The Renaissance at Man City
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by Foolsgold
Is it just me or has Man City made all the right moves? First they accept the bid of the Thai version of Abramovich. Then they hire one of the most successful unemployed-at-the-time coaches in Sven-Göran Eriksson. Finally, they give Sven a huge spending purse to buy what he feels the team needs.
The thing is, though, it’s no coincidence that Eriksson chose to come to Man City. Sure, the fact that he was going to be able to buy most the players he wanted was a great incentive, but City wasn’t exactly barren of talent. Any team with the foundation of Micah Richards, Stephen Ireland, Michael Johnson and Kasper Schmeichel has quite a future of promise, granted they can be kept happy and under contract.
The Blues also had exceptional leadership in defensive stalwart Richard Dunne and the ever calming presence of Didi Hamman. All they appeared to need was a fresh injection of players who were not only capable of playing at the Premiership level, but also didn’t have the bad taste in the mouth from last season that left a lot of players questioning their own ability.
So out went Joey Barton, Sylvain Distin, Nicky Weaver, Hatem Trabelsi, Stephen Jordan, and Trevor Sinclair, and in came Roland Bianchi, Elano, Geovanni, Martin Petrov, and Verdan Corluka, players who didn’t know nor have to deal with the fiasco that was Man City last year.
It’s unrealistic to expect the league this season, but with this group of players and a couple more added over each of the next few seasons, we might be saying ‘the big five’ with not Tottenham, but Man City being that fifth wheel. Especially under the guidance of a manager of Eriksson’s caliber.
Originally posted here
