I hate to say I told you so, but....

[uwerosler28]

Robinho at santos and early madrid days was a central player playing in the "hole" and could easily do this with ribery out on the left wing and a tall target man up top.

 

[Didsbury Dave]

Robinho in Ireland's position TMQ? Are you mad?

Nice to get back to intelligent debate.

This is going to be the conundrum when Petrov is fit.

TMQ is right that the only way to accomodate both is to put Robinho as second striker, but then we would have to play 4-4-2.

Ireland could conceivably play as one of the 2 central midfielders but he won't be as effective.

 

[allblues09]

Fucking hell, I'm going to have to spell this one out for you in Babies English.

Both Robinho and Ribery play in the exact same position - Left sided wide forward.

Neither will be effective in any other position.

They are both highly paid superstars who play for their country.

Neither will be prepared to sit on the bench.

So it's one or the other.

Comprendez?

DD, you love getting in arguments about Robbie leaving do you not? :)

I must say that of course they could play in the same team and squad. Robbie's natural position is just behind the striker, we play him wide left due to the injury to Petrov, and not having anyone else to play there.
In response to the times article. No source, no quote, no story. I can find multiple stories from the past three weeks, with quotes from Mark Hughes (I hear he is ITK), that say Robbie is going nowhere and he is in the long-term plans of Mark Hughes and City.
I would say that the chase to sign Franck is more ominous for Petrov than for Robbie.

 

[uwerosler28]

.................................GIVEN
ZABALETA.... KOMPANY........ DUNNE............... BRIDGE

...........DE JONG

SWP .............IRELAND....................................RIBERY

............ROBINHO

............... SANTA CRUZ?

 

[allblues09]

Quote from today's Times:

"First, City would have to find a buyer for Robinho, whom, contrary to Mark Hughes’s claims yesterday, the manager is prepared to sell. Ribéry, 25, operates in the same position between midfield and attack as Robinho, and Hughes is mindful that it would be unfeasible to play both in the same team,"

Quote from today's Telegraph:

"The inconsistent Brazilian plays in a similar position to Ribery, and it would be unfeasible to play them both. Therefore, Ribery could only come in if Robinho leaves"

Quotes from jaymcfc - freely available above.

Absolutely PMSL

But you are quoting journalist, who show no source, no quotes in their articles and have probably never competitively stepped on a football pitch.
You should not believe all the conjecture that the journalist, who are speculating to find a sensational story, come up with.

 

[Didsbury Dave]

Hello allblues, thought you'd turn up on this thread PMSL

You know my opinion:

It pisses off some but I'm prepared to debate the topic of Robbie leaving as I think it may well happen.

As you know as well, I'm not saying I want it to -he can be world class on some days. But Hughes and he have to learn how to get the best from him week on week.

But I don't necessarily think it would be a massive problem for us if he did go. Especially if we got Ribery!!!!

 

[hgblue]

Quote from today's Times:

"First, City would have to find a buyer for Robinho, whom, contrary to Mark Hughes’s claims yesterday, the manager is prepared to sell. Ribéry, 25, operates in the same position between midfield and attack as Robinho, and Hughes is mindful that it would be unfeasible to play both in the same team,"

Quote from today's Telegraph:

"The inconsistent Brazilian plays in a similar position to Ribery, and it would be unfeasible to play them both. Therefore, Ribery could only come in if Robinho leaves"

Quotes from jaymcfc - freely available above.

Absolutely PMSL

Do you believe everything you read in the papers?

Hgblue,
Would you find it inconcievable that our manager is telling all and sundry that he is happy with our 'world class player' but would actually like to offload him and is briefing jounalists through an 'unnamed source'?

It's my opinion that there's two much being written in the papers to suggest that there's at the very least a significant amount of dis-satisfation with Robinho's performance and off field antics.
There is no way in hell that Robinho will stay here if Frank Ribery or another prominent left sided midfieolder/winger signs for us.

There's better players out there than him too........

To be honest with you, I believe there is an anti-City, anti-Robinho agenda out there, so I don't read any of this stuff, and only come into contact with it via this Forum when people repeat it on here.

 

[allblues09]

Hello DD,
I know where you stand, and I assume you know that I do not believe he will go anywhere.

BUT
If he did go Franck would be a great replacement (something we agree on!!!) ;)

However, I wonder how willing Franck and Bayern would be to let him come to City, especially if we sell our world renowned superstar. As surely that will be viewed by most in world football as a step backwards, and even worse if we sell him for a massive lose.

I just do not see any advantage to selling, as we do not need the money, in terms of trying to sign other world class names.

What do you think the media, which love to create sensational stories, would say about that. We would be a laughing stock. They would never get over the fact that we sold our leading scorer for less than we paid for him. This would severely hinder our chances of signing any world stars, as this would be their only exposure to Man City.

On side note I found this part of the Times article humorous:

Heading for the exit

Goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel (third in pecking order)

Defence Michael Ball (out of contract), Javier Garrido (lost place to Wayne Bridge), Danny Mills (out of contract), Glauber Berti (not made an appearance this season)

Midfield Elano (Hughes wants rid of the Brazilian); Gelson Fernandes (ousted by Vincent Kompany and Nigel de Jong); Dietmar Hamann (out of contract)

Forwards Robinho (inconsistent); Jô (on loan at Everton), Felipe Caicedo (City ready to take a hit on £5.2 million signing), Ched Evans (short of Champions League quality), Benjani Mwaruwari (injury-prone), Darius Vassell (out of contract)

They leave out Sturridge, who will be out of contract, so according to this, if we cannot sign Henry or RSC, we will have almost no strikers other than the Boj. That would be a gamble! We also would only have one leftback! Yikes.

 

[Didsbury Dave]

Yeah, the world hates City.

They're all out to get us.

<rolls eyes>

 

[blue_paul]

Quote from today's Times:

"First, City would have to find a buyer for Robinho, whom, contrary to Mark Hughes’s claims yesterday, the manager is prepared to sell. Ribéry, 25, operates in the same position between midfield and attack as Robinho, and Hughes is mindful that it would be unfeasible to play both in the same team,"

Quote from today's Telegraph:

"The inconsistent Brazilian plays in a similar position to Ribery, and it would be unfeasible to play them both. Therefore, Ribery could only come in if Robinho leaves"

Quotes from jaymcfc - freely available above.

Absolutely PMSL

Do you believe everything you read in the papers?

Hgblue,
Would you find it inconcievable that our manager is telling all and sundry that he is happy with our 'world class player' but would actually like to offload him and is briefing jounalists through an 'unnamed source'?

It's my opinion that there's two much being written in the papers to suggest that there's at the very least a significant amount of dis-satisfation with Robinho's performance and off field antics.
There is no way in hell that Robinho will stay here if Frank Ribery or another prominent left sided midfieolder/winger signs for us.

There's better players out there than him too........

To be honest with you, I believe there is an anti-City, anti-Robinho agenda out there, so I don't read any of this stuff, and only come into contact with it via this Forum when people repeat it on here.

Hgblue,
I remember earlier in the season that there were a number of stories appearing in the media slating Elano's professionalism and his attitude around the club. These stories were planted by the club as a message to Elano to buck up his ideas and to portray the club as the good guy in the situation. A lot of fans were angry that Elano had lost his place and naturally took his side against 'that rag bastard'.
It seems to me it's happening again. Robinho hasn't been doing it ( not as well as he should be anyway) and reading betwen the lines, I think Leslie wouldn't be too upset to see the back of him.
Again, just my opinion but I think the club has used certain journo's to their advantage in getting their message across and I can see it happening again with the troubled Brazillian. As I've said before, I don't think Robinho would be too upset himself if he can get a move to a leaague that isn't so physically demanding.