Breaking News - Mariga WAS given a work permit.

[tommytheblue]

i think mariga really wants to go to the premier league. We are fortunate enough to able to still buy him in the summer, should we want. tell mourinho to piss off, buy someone else!

 

[Cyprus blue]

I'm just being pragmatic here, but I think this whole affair was just a case of bad timing.

1. Hughes being sacked & Mancini only having 2 weeks to assess his squad before the transfer window opened.
2. Injuries & ACN deprived Mancini the opportunity to fully assess his squad quickly enough.
3. Hence all the transfer activity only starts to happen in the final few hours.

Mancini saw something about our squad that we all missed. As we were all concentrating on, left-backs, right backs and left midfielders, Macini saw that for all our central midfielders that we don't have 1 who can dominate a match ala Gerrard, Lampard, Essien, Ballack, Alonso, Fabregas etc.

As a comparison for De Jong see Makelele; after that we don't have a player who can consistently dominate his midfield opposition and this has become clearly evident. Think about all our matches this season so far especially all the draws we had in that record-breaking sequence. Our midfield played too deep and were too cautious and couldn't and still can't break fast enough to support our attack and get back to dominate the midfield if the attack fails.

Mancini has seen this within 6 weeks of being here and saw it as a more pressing issue above all others, hence his pursuit of Gago, Flamini, Vieira, Maringa. I now see that our lack of power in midfield was the main reason behind our record run of draws and our ultimate demised at the hands of the Rags, Spurs and Everton!

Here is a man who knows what he is talking about !

We need a midfielder who can dictate the pace of the game. Put your foot on the ball to slow the game down when needed or to quicken up the tempo of the game !

Hence the signing of Veiera - unfortunately he is the wrong side of 30.

 

[fbloke]

The plan to use Vieira this season (and possibly next) whilst the long term Mariga found his feet was a perfect plan.

I wonder where we would have been going under the previous manager?

 

[stevenryals]

BREAKING NEWS:

Gary Cook has released a statement:


"THE BLOODY FA BOTTLED IT!!!"

 

[yellamcfc]

I'm just being pragmatic here, but I think this whole affair was just a case of bad timing.

1. Hughes being sacked & Mancini only having 2 weeks to assess his squad before the transfer window opened.
2. Injuries & ACN deprived Mancini the opportunity to fully assess his squad quickly enough.
3. Hence all the transfer activity only starts to happen in the final few hours.

Mancini saw something about our squad that we all missed. As we were all concentrating on, left-backs, right backs and left midfielders, Macini saw that for all our central midfielders that we don't have 1 who can dominate a match ala Gerrard, Lampard, Essien, Ballack, Alonso, Fabregas etc.

As a comparison for De Jong see Makelele; after that we don't have a player who can consistently dominate his midfield opposition and this has become clearly evident. Think about all our matches this season so far especially all the draws we had in that record-breaking sequence. Our midfield played too deep and were too cautious and couldn't and still can't break fast enough to support our attack and get back to dominate the midfield if the attack fails.

Mancini has seen this within 6 weeks of being here and saw it as a more pressing issue above all others, hence his pursuit of Gago, Flamini, Vieira, Maringa. I now see that our lack of power in midfield was the main reason behind our record run of draws and our ultimate demised at the hands of the Rags, Spurs and Everton!

This is one of the better posts on here, someone with a good opinion or at least knows what he's talking about, which makes a change from all the wind up bullshit that gets typed up on this forum.
We are clearly lacking the enforcer in midfield that most, if not all top teams have. Barry or De Jong will never be that kind of player, so it is something that will need to be addressed as a priority in the summer.

 

[Sabster]

just to make it clear what a player he could have been: <a class="postlink" href="http://www.goal.com/en/news/1717/editorial/2010/02/02/1772335/calcio-debate-inter-new-boy-mcdonald-mariga-the-bargain-buy" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.goal.com/en/news/1717/editor ... argain-buy</a>

 

[lostgalaxy]

I vote for Ibrahim. That commanding figure is preferably homegrown.

The good thing is Mancini sees it. He'll fix it sooner or later.

 

[lionheart]

just to make it clear what a player he could have been: <a class="postlink" href="http://www.goal.com/en/news/1717/editorial/2010/02/02/1772335/calcio-debate-inter-new-boy-mcdonald-mariga-the-bargain-buy" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.goal.com/en/news/1717/editor ... argain-buy</a>

Bloody typical! Just the Marc Vivien Foe type player we desperately need.

 

[Matty]

Looks like a load of bollocks to me. A politician making a statement for local (Kenyan) consumption.

I totally agree. Forget this 'typical City' crap, forget blaming Cook or anyone else. He simply did not get a work permit. There is even a quote that the Kenyan Prime Minister spoke to Gordon Browns office
"I spent a minimum of three hours on phone talking to Gordon Brown's office, the Africa Office, office of Culture and Sports, the Home office, the FA president Lord Treisman and to Mariga himself."

Yeh right, The banks are bust, we are heading for an election that Brown will lose, Claire Short is stabbing him in the back over Iraq and yet he is talking to Kenya about a bloody transfer. Get real Blues stop knocking the club and stop believing every half baked story some lazy journo, sat in a pub, writes.

Perhaps the word "office" in that quote has slipped by you? The Kenyan PM, as a courtesy, may have had a couple of minutes chat with Gordon Brown personally, but the rest of his "three hours on the phone" will have been with bureaucrats and civil servants within the aforementioned offices. I'd also suggest the Kenyan PM is using the royal "I" and it will most likely have been his own staff that were on these phone calls rather than him.

 

[jellert]

City needs to deal faster in the future..... Leaving it late... not working!!