Manchester City have today confirmed the signing of Arsenal centre-half Kolo Toure for an undisclosed fee. Toure joins former Arsenal striker Adebayor, along with Carlos Tevez, Roque Santa Cruz and Gareth Barry as the summer signings at the blues, and his agent Saif Rubie claims it's purely a football-related move.
"Kolo was very impressed with the chairman and the club as a whole. Anyone who knows Kolo knows that he gives 110% on the football pitch, and his hunger for the game is unquestionable. He finds it very hard to leave Arsenal, as it was like a second home to him and Arsene Wenger was the man who gave him a chance, but he now feels ready for the new challenge at Manchester City".
The news comes on the same day City confirm young full-back Nedum Onuoha agrees a new five-year deal with the club.
Showing posts with label Manchester City. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Manchester City. Show all posts
Wednesday, 29 July 2009
Monday, 27 July 2009
Transfer news
Inter Milan have sold striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic to Barcelona for an undisclosed fee, with Samuel Eto'o and Alexandr Hleb going the other way - Eto'o also for an undisclosed fee, and Hleb on a year's loan.
Tottenham are close to capturing the signature of Peter Crouch from Portsmouth for £10,000,000. The deal will go through only after Darren Bent is sold to Sunderland, a deal that will conclude in the next 48 hours.
Steve Finnan is in talks with Portsmouth after being released a year early from his Espanyol contract. The ex-Liverpool right-back joined the La Liga side at the start of last season, and is now prepared for a return to the Premier League.
Manchester City's latest targets are two defenders. Arsenal man Kolo Toure, and Everton's Joleon Lescott have both been linked with moves to Eastlands recently, and with big money on the table, who would bet against them making the move?
Portsmouth centre-half Sylvain Distin has been linked with both Aston Villa and Liverpool in recent times, but it looks as if Villa have won the race to capture the Frenchman's signature. Portsmouth however are demanding £4,000,000 for the ex-Man City man, but Villa are only prepared to pay £2,500,000. Liverpool will be waiting in the wings should the deal break down.
Finally, Blackburn have expressed a desire to sign Zenith St Petersburg striker Pavel Pogrebnyak as a replacement for Roque Santa Cruz. The deal is still in early days, so it is hard to say whether it will happen, but it'd be a decent capture for Rovers who have already made 4 new signings this summer.
Tottenham are close to capturing the signature of Peter Crouch from Portsmouth for £10,000,000. The deal will go through only after Darren Bent is sold to Sunderland, a deal that will conclude in the next 48 hours.
Steve Finnan is in talks with Portsmouth after being released a year early from his Espanyol contract. The ex-Liverpool right-back joined the La Liga side at the start of last season, and is now prepared for a return to the Premier League.
Manchester City's latest targets are two defenders. Arsenal man Kolo Toure, and Everton's Joleon Lescott have both been linked with moves to Eastlands recently, and with big money on the table, who would bet against them making the move?
Portsmouth centre-half Sylvain Distin has been linked with both Aston Villa and Liverpool in recent times, but it looks as if Villa have won the race to capture the Frenchman's signature. Portsmouth however are demanding £4,000,000 for the ex-Man City man, but Villa are only prepared to pay £2,500,000. Liverpool will be waiting in the wings should the deal break down.
Finally, Blackburn have expressed a desire to sign Zenith St Petersburg striker Pavel Pogrebnyak as a replacement for Roque Santa Cruz. The deal is still in early days, so it is hard to say whether it will happen, but it'd be a decent capture for Rovers who have already made 4 new signings this summer.
Terry to stay at Chelsea
Chelsea fans will be relieved to hear that recent speculation over their captain John Terry joining Manchester City, remains at just speculation. Terry has put pen to paper on a new deal that will see the England centre half stay at Chelsea for a further 3 years, suggesting that he will see out his career with the London club.
Reports suggested that Terry was on the verge of joining the Eastlands club, but after new manager Carlo Ancelotti reassured him that no big-name players were going to be leaving in the summer transfer window, Terry took the opportunity to sign the deal with his beloved blues.
Chelsea have failed to make any significant signings this summer, but will be very satisfied with tieing down their skipper for the foreseeable future. Terry revealed that the club had made a few offers for unnamed players but failed in their attempt to capture any new signings. However, with the side now gelling as a unit, and the squad staying very much the same, perhaps it is not necessary that Chelsea delve into the transfer market, especially as their start to the new season is just a couple of weeks away.
Reports suggested that Terry was on the verge of joining the Eastlands club, but after new manager Carlo Ancelotti reassured him that no big-name players were going to be leaving in the summer transfer window, Terry took the opportunity to sign the deal with his beloved blues.
Chelsea have failed to make any significant signings this summer, but will be very satisfied with tieing down their skipper for the foreseeable future. Terry revealed that the club had made a few offers for unnamed players but failed in their attempt to capture any new signings. However, with the side now gelling as a unit, and the squad staying very much the same, perhaps it is not necessary that Chelsea delve into the transfer market, especially as their start to the new season is just a couple of weeks away.
Sunday, 26 July 2009
The corrupted game
The beautiful game as we know it, is no longer as pure as it used to be, and it's not something we can help either. The constant takeovers of Premier League clubs by Middle Eastern, and American businessman has made the football side of the game a growing irrelevance.
The perfect example of this is Manchester City, who were taken over by a UAE consortium before the start of the last season. The ridiculous sums of money that they are continuously offering up to clubs for their star players undermines the less well-off clubs and the final standings of each League season are becoming more and more predictable. Manchester City finished in the bottom half of the table last season, and below Stoke City, so there is an argument to say that it doesn't make a difference. However, with the Blues bringing in players such as Carlos Tevez and Emmanuel Adebayor for outrageous amounts of money, it's surely only a matter of time before the changes are noticeable. It takes time for any team that makes wholesale changes to their squad to gel, and become a unit, so once City do just that, I am sure they will make the break into the top 4.
Whilst it is part of the game, unfortunately or fortunately, it doesn't seem right that a club fighting for survival just a few years ago can make such dramatic steps to become a successful football club. Surely there has to be some kind of barrier to prevent these sorts of takeovers and make the Premier League a division every team can compete in, and start on a level playing field. Of course some clubs are going to be richer than others, due to season ticket sales, sponsorship and what have you, but why not leave it at that? There is no need for such greed in our beautiful game, and football's governing bodies should be putting restrictions and barriers in place to prevent such happenings.
Chelsea set the precedent back in 2004, when Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich bought the club in a 7-figure deal. That takeover brought instant success, firstly by capturing the signing of Jose Mourinho as manager, followed by several big-name, big-money signings that lifted Chelsea to the top of the Premier League, and ultimately gave them champion status. Now with Aston Villa, Liverpool, Portsmouth and Newcastle all receiving high-calibre takeovers in the last 4 years, it is just a matter of time before every single club in the Premier League, and some in lower divisions, become victims of billionaire takeovers. Such a thing would have an affect on the level of football, of course. The world's best players will be playing in our league, but do we really want that happening, knowing they're only there because they're being paid £180.000 a week? Surely it'd be far more enjoyable, and beneficial to watch home-grown, young, quality players ply their trade in the world's greatest League, in the knowledge that they are there purely to play football because they love it.
The recent news of Sven-Goran Eriksson becoming Notts County's Director of football further underlines the economic power of football. Notts County have recently received backing from a Middle Eastern company, and there is no doubt in my mind that had that not happened, Sven would still be the manager of Mexico to this day, and not fishing around in the lower league's of English football. Recent speculation has claimed that Christian Vieri will be the Nottingham club's first big signing, a move that would bring joy and jubilation to the fans of the club. It's great for a small club like Notts County to receive such press, and have a big name like Sven working for them. But my concern is that in 10, 15, 20 years, this will be the norm, and football won't be the same again.
I'm sure that 90% of football fans, if not more, are willing the FA to do something about this, but the question is, how can they stop it happening? Football, after all, is a business, and businessmen see the profit in investing in such a business. You can't stop a company purchasing what they want, as they have rights. That would leave it in the football club's hands, but that's not going to happen - if a billionaire comes along and says he wants to buy the shares in a football club, the owners are seldom going to reject, especially if the offer out-values the club itself. Therefore, it seems a lost cause to try and prevent the constant takeovers of English clubs, and football as we know it, seems to be losing it's identity in the midst of such ruthless business.
The perfect example of this is Manchester City, who were taken over by a UAE consortium before the start of the last season. The ridiculous sums of money that they are continuously offering up to clubs for their star players undermines the less well-off clubs and the final standings of each League season are becoming more and more predictable. Manchester City finished in the bottom half of the table last season, and below Stoke City, so there is an argument to say that it doesn't make a difference. However, with the Blues bringing in players such as Carlos Tevez and Emmanuel Adebayor for outrageous amounts of money, it's surely only a matter of time before the changes are noticeable. It takes time for any team that makes wholesale changes to their squad to gel, and become a unit, so once City do just that, I am sure they will make the break into the top 4.
Whilst it is part of the game, unfortunately or fortunately, it doesn't seem right that a club fighting for survival just a few years ago can make such dramatic steps to become a successful football club. Surely there has to be some kind of barrier to prevent these sorts of takeovers and make the Premier League a division every team can compete in, and start on a level playing field. Of course some clubs are going to be richer than others, due to season ticket sales, sponsorship and what have you, but why not leave it at that? There is no need for such greed in our beautiful game, and football's governing bodies should be putting restrictions and barriers in place to prevent such happenings.
Chelsea set the precedent back in 2004, when Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich bought the club in a 7-figure deal. That takeover brought instant success, firstly by capturing the signing of Jose Mourinho as manager, followed by several big-name, big-money signings that lifted Chelsea to the top of the Premier League, and ultimately gave them champion status. Now with Aston Villa, Liverpool, Portsmouth and Newcastle all receiving high-calibre takeovers in the last 4 years, it is just a matter of time before every single club in the Premier League, and some in lower divisions, become victims of billionaire takeovers. Such a thing would have an affect on the level of football, of course. The world's best players will be playing in our league, but do we really want that happening, knowing they're only there because they're being paid £180.000 a week? Surely it'd be far more enjoyable, and beneficial to watch home-grown, young, quality players ply their trade in the world's greatest League, in the knowledge that they are there purely to play football because they love it.
The recent news of Sven-Goran Eriksson becoming Notts County's Director of football further underlines the economic power of football. Notts County have recently received backing from a Middle Eastern company, and there is no doubt in my mind that had that not happened, Sven would still be the manager of Mexico to this day, and not fishing around in the lower league's of English football. Recent speculation has claimed that Christian Vieri will be the Nottingham club's first big signing, a move that would bring joy and jubilation to the fans of the club. It's great for a small club like Notts County to receive such press, and have a big name like Sven working for them. But my concern is that in 10, 15, 20 years, this will be the norm, and football won't be the same again.
I'm sure that 90% of football fans, if not more, are willing the FA to do something about this, but the question is, how can they stop it happening? Football, after all, is a business, and businessmen see the profit in investing in such a business. You can't stop a company purchasing what they want, as they have rights. That would leave it in the football club's hands, but that's not going to happen - if a billionaire comes along and says he wants to buy the shares in a football club, the owners are seldom going to reject, especially if the offer out-values the club itself. Therefore, it seems a lost cause to try and prevent the constant takeovers of English clubs, and football as we know it, seems to be losing it's identity in the midst of such ruthless business.
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