2013/07/11 Day 10: Alternative style of football. Please live up to it…

Here is what happened in the last 24 hours:

• Richard Wright signed one year extension with City. He has yet to make appearance in the first team football. (Reported in Skysports)
• Karim Rekik has moved to PSV Eindhoven for a season-long loan. Good move and hopefully it works out for him. (Reported in Skysports)
• Gareth Barry to Arsenal? It went on for a while but Gunners are interested to sign England international at the cost of ￡4 million. Getting rid of ￡100,000 a week from salary space can be attractive for Manuel Pellegrini. (Reported in Yahoo! Sports)
• After Manuel Pellegrini’s first press conference, there is growing certainty of signing additional strikers within a few weeks. (finally…) and it is becoming apparent that City’s targets are Alvaro Negredo and Stevan Jovetic. Guardian and various news agents are now starting to report that Jovetic’s agency, which is same as Matija Nastasic, has now travelled to Manchester to strike the deal. As I mentioned yesterday’s, it is known that City have first refusal on Jovetic, as the part of Nastasic deal from last year.
• Regarding Negredo case, the deal is getting nearer to completion, since Sky Sports and BBC Sports concurrently reported that City are about to sign two times Zarra trophy winner. Despite strong denial from Sevilla’s president, Jose Maria del Nido, on receiving offer from City, Sky Sports also revealed that he held meeting with City chief executive Ferran Soriano on 3^rd of July, regarding potential transfer of Alvaro Negredo. With his replacement signed (Carlos Bacca from Club Brugge), I think the transfer is only matter of time.

From his first press conference he seemed to be more secretive towards squad management then Roberto Mancini, as he was often clumsy or even confrontational against media. However, he was not shy against challenge ahead of him. His goal this season (the minimum target, so to speak) is to regain league title and run a successful campaign in the Champions League, which Mancini did not manage to do for two consecutive seasons. He also promised more expansive football, which will be eye-watering stuff that could not be experienced under Mancini era. I just hope that his style does not wreck the well-built defense that he inherited from Mancini.

Other transfer news:

• No Higuain. No Suarez… Are Gooners going to sign anyone big?? Bid on Higuain collapsed due to extra ￡5 million demand from Real Madrid and Suarez was never affordable target for them. Now Real Madrid’s pursuit on want-away Liverpool striker growing, it seems they might have to look for different option. So far, all Prof. Wenger bought is Football Manager “sensation” Yaya Sanogo, (in my game, he averages 30+ goals in the league). Is it enough? Well…
• Southampton is becoming interesting club to watch. Since they managed to bring in Gaston Ramirez (whom I never thought to be suitable for the Saints, which was proved to be wrong), they are now getting inch closer to sign Super Eagle’s starlet, Victor Wanyama. From Celtic’s memorable victory against Barcelona, Wanyama started to attract various interests from big clubs, which includes Manchester United. With him, Ramirez, Morgan Schneiderlin and Adam Lallana in the midfield (and they are young too), I can see them advancing to mid-table team.
• Is Thiago Alcantara REALLY going to Manchester United? Since the end of last season, press from all over the world were so hyped to see son of Brazil legend to replace Paul Scholes and assist Michael Carrick, who single-handedly held Utd midfield together last season. Well it is already mid-July and there is no confirmation from his party to play for Utd next season and, interestingly, there is a speculation that he might be heading to Munich to join his former manager. So what went wrong for Utd? Similar to Isco case, in which he was persuaded by Zinedine Zidane, Alcantara was advised not to move to Utd from their national coach Vincente del Bosque, concerning his regular playing time at Utd (it’s a bit odd thing to say...). NBC Sports report that the deal is imminent and will be signed as soon as today.