Best City Debuts

Arni Arason in the FA Cup anyone? Don't forget the keepers lads...

It sounds crazy but he singlehandedly saved us on his debut and was the only one who could be proud of his first half performance, despite us already being 0-3 down against a totally dominant spuds at H-T in the FA Cup it was no fault of Arni Arason, before our remarkable comeback he made sure the scoreline wasn't far more embarrassing.

It should've been at least double that score at half time and it would've been except for Arason keeping us in it, as spuds absolutely hammered us in the first half and Christian Ziege's brilliant free kick summed up the gulf in class between us.

Joey Barton got sent off at half time after Anelka had already limped off at 0-2 down it should've meant we were dead and buried, we had no right to make the comeback Barton's red card galvanised us but before that we were against what looked like a far superior side, one that made us look like a League Two side in the first half but we somehow made an incredible second half comeback.

A comeback that seems impossible without Arni Arason's contribution.

(Only just realised it was mentioned in the first page but what a debut)
 
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Kinkladze v Spurs 1996. Remember him dropping a shoulder in the centre circle and completely bamboozling the defender.

Keith Curle Coventry away 1991. Never kept a clean sheet away from home in the league, the year before. Great day, glorious sunshine, Quinny looping header and Curle organising the defence like he had been at City 10 years.
I was at that game, on one of the rare occasions I could get to a game in those days.
 
Arni Arason in the FA Cup anyone? Don't forget the keepers lads...

It sounds crazy but he singlehandedly saved us on his debut and was the only one who could be proud of his first half performance, despite us already being 0-3 down against a totally dominant spuds at H-T in the FA Cup it was no fault of Arni Arason, before our remarkable comeback he made sure the scoreline wasn't far more embarrassing.

It should've been at least double that score at half time and it would've been except for Arason keeping us in it, as spuds absolutely hammered us in the first half and Christian Ziege's brilliant free kick summed up the gulf in class between us.

Joey Barton got sent off at half time after Anelka had already limped off at 0-2 down it should've meant we were dead and buried, we had no right to make the comeback Barton's red card galvanised us but before that we were against what looked like a far superior side, one that made us look like a League Two side in the first half but we somehow made an incredible second half comeback.

A comeback that seems impossible without Arni Arason's contribution.

(Only just realised it was mentioned in the first page but what a debut)
He was awful in the first half diving under a free kick, and very poor his second game. Spurs had 3 chances 3 goals first half and not that outplayed. The double save at 3-1 was made possible by messing up on the first shot.

It is a bit of a myth he had a good game.
 
Eliaquim Mangala in his debit against Chelsea in the Frank Lampard match.

I thought City had signed a decent player......
 
It wasn’t just that Francis scored twice on his debut that makes it the best for me, it was everything surrounding it.

Even though it ended in tears, the run to the Cup Final the previous season had brought optimism for the future. Younger people might not realise quite how big a deal it was signing him, just after the season had started. It actually made one of the bongs at the start of News at 10.

And then glorious sunshine, a huge following and those two goals.

The future was bright. For a couple of weeks at least. Then we got battered at Birmingham ironically, and it was all downhill from there.

We did return to Stoke a few weeks later though for that famous 9-8 penalty shoot out win.
 
Agree with all of the usual suspects in here.

Don't think he was the best but an honorable mention I haven't seen yet is Nastasic, at the Bernabeu, barely 19 years old. Thought he'd play for us for the next 15 years.
Cracking dedut. Did well for us until the Wigan Cup final defeat. Following season he was mostly injured so he was sold to Schalke. Maybe Pellegrini didn't rate him having been a Mancini signing, I don't know. I've just googled him and he's playing in La Liga for Leganes, and he's only 31! Seems ages ago he was playing for us.
 
Eliaquim Mangala | Player Profile

Looked like a superb CB with his Chelsea performance on debut, but went downhill fast.
Andy Morrison, warrior captain of Manchester City on battling alcoholism |  Daily Mail Online

How we could do with a leader like this guy now.
 
Arni Arason in the FA Cup anyone? Don't forget the keepers lads...

It sounds crazy but he singlehandedly saved us on his debut and was the only one who could be proud of his first half performance, despite us already being 0-3 down against a totally dominant spuds at H-T in the FA Cup it was no fault of Arni Arason, before our remarkable comeback he made sure the scoreline wasn't far more embarrassing.

It should've been at least double that score at half time and it would've been except for Arason keeping us in it, as spuds absolutely hammered us in the first half and Christian Ziege's brilliant free kick summed up the gulf in class between us.

Joey Barton got sent off at half time after Anelka had already limped off at 0-2 down it should've meant we were dead and buried, we had no right to make the comeback Barton's red card galvanised us but before that we were against what looked like a far superior side, one that made us look like a League Two side in the first half but we somehow made an incredible second half comeback.

A comeback that seems impossible without Arni Arason's contribution.

(Only just realised it was mentioned in the first page but what a debut)
Anelka didn’t fancy it that night, fake hamstring injury. Not saying he wasn’t quality player but we looked dead and buried at that point.
 
Bobby Owen at MR v I’ve forgotten. Scored a brilliant header. Went downhill after that.
 

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