City looking across Atlantic
Garry Cook’s plans for world domination appear to involve an invasion of the United States.
A summer tour of the States looks increasingly likely, with renewed talk springing up once again. While this would be great news for City supporters over here, there simply aren’t that many of us at this point in time.
It will be interesting to see what kind of crowds City would draw. Barcelona and Chelsea staged successful US tours last summer, playing in front of big crowds in supersized NFL stadiums. However, Manchester City is hardly a household name over here, so it’s difficult to imagine 93,000 (or even 65,000) people buying tickets to watch The World’s Richest Club take on their local Major League Soccer side.
One thing working in City’s favor is the timing of the possible tour. American interest in the world’s game spikes every four years, when sports fans who normally don’t pay attention to football find themselves following the Yanks in the World Cup. If the US turns in a performance in South Africa like what we saw in last summer’s Confederations Cup or the 2002 World Cup (instead of poor showings like in the 1998 and 2006 World Cups), this could be great news for City. Suddenly the club is being put on prominent display in front of large numbers of recent football converts looking for a club to support.
More interesting — at least from a longterm perspective — is the talk of City buying an MLS franchise.
The Canadian Press reports Cook met with MLS commissioner Don Garber on Monday. MLS had been eyeing partnerships with both Barcelona and Real Madrid, but now the Premier League appears to have caught their attentions.
A partnership would make a great deal of sense for both parties. MLS would benefit from the cash injection, as well as the young talent and coaching, training, and development expertise that undoubtedly would be brought to a City-owned MLS club. Anyone who has watched an MLS match will tell you that anything bringing some creativity to the boring, direct style of play plaguing the league would be a welcome relief.
For City, an MLS franchise would give the club an important inroad into one of the most lucrative emerging markets in world football, both in terms of fans and young talent. As Fulham and Everton supporters can tell you, the US is beginning to churn out much more than top-class goalkeepers, as had been the case previously. The profile of the sport continues to rise Stateside, and it’s only a matter of time until one of the many elite athletes produced in America decides The Beautiful Game is his game.
With City looking to attract the best young talent in the world, having a base of operations in the Western Hemisphere would be a very wise move indeed.
A breakdown of the run-in for fourth
With four sides separated by just four points in the race for the final Champions League spot and varying remaining fixture lists and even games played, it can be tough to get a handle on things.
Here are the remaining fixture lists for the four sides, ranked in order of fixture difficulty (with the average league opponent points from that fixture this season):
| Manchester City | Liverpool | Tottenham | Aston Villa |
| 4. @Arsenal (0.50) | 2. @Man. United (0.29) | 1. @Chelsea (0.29) | 2. @Chelsea (0.29) |
| 10. @Fulham (0.79) | 8. @Birmingham (0.79) | 3. @Man. City (0.31) | 3. @Man. City (0.31) |
| 12. @Sunderland (0.92) | 13. @Burnley (1.00) | 12. @Sunderland (0.92) | 16. @Hull City (1.08) |
| 13. @Burnley (1.00) | 15. Chelsea (1.07) | 13. @Burnley (1.00) | 18. @Stoke City (1.14) |
| 17. Aston Villa (1.08) | 16. @Hull City (1.08) | 14. Arsenal (1.07) | 23. @Bolton (1.43) |
| 19. Man. United (1.21) | 24. @Wigan (1.54) | 15. Chelsea (1.07) | 24. @Wigan (1.54) |
| 20. Tottenham (1.21) | 30. Fulham (1.93) | 18. @Stoke City (1.14) | 28. Birmingham (1.77) |
| 21. @West Ham (1.21) | 32. West Ham (2.07) | 34. Bolton (2.08) | 29. Everton (1.85) |
| 28. Birmingham (1.77) | 36. Portsmouth (2.29) | 36. Portsmouth (2.29) | 31. @Portsmouth (2.00) |
| 29. Everton (1.85) | 38. Sunderland (2.36) | 37. Blackburn (2.36) | 35. Wolves (2.08) |
| 33. Wigan (2.07) | 37. Blackburn (2.36) | ||
| 38. Sunderland (2.36) | |||
| 1.24 average | 1.44 average | 1.25 average | 1.52 average |
Breaking the fixtures down by category:
Loss expected:
City (1): @Arsenal
Liverpool (1): @United
Spurs (2): @Chelsea, @City
Villa (2): @Chlsea, @City
Draw expected:
City (7): @Fulham, @Sunderland, @Burnley, Villa, United, Spurs, @West Ham
Liverpool (5): @Birmingham, @Burnley, Chelsea, @Hull
Spurs (5): @Sunderland, @Burnley, Arsenal, Chelsea, @Stoke
Villa (3): @Hull, @Stoke, @Bolton
Borderline win/draw:
City (2): Birmingham, Everton
Liverpool (2): @Wigan, Fulham
Spurs (0):
Villa (3): @Wigan, Birmingham, Everton
Win expected:
City (1): Wigan
Liverpool (4): West Ham, Portsmouth, Sunderland
Spurs (3): Bolton, Portsmouth, Blackburn
Villa (4): at Portsmouth, Wolves, Blackburn, Sunderland
Advantage: Liverpool and Villa.
Thoughts on Hughes’s sacking
I thought Hughes’s signings were brilliant — bringing in quality to the club while weakening rivals. I loved the tone he took with the media, and he seemed like a good guy to have in charge. I admit I’m sad to see him go, especially this way.
But the performance on the pitch the past 1.5 seasons have been so unacceptable, it’s hard to argue with ownership’s decision to part ways with Hughes.
I’m sure I don’t need to remind anyone about last season’s awful away performances– losses against two of the relegated clubs and a bunch of other poor, poor results — or how City finished below a club that needed a miraculous escape the previous season to avoid the drop. Seventh place was the absolute minimum acceptable finish for City, and they failed to achieve even that.
Going into the summer, the expectation for this season was set at a top six finish. Then City ended up embarking on a massive summer spending spree and it was acknowledged that the timeline for The Project had been accelerated. Suddenly, Hughes and Cook no longer were sharing the objective for the season with the public.
Now we’ve seen that Liverpool don’t even look like a side that will qualify for the Europa League, let alone the Champions League. Arsenal have been very, very beatable, so suddenly even third place is up for grabs. And what have City done to take advantage of this opportunity?
They showed a defensive fragility that made no lead safe. Just thinking about some of the results in the past few months makes the head explode.
Burnley have lost all seven other away matches this season, with a -19 goal difference in those matches. Their only away point of the season? At CoMS, naturally.
Hull City are soon to be 0-1-7 in their other eight away matches this season, with a -18 goal difference. Yet they came to Eastlands and left with a point.
Then there was the 0-0 at Brum, the squandered two-goal lead at home against Fulham, and last weekend’s 3-3 draw at hapless Bolton.
But none of this compares to the insipid performance City turned in midweek. Facing a Spurs club coming off a home loss to lowly Wolves and with internal problems stemming from the players’ holiday party, City went to White Hart Lane and proceeded to crap on the club badge for 90 minutes. It was an absolutely shocking combination of apathy and ineptitude that convinced me Mark Hughes was no longer the man for the job.
City have — at worst — the third-best roster of talent in the Premier League. (You could make a strong argument for them being second only to Chelsea.) The results of the past few months have fallen so far below any reasonable expectation of performance, ownership would have had trouble telling any future transfer targets of their lofty aims if they allowed Hughes to stay on.
It’s a shame, but in the end, Hughes only has himself to blame. Not good enough. No longer employed.
Thoughts on Hughes’s job security
It’s extremely overly simplistic to lay the blame at the feet of Mark Hughes for the club’s shambolic form of the past two months or for last season’s pathetic underachievement, but at what point is the chairman left with no other option? Failure to advance past Arsenal’s kiddie corps or an end to that bitchin’ unbeaten run on the weekend will only intensify the heat on Hughes. And at some point, it’s going to become a distraction to the club.
I’m all for giving managers time, and I loathe the kneejerk stuff we see at clubs like Chelsea and Real Madrid, but Hughes’s situation at City rapidly is becoming untenable. If an awful two-month winless slump despite playing roadkill like Burnley and Hull City and playing some very, very winnable fixtures in @Wigan, Fulham, and @Brum can’t get your manager sacked, how can the club look perspective transfers in the eye and tell them they’re serious about this Best Club in the World business?
Benitez picked up some injuries to his two best players, suffered through a 1-3-5 stretch, and oddsmakers thought the man who won Europe was getting the sack. And Benitez beat United during that span.
Do you really think any of the clubs with whom City are competing would tolerate a run like the one we’ve seen the past two months at City? Even Ferguson would be in hot water with those returns.
At a certain point, City can’t legitimately claim to have ambition if they’re sitting by and accepting unacceptable results like we’ve seen the past two months. And I’m not sure sacking the goalkeeping coach or Bowen is really going to send the necessary message. I think it has to be the gaffer who goes. And while that might not be fair to Hughes, the club has to act in its own best interests.
City, Everton agree on Lescott fee
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 1, Wolverhampton 0
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.
Senior squad bound for training in Germany
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.
