edgecroft
Well-Known Member
You all remember the MacDonald Mariga saga from the January transfer window. Kenyan international, midfielder, playing for Parma. Roberto Mancini identifies him as a target for our club, negotiatons made, contracts drawn up, on his way to Manchester,the entire country of Kenya is thrilled to see the first Kenyan play in the Premier League (being a former British colony and mad for the PL) - EXCEPT he's unable to obtain a work permit from the British government. We appeal, we lose on the last day of the window and time is running out.
Suddenly, he signs for Mancini's old club, Inter, in the last hours of the transfer window. Next day, he gets his British work permit, but its already too late for us.
My theory at the time was that Mancini thought, 'Right, I don't want to lose this kid for good even though I can't get him here in this window' so he called his friends at Inter and asked them to do him a favour and sign him up and safe keep him until the end of the season and we'd take him back from them. Sort of an unusual loan agreement where we didn't yet own him to loan him. I dont think that Inter ended up using him very much.
Does this scenario sound plausible? Might the young man be wearing sky blue very soon? Perhaps we'll hear something in the days after the Champions League final is over.