Players who should have played for City.

[Dirty Harry]

I always thought Steve Claridge would have made a good player for us, think he was one of those players that had that Gerry Gow/Gareth Barry "thing", you know, you don't fully realise what he brings to the table until you see it week in week out.

 

[dickie davies]

Jonny Evans

At least use his full name

Jonny Fucking Evans

 

[peoffrey]

Dortmund got Lewandowski from Poznan for pennies.

 

[Jimmy_G]

VAR.

Tore us a new one quite a few times in the past two years

 

[Goater=Legend]

Mido

 

[bluesking]

Danny Mills

 

[Bozzie]

Before my time but I'm sure my old fella used to say Dennis Viollet lived facing Maine Road and was a City fan. Everyone was gobsmacked when he signed for the rags but the neighbours were all jealous of the fancy new fridge and washing machine that appeared the same day he signed.

 

[balotelli's back pocket]

Michael Johnson (for longer).

Fernando Gago was close to signing, wasn't he? Was a good player before he went to Madrid and got stuck on the bench.

David Pizzaro deserved to have his loan move made permanent I thought.

Not signing Pirlo and David Villa on short term deals a la Lampard was a missed opportunity.

I remember when we were linked with Marco Reus for peanuts around 2014/15. One of the most underrated and unlucky players of this generation.

Would have been an awesome signing, but i'm glad we got Raheem instead.

 

[Shaelumstash]

Ronaldinho

Real Ronaldo

Samuel Eto’o

All very close to signing at one point

 

[petrusha]

Ian Rush (one of our ex players, with the first or second most appearances ever, was his manager, and advised him to go to dipperpool)

Not quite how it happened. Alan Oakes, who does indeed hold the record for the number of first-team competitive appearances for City, was the manager of Chester at the time and realised he had a striker coming through who was going to be a star. Chester wanted to sell him because they needed the cash and Oakes wanted City to sign him, so tipped off Malcolm Allison about the player. Mal watched him and was impressed enough to want to make the signing, but didn't think Rush yet ready to play regularly in the old First Division. Swales wouldn't sanction a £300K fee for a player who wasn't going to be used immediately in the senior side.

I can actually understand Swales's point of view. But Liverpool met the asking price, played Rush in the reserves for 18 months and the rest is history.

I always thought Steve Claridge would have made a good player for us, think he was one of those players that had that Gerry Gow/Gareth Barry "thing", you know, you don't fully realise what he brings to the table until you see it week in week out.

Back in March 1998, having been the City manager for a month, Joe Royle was looking to sign a striker to help stave off relegation. Leicester were willing to sell Steve Claridge for £400K, and he became Royle's first choice only for him to opt to sign for promotion-chasing Wolves instead. He wasn't a success at Molineux and was sold at a loss to Portsmouth after playing five games without scoring. Meanwhile, Royle switched his sights to some guy called Goater at Bristol City.