The ins and outs have started at Manchester City

Mancini showing Robinho the way

The spending power of Manchester City is a worry for the other clubs in England. Whilst Manchester United’s debts appear to be over one billion pounds, Liverpool’s finances slip from bad to worse, Portsmouth just avoided going out of business and most other clubs are cutting back on transfers, wages and expenses generally, we all know that City have as much money to spend as they want.

Rumours

At the moment we are being bombarded by rumours about possible transfers but nothing is yet certain apart from the signing of Jerome Boateng. The news yesterday that Manchester City are shipping out three of their more experienced players seems to suggest that the decks may be being cleared for an influx of players.

Roberto Mancini will have been told in no uncertain terms that he is expected to achieve a top four finish and therefore Champions League qualification next season and he will have a shopping list of players he feels he needs to achieve that. There is little doubt that the owners will be happy to back their manager with the necessary funds.

Released

The three players being released are Bulgarian winger Martin Petrov, Brazilian left back Sylvinho and Zimbabwean striker Benjani. It would seem that this may be an attempt to reduce the average age of the squad as all three players are the wrong side of thirty and the arriving Boateng is just twenty-one.

Thirty-one year old Petrov has been impressive in his time at City but injuries have restricted him to just fifty-seven starts since he arrived in 2007 under the reign of Sven Goran Eriksson.

Surprise

Sylvinho, who is thirty-five years old, only signed last Summer in a surprise move by Mark Hughes but has, perhaps unsurprisingly, made just nine starts for the club.

The thirty-one year old Benjani made himself a hero on his debut in 2008 when he scored the winner against Manchester United but that was undoubtedly the highlight of his time at the club and everything went down hill from there. He spent last season, after the arrival of Mancini, on loan at Sunderland.

Mancini has enthused about the signing of Boateng on the official club website and is keen to stress the fact that he is young and can be developed.

“He is a young player who is already of a very high quality. I think he can continue to improve at City. He can play a number of positions in defence, which is important. He has proved his ability in Germany and I think he can be a very important player for Manchester City in the Premier League. It’s good for Jerome to have agreed terms ahead of the World Cup, so he can now concentrate on playing for Germany. I will be very interested to see how he gets on in the tournament, before welcoming him back to meet his team-mates in pre-season.”

Another experienced player who seems certain to leave the City of Manchester Stadium this Summer is Robinho. His agent yesterday was talking about how Robinho would love to play for Barcelona. So would I, but it doesn’t mean I’m going to!!

The agent also said that there were problems with Mancini.

“The relationship between Robinho and the board at Manchester City is very good, although it’s true that there are some problems with the coach, Roberto Mancini.”

Of all the clubs this Summer the movement in and out of Manchester City is going to be the most interesting. The arrival of Boateng and the departure of Petrov, Sylvinho and Benjani are nothing more than an appetiser for the main course still to come.