Re: John Carew
PlattLaneBoy said:
You said earlier :
c) If A & B are fulfilled, aren't being chased by bigger clubs (i.e. what I mean here, by clubs that mean we are going to be well down the pecking order, i.e. calibre of a Real Madrid, a Chelsea, a United, a Inter, AC Milan, or for that fact any club that can offer European football and is consequently most likely seen as a preferred option) ?
Did we or did we not get Robinho ahead of chelsea ? so whos to say we cant compete with the likes of real, chelsea and all them lot we're a work in progress and people are recognising that. The other week diego maradonna the father in law or Sergio Aguero was saying that sergio should look to join a team like man city because basically were going places. I agree with you we dont need a full new first XI. but to get a player of agueros quality would be amazing. John carew is one of them players you can say ' isn't bad' but personally I dont think he is a player we shouldnt concider, if you think he is your intitled to your own opinion put i dont think he is.
But players i think would be good and would be available at the right price are :
Sergio Aguero ( Athletico Madrid )
Mario Gomez ( Stuttgart )
Zlatan Ibrahimovic ( Inter Milan) and before you say no, Zlatan has said he wouldnt know what to do if city came in for him because we have already been linked )
Firstly, in terms of Robinho, your argument is redudant. While there is no doubt (And I have not questioned) our ability to compete on a financial level with any club in the world, it is clear that there were special circumstances surrouding our capture of Robinho. He just wanted out of Madrid, and probably ended up here because Real Madrid were pissed with Chelsea (Remember the new shirt affair?) and so didn't want to sell to them, rather then it being a sign we can compete with the bigger club. As far as we know, no other clubs were interested, and thus for Robinho it was either City or rot away in the Real Madrid Reserves.
Currently, the equation is fairly simple. We can only compete on a financial level. If these big clubs make a similar offer to us, then for the large majority of players (>99% would be my guess), then there is only one place they will chose, and unfortunately it won't be City. The situation surrouding Robinho is hardly going to repeat itself in a way like it did to our advantage with any other players.
Getting back to the 30+ strikers, Well I could be really picky and say for both Aguero and Ibrahmovic A) wasn't fulfilled (Because neither of them have ever scored 30 in a season, though they have been clase), but if we leave it just at point C then you have found 3. I do know that Ibrahmovic didn't say he wouldn't come to City should we make an offer, but surely if he turned out to be available there is going to be a lot of clubs lined up wanting his services, which would include major champions league clubs. Unless we offer absolutely silly money and make Inter only accept our bid, then its hardly likely that we would turn out to be his first choice. Gomez is a decent shout as well, haven't really seen much of him but on paper he has an excellent record. Whether he will be available may very much come down to whether Stuttgart manage to qualify for the Champions league or not.Aguero perhaps we have a hope with, not only because of what Maradona is reported to have said but because he is young and may not fancy a move to a top club quite yet, but we would have to get in before any of the big clubs knew that he was definitely available, which again would be unlikely. He is by far the one out of your 3 that we probably have the best chance with.
My point is thus that while they may seem to be 'available', the true likelihood of us being able to secure their services at this point is very low. By all means we should be chasing them, and I hope we do as we might get lucky and snare 1 or even 2 top line players this Summer if we are lucky, but to go with this (And I think this is the point you are missing in terms of Carew) is that away from that, we still need to build a squad with depth. I just get sick of hearing city fans write off evey potential signing, just because of the chance we might be able to snare a big name that is better? If we were say in the market for only 1 striker, and for some bizarre reason (Say a rule change or something ranodm) could only buy 1 striker, I'd be in total agreeance with people saying no.
If we can't get any of your 30 goal a year strikers, where does our recruitment aim go there? Its not a matter of a simple single point attack on the tranfer market. We also will have to buy players that aren't 'world class' or 30+ strikers. I'm not suggesting that Carew should be our big summer signing for a striker or that he is world class, but he's a reasonable option, who we may very well be able to sign and could do a job for the club.
