Hello folks and welcome to transfer silly season.
We’ve started a little earlier this year because, quite frankly, there are only a handful of games across Europe that anyone really cares about anymore.
We will have a Champions League final with fairly nailed-on favourites in Barcelona, a couple of Premier League games with relegation importance, and a few Europa League-chasing teams will be in action. I guess we’re all feeling a little underwhelmed just now.
So we’re entertaining ourselves with the hope that this summer will see Manchester City carve out a new squad over the summer. One which can challenge Chelsea right to the end of next season. And so we’ve been subjected to a lot of Paul Pogba speculation over the last few weeks.
Pogba, they say, is a Yaya Toure replacement, a literal translation of the big Ivorian. He combines strength and power with a vision and coolness that Yaya brings to the game, and if City are to lose their African icon this summer – and bear in mind he’s now on the wrong side of the big three-O – the Pogba stories will just simply intensify.
The truth is that he’s a little different. He doesn’t have the swagger of Yaya, he’s not as ‘classy’ but he’s every bit as good.
The young Frenchman has suitors galore, though. PSG look to get their greasy, oil-slick mits on any young Frenchman and Pogba is surely on their radar. Real Madrid and Barcelona appear to be Pogba’s preferred destinations – in fact, countryman Zinedine Zidane is said to have been in contact with the beefy starlet.
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And like just about any big player with big potential, he’s been linked with Manchester City too. There’s a lot of hoo-ha about Pogba.
In the English media at least, City is the most heavily-suggested choice for the Juventus midfielder. As a direct replacement for Toure, they say, he’s worth every penny. He’d get the chance to prove his worth in Manchester, a City where he was never given a chance, of course.
He’d fit right into the Premier League with his power and physicality, and he’d come into a side who – with Komany, Mangala, Fernandinho and Bony – seem to be based upon a mix of brutal, US-style overwhelming force and silky finesse around the box. A dreamy cocktail for the Premier League indeed.
But that ageing cocktail is what gives City such banging post-title hangovers.
The squad is one of the oldest in the league and has little to boast about in the way of young talent. City’s ‘holistic’ approach to club-building, appointing made-in-Barcelona directors and trying to create a club that includes a title-winning trio of elite men’s, women’s and youth sides is a wonderful vision to have.
But the insatiable thirst for immediate success in the men’s department has – paradoxically – left City with a squad without a future.
Saudi billions could work their magic, but City will have to work within the Financial Fair Play constraints. Put simply, they’ll have to sell before they can buy.
And what do they sell? What asset do City possess that could possibly net them the (hundreds of?) millions they need to revamp the squad? The only answer, it seems, is Sergio Aguero. And they can’t/won’t get rid of him.
City would be lucky to get over £30million the out-of-favour Samir Nasri, the wantaway Yaya Toure or even an ageing yet electric David Silva, whose next birthday will be his 30th. So if they want to buy young stars like Pogba or Kevin De Bruyne who could become mainstays of the side over the next decade, they’ll need to offload quite a few of the old guard.
This is the conundrum floating above east Manchester this summer. And papers have been reporting that a deal for Pogba could include a part exchange including Toure, Nasri, Jovetic or Dzeko. Maybe even a combination of these.
One thing is certain, though. City need a refresh. They can’t afford to simply add players to the squad as they did last season. They cannot simply add another Fernando or Mangala – players who have warmed the bench a fair amount this season. They need starters, they need better than what they already have and most importantly, they need to be young.
Silly season has come early this year, but with good reason. City need it. We’re stuck for excitement in the Premier League, mostly because City couldn’t handle the Chelsea pace.
Chelsea’s little horse is the younger horse, and City’s is ageing gracelessly. It’s time to put the horse out to pasture, and bring in some new prize-winners.
Maybe then we’ll get a real horse race next time around.
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