Well someone thinks we've bought quality
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What is it all these clubs have seen in Dzeko? Obviously his goal record is good – 65 goals in the last two seasons – but the statistic that is perhaps even more telling is that, in his last two seasons, Dzeko made 26 assists. So he either scored or made 91 goals in the last two seasons.
Edin Dzeko will fight for Manchester City, not with his team-mates
There is something determined in the speed with which Manchester City are trying to tie up a deal for Edin Dzeko. Roberto Mancini has revealed today that a fee has been agreed with Wolfsburg and, assuming negotiations on personal terms are swiftly resolved, he could even be in the City squad for the home game with Wolves on Jan 15. So, what kind of player will City be getting for their money?
Dzeko wants a big annual salary – 10million euros apparently – and had a clause built into his Wolfsburg deal that would give him a substantial cut of any transfer that met his buy-out clause. He will earn more at City than he would have at another club but that does not mean he has signed just for the money. He has the ambition of a late developer (in football terms; he turns 25 in March) and a background that suggests psychological strength.
Dzeko is a Bosnian Muslim and grew up in Sarajevo during the siege of the city between 1992-96. “I was six when the war started,” he said. “It was terrible. My house was destroyed so we went to live with my grandparents. The whole family was there, maybe 15 people all staying in an apartment of about 35 square metres. It was very hard. We were stressed every day in case somebody we knew died. A lot of footballers start to play kicking a ball around in the street. For me that was impossible, but when the war finished I was much stronger, mentally.”
Being a tall, gangly teenager trying to break into Bosnian football was difficult. The culture of Balkan football is for quick, one-touch passing so tall players, like Nikola Zigic and Dzeko, struggle to be taken seriously. He was called an “English” player and it wasn’t meant as a compliment. Jonathan Wilson has written that when Zeljeznicar Sarajevo, his first club, received an offer of 50,000 euros from Czech team Teplice for him, a club offical described it as “like having won the lottery”.
Dealing with the contempt of many of his coaches toughened him up and moving to a foreign country cemented his self-reliance. Czech football was more receptive to a player of Dzeko’s build. Like Jan Koller, the 6″8 Czech striker, he developed into the kind of striker who could play as an attacking fulcrum on the deck but, when needed, be lethal in the air in the box.
His approach was refined at Wolfsburg, the club he joined for 4.7million euros in 2007. In his second season the team, managed by Felix Magath, won the Bundesliga, playing a fluid, counter-attacking game.
Dzeko has excelled in the Bundesliga. He has scored 85 goals in 138 games for Wolfsburg. This is serious quality – here’s some footage of him at his best. While some thought he could not maintain his form and others had suspicion about his mobility (Sir Alex Ferguson apparently thought him too slow) there is no question that every top European club has coveted Dzeko. City have moved quickly and in doing so prevented Bayern Munich, Juventus, Real Madrid, Liverpool or Chelsea giving them a harder time in the summer.
What is it all these clubs have seen in Dzeko? Obviously his goal record is good – 65 goals in the last two seasons – but the statistic that is perhaps even more telling is that, in his last two seasons, Dzeko made 26 assists. So he either scored or made 91 goals in the last two seasons.
Dzeko is not the kind of striker who simply finishes off what his team-mates set up, he’s an integrated player. At Wolfsburg, and with Bosnia, he developed a good understanding with the playmaker Zvjezdan Misimovic. He also got the best out of Grafite, the Brazilian striker, who played alongside him.
When Steve McClaren switched from a 4-4-2 to a 4-2-3-1 this season, Dzeko did not like playing as the lone striker and his form dipped. Roberto Mancini must give Dzeko the context to thrive. With Carlos Tevez and David Silva, Dzeko can develop the kind of partnerships he thrived on at Wolfsburg. It could also coax a more open game out of a City team that are growing in confidence.
Dzeko will not thrive on the long ball. He likes to be involved in build up play. His aerial threat is best employed getting on the end of crosses (in this respect he is like an up-market Roque Santa Cruz). David Silva, Adam Johnson and James Milner are all good crossers of the ball. They now have a menacing presence at which to aim.
There is no doubt that City have bought quality. They have also bought a player who carried on fighting and scoring when the going got tough as Wolfsburg struggled last season. On a day when Emmanuel Adebayor is involved in a training ground fight with Kolo Toure, that is an important quality for this club.