Last Season: Their 15 wins, 5 draws, and 18 losses gave Man City 50 points on the table, enough for tenth place in the league. Their 58 goals scored were the most of any non-top four side; defensively, they allowed 50, giving them a +8 goal differential. In spite of their low position, they’re the only club not in European competition to have a positive goal differential.
Transfers In: Emmanuel Adebayor (Arsenal-£25.8 million), Gareth Barry (Aston Villa-£12.3 million), Roque Santa Cruz (Blackburn-£18.8 million), Stuart Taylor (Aston Villa-Free), Carlos Tévez (Manchester United/Third Party-£25.8 million), Kolo Touré (Arsenal-£16.6 million)
Transfers Out: Michael Ball (Released), Valerie Bojinov (FC Parma-Loan), Felipe Caicedo (Sporting CP-Loan), Elano (Galatasaray-£6.23 million), Ched Evans (Sheffield United-£3 million), Gelson Fernandes (AS Saint-Etienne-£3 million), Gláuber (Released), Joe Hart (Birmingam-Loan), Dietmar Hamann (Contract Expired), Jô (Everton-Loan), Shaleum Logan (Tranmere Rovers-Loan), Richard Martin (Released), Danny Mills (Contract Expired), Daniel Sturridge (Chelsea-£5 million), Darius Vassell (Ankaragücü-Free)
Season Outlook: There’s a saying in Brazil that, for a team to be successful, there must be a realization on the team that certain individuals are piano players and certain individuals are piano carriers. You can’t have too many carriers, or there’s nobody to play the instrument; you can’t have too many players or there will be nobody to bring their instrument to them. Both approaches are required.
Such is the case at Manchester City. A lot’s changed since I wrote a piece for this here blog chronicling the rejection Manchester City had faced at the hands of various transfer targets. Namely, they’ve managed to actually sign several players, somewhat mooting their earlier failures. With new players, however, come new expectations; Man City’s season will be considered a failure if they finish outside of European competition. And on top of that, there’s the issue of team chemistry to contend with, which is only magnified by the fact that there are five guys who’ve just been brought in that are probably making more cash combined than the fifteen guys who’ve left.
It’s also a little bit too easy to say that all’s well at Eastlands because they were able to sign players. Let’s delve a little deeper and look at who they’ve brought in:
- Emmanueal Adebayor and Kolo Toure. I’m not sure anyone at the Emirates – fans included – were sad to see either of these guys go. Adebayor is on his second pay double in as many offseasons, even though his production dropped off sharply last year; Toure put in a transfer request to get away from William Gallas back in January, so his departure shouldn’t be shocking to anyone. Both players have had a history of being a little difficult.
- Gareth Barry. Barry, after a season whining about not playing in Europe with Villa, cashed in for something around £100k a week at Man City. This is in spite of the fact that his new club isn’t in any European competition at all.
- Carlos Tevez. First of all, Tevez is overrated; he’s a lot of work with only a little output, and not even sort of worth the £25 million Man City paid for him. On top of that, it’s impossible to ignore the fact that, even while he’s said the right things to the press, he’s been difficult to work with. Just ask West Ham.
- Roque Santa Cruz. Hey, remember that time Santa Cruz played more than thirty games a season? It shouldn’t be hard; it only happened once. Santa Cruz is actually perfect for Man City, since he’ll never be fighting for playing time; he’ll be recovering from injuries.
So you’ve got at least two, probably three problem children, a guy cashing out for his last big payday, and a guy who will most likely be healthy for less than half of your games, all for the low-low price of £81 million. Stuart Taylor may end up representing the best value. On top of that, Manchester City is adding these malcontents to a squad that already includes Craig Bellamy, Robinho, and Stephen Ireland, guys who aren’t exactly known for their mental stability. This really is the perfect team for the Gallagher brothers to support; the story of this season could rival the Oasis “Behind the Music” for dysfunction.
That’s not to say it can’t work, of course. It’s just to say that Mark Hughes has a significant hurdle ahead of him before the team even takes the field: he has to be able to man-manage these huge egos and shape them into a quality product on the field. He has to make Adebayor appear interested, help Tevez finish his chances, keep Bellamy away from golf clubs, and make sure that Robinho remembers to come home after international duty. That’s a lot to ask of a manager.
There’s also the “road woe” issue, which isn’t going to get better at Emirates, Villa Park, or Old Trafford anytime soon. Of those 58 goals Man City scored, only 18 of them came on the road. In fact, they only won two games on the road all season; all told, in 19 road games they picked up a grand total of eleven points. That’s simply not good enough; Mark Hughes needs to improve his team’s focus when they’re away from Eastlands and their adoring public.
Which, again, brings us back to his signings. How will the big-money players he brought in fare in hostile environments? Outside of Barry, none of them are known for their leadership, and there certainly isn’t a wealth of loyalty to the Citizens just yet.
The accumulated “Avoiding the Drop” rankings show that our esteemed staff believes that Man City will improve, but not by enough to get into the Champions League; we have them finishing in seventh place. Personally, I had them in sixth place, right behind Everton. It’s definitely possible that, at the end of the 2010-11 season, the Citizens find themselves in the Champions League; I don’t think it’s possible for them to jump that far in one season, however.
