not just for City but also England.  His career in football may not be over, but I don't see much of a future in the Premier League sadly.


One player that I think can definitely help is 19 year old defender Reece Wabara.  The Midlands born centreback made a cameo at the end of the Bolton game and I think it could be the first of many.  He has impressed me repeatedly playing for the reserve team and I think he may have what it takes to provide cover and make a few appearances this season.  He is comfortable on the ball, seems to have pretty good technique as well as pace to get himself out of trouble.  A further string to his bow is his ability to play either full back position.  From following Reece on twitter it is pretty apparent that he is hard working and wants to break through and I think he could get a chance this season.  I suppose the only problem is that we are hardly short of bodies in the defensive unit and youngster Dedryck Boyata is ahead of him in the pecking order, but if we pick up a few knocks I can see him getting a chance.

City snapped up Barcelona academy graduate Gai Assulin after a very protracted deal was finally completed and after a string of pretty impressive performances for the reserves he got injured...again...seriously.  I suppose there were early signs, one of the reasons his signing took so long was that he kept picking up knocks making him unable to complete a medical.  What will become of him I have no idea, his playing style is similar to that of David Silva and he floats around the park gracefully, but if he can't put a string of games together he may never come close to fulfilling his potential.  He is currently back in training at Carrington preparing for another season with the reserve squad, if he comes through it unscathed, then who knows, but I wouldn't hold your breath.




The future of John Guidetti is a bit of a mystery at this point.  It would appear that he is now ready to sign a new deal with City and I think that can only be good news.  Earlier in the Summer it looked as if he was going to sign with Dutch side FC Twente, that deal seemed to be a certainty however official confirmation never came and now he is back training with City in the USA.  Reports suggest that City offered a new deal at the last minute and that has convinced the Swede to stay.  Guidetti looks a good prospect to me when I have seen him playing for the reserves and I am sure he could have his uses in the first team squad.  Considering the number of times that Brazilian misfit Jo warmed the bench this year surely the young Swede would be a far better option.  In terms of physical attributes I think he has everything needed for success, he is reasonable pacey, he is strong, and on top of that he has a good finish on him.  He has already played Championship football on loan with Burnley but I think a place on the City bench this season is not out of the question.


There are others in and around the reserve team who have made first team appearances Abdi Ibrahim has a couple of first team appearances to his name and he could feature next season, as could young defender Ryan McGivern but I can't help but feel loan moves are more likely for these 2.  With the 'NextGen Series' kicking off in a month or so, the reserve team could receive a bit of a shake up, but I think there's a couple that aren't a million miles away from the first team.