The exact fee is undisclosed, with reports varying from £22 to 25 million, but MCFC.co.uk has confirmed that City and Everton have reached an agreement for compensation paid to Goodison Park for Joleon Lescott.
City have denied seemingly credible reports of a medical on Sunday, though that should be out of the way by Monday.
City’s home runout ended up being a very mixed bag — alternately impressive and maddening, encouraging and worrying. In front of a sold-out crowd eager for any excuse to celebrate, Mark Hughes’s high-end team came out and looked every bit the elite side hosting a relegation candidate for the first 60 minutes.
When Carlos Tévez neatly played in Emmanuel Adebayor and the Togolese quickly struck to beat Wolves keeper Wayne Hennessey at his near post, it looked like this was destined to be an enjoyable romp for the home side. However, the second goal that would allow the crowd to relax and enjoy the rest of the match proved elusive.
It wasn’t for lack of opportunities, as City generated plenty of scoring chances. Rather, the word of the day was certainly “profligacy,” as Wolves manager Mick McCarthy made clear in his postgame comments. Even the normally sure-finishing Ireland was misfiring, as the sell-out crowd was forced to sit through a final 30 minutes that were far more tense than they should have been, with the crossbar playing a crucial role in the match’s outcome.
It says a great deal about the position City find themselves in that the dominant feeling amongst fans exiting the ground was a combination of frustration and relief. The defense certainly had its shaky moments, yet maintained its 100-percent record of clean sheets on the young season and kept alive City’s status as the only club in the Premier League yet to concede.
Gareth Barry produced another remarkable performance in the midfield for City. He’s not showing up in the highlights like fellow new boys Adebayor and Tévez, but the chorus of voices hailing Barry as Hughes’s most important summer signing continues to grow louder and louder.
Last season, City were capable of very stylish play, but had a real fragility to them. So far this season, we’ve seen much more resiliency out of the squad — particularly in defense. The defenders have been left scrambling at times in the first two matches, but the imminent signing of another top-shelf defender or two should solve that.
The big concern was whether all the new faces would be able to quickly jell and get on the same page, but that doesn’t seem to be an issue at all now. The big problem on Saturday was finishing, and that’s simply not going to be a concern for this group of players going forward.
With a few notable exceptions, Mark Hughes will take his squad to Bavaria next week for another German preseason training camp. Robinho and Elano won’t be joining them after playing for Brazil in the Confederations Cup last month, and Micah Richards and Nedum Onuoha also get passes after their work with the England Under-21 setup the past two weeks. The English internationals in the squad aren’t expected to attend.
While in Germany, City will play a training game on July 11 against 1860 Munich — who interestingly enough are rumored to be pursing Didi Hamann. City’s first preseason match is on July 18 in the Vodacom Challenge in South Africa against Orlando Pirates.
Chelsea have made the unconventional move of going on the record with a rejection of a bid from Manchester City for John Terry. A statement on the London club’s website says:
Chelsea Football Club can confirm it has completely rejected an offer from Manchester City for John Terry.
It was made clear to City, for the second time following an approach last season, that we would not entertain any conversation on the subject.
At that time John also reiterated his total commitment to Chelsea.
We would like to make clear, and will not do so again, that John is not for sale.
It’s almost unheard of for clubs to issue statements like that, so that should raise some flags. This smacks of a club looking to fire the first volley in a PR war — the sort of PR war that would be involved in a skipper leaving the club he has called home for 14 years.
If this one follows the script, we’ll hear plenty of chestbeating from Chelsea Football Club, but nothing from Terry himself. It’s entirely possibly this is just a bargaining ploy by Terry to get himself a bigger pay packet at Chelsea, but so far all clues would point to genuine interest in his part in a potential move.
Meanwhile, in an exclusive, the Daily Mail have printed a sensationalist account of a snake-in-the-grass ambush by Garry Cook. The Mail’s Matt Lawton writes:
Cook asked to meet Peter Kenyon, the Stamford Bridge chief executive, yesterday to discuss Chelsea’s pursuit of talented young striker Daniel Sturridge.
It was something that surprised Chelsea when they had already said they would be happy to let an independent tribunal set the size of the fee for the 19-year-old.
But an even bigger surprise followed when Cook suddenly presented a letter with a formal offer for Terry. Kenyon was understood to be stunned, not least because he had already made it clear to Cook last season that the club captain and the heartbeat of the Chelsea team was not available at any price.
Unfortunately for Lawton and Chelsea, bids are not like legal papers in that they must be served in person, so the alleged drama of the scene certainly was far less than what was described in the article. This is just an attempt to paint City as duplicitous.
The club have hired Endemol Sport to develop the City brand around the world, with a special emphasis on targeting Premier League fans in the Middle East, Asia, and Latin America. Today’s re-launch of the redesigned City website is part of this initiative, though the much hoped-for City subscription channel isn’t part of the immediate plans.
The Metro still thinks City are pursuing Arjen Robben.
The Daily Mail reckon Kolo Touré will soon be City-bound.
Roque Santa Cruz is relishing the prospect of competing for a starting spot at City, should Samuel Eto’o and Carlos Tévez sign. (Sky Sports)
The Manchester Evening News calls out the deceptive statements being made by both the Eto’o camp and Barcelona.
Are City pursuing PSG midfielder Stephane Sessegnon or is this just another case of idle media speculation? (Sky Sports)
