Profiles of the new signingsUpdated: August 28th, 2007
Name: Elano (Blumer)
Age: 26
Position: Attacking midfielder
Height: 5ft 8
Nationality: Brazilian
Fee: £8m
Signed from: Shakhtar Donetsk (Ukraine)
Contract: 4 years
According to Uefa.com, Elano ‘is a highly-regarded and skilful Brazilian midfielder who is happy in wide positions and able to strike the ball with either foot’. He’s got a pretty useful scoring record too, with 9 goals in 29 matches for Shakhtar and 33 goals in 131 matches for Santos in Brazil.
~ Playing record; YouTube; Wikipedia; Uefa.com profile.
Name: Vedran Corluka
Age: 21
Position: Right back / central defender
Height: 6ft 3
Nationality: Croatian
Fee: £7m
Signed from: Dinamo Zagreb
Contract: Believed to be 5 years / £39,000-per-week
The Croatian has nine international caps including the 2-0 win against England in Sept 2006, which he describes as his ‘favourite ever game’.
From what I’ve found so far he appears to be an emotional character. This story from June claims the player has been depressed recently and cried after a match with Estonia, while at the official Dinamo Zagreb site Corluka lists his biggest shortcoming as being ‘nervous’.
Corluka also listed City as the foreign club he’s most like to play for, though I’m not sure when that detail first appeared. He is also nicknamed ‘Charlie’, according to a guy named Tomi who emailed me from Croatia.
According to Croatian reports, City paid a £7m fee and gave Corluka a five-year contract worth £39,000-per-week.
Name: Javi Garrido
Age: 22
Position: Left back / left midfield
Height: 5ft 10
Nationality: Spanish
Fee: £1.5m
Signed from: Real Sociedad
Contract: 4 years
No confirmation on Valeri Bojinov yet, though Reuters yesterday claimed the deal had been agreed and the player had flown to Manchester. But with the player already thanking Eriksson for the move, an official announcement can’t be far away.
Name: Valeri Bojinov (sometimes spelt Bozhinov)
Age: 21
Position: Forward
Height: 5ft 10
Nationality: Bulgarian
Fee: £5.7m (€8.5m)
Signed from: Fiorentina
Contract: 4 years
At 17, Bojinov was described by one Italian fan as ‘the best youth player in Italy’. A year later, in 2005, Fiorentina paid £9m (€13m) for him. A poster on another forum believes the move was a mistake, with Bojinov ‘better out wide or playing off the front chipping in 10 goals or so a season’, rather than the 20-goal-a-season poacher Fiorentina wanted him to be.
As Bianchi appears to be an out-and-out goal poacher, Bojinov looks set to play a deeper attacking role alongside him.
~ Playing record; Goal.com profile; YouTube; Wikipedia.
It just gets better
First we pinch Geovanni from under the nose of Harry Redknapp, then we beat Spurs to the signing of Martin Petrov.
The Independent claims the £4.7m (€7m) fee ‘is likely to rise towards the £6m mark’, which fits with the Sky Sports story on Wednesday that claimed Spurs had offered £6m (€9m).
You can see his career stats at Sky Stats Centre (listed under Atletico Madrid). They show that the 28-year-old Bulgarian has a career-total 55 goals in 253 league games, including 12 goals in 30 games in his last season at Wolfsburg in 04-05.
Petrov missed most of last season after suffering a knee ligament injury in October, but returned in April and played the last seven league games, scoring once.
I’m also trying to remember the last time we signed a naturally left-sided midfielder. Riera was the last one we brought to the club in January 2006, though he was only on loan. I think I’m right in saying that the last true left-winger we bought was Mark Kennedy, who was signed from Wimbledon for £1m in July 1999.
~ There’s some more detail about Petrov at this Atletico Madrid blog, which rates the player very highly.
~ YouTube clips; Wikipedia; Sky news archive.
The most politically incorrect team ever?
News that City are to give trials to three Thai internationals made me curious about what football was like in Thailand.
A bit different from ours, it turns out.
This year’s league winners are the gloriously-named Thailand Tobacco Monopoly, who play in a 2,500 capacity stadium. I suspect the team might not even be allowed to play in the UK, given the restrictions on tobacco advertising.
There’s something of a gap in wages, too. One of the players coming for a trial at City, 25-year-old right back Suree Sukha, earns 30,000 baht a month at his club Chon Buri, which is just under £100-per-week
More on the new signings
Here’s a few bits and pieces while we wait for the others to arrive:
~ DPBBlue at Mancityfans has found an interesting profile of Bianchi which looks very promising.
~ The Portsmouth News ran this story about Geovanni recently which includes some of his scoring stats, and there’s another profile of him at Uefa.com.
~ No-one can agree on how much Geovanni cost Barcelona in June 2001. The News claims the fee was £13.28m, Wikipedia says £11m, Uefa believes it was €19.6m (£11.76m at 2001 exchange rates), while news wire AAP reckoned it was US$18m (£11.76m in 2001). According to this story, Geovanni was on €2m-a-year at Barcelona (around £25,000-per-week) but probably took a cut in wages when he joined Benfica.
~ This 5:27min clip at YouTube pretty much shows who’s going to be taking the free-kicks this season.
~ According to the BBC, Fernandes was valued at around £2m in April when Bolton were linked with him, though the £3.8m we paid for him is probably a fair reflection of the way transfer costs have spiralled this summer.
~ There was fun and games at Geovanni’s Wikipedia page, with changes been made every few minutes after he signed for us. As usual it’s all settled down now, but here are a few versions I saved before they were edited out:
Version 1
‘Geovanni is currently impressing at a two-week trial at the successful Premier League team Portsmouth FC. He now plays for Manchester City, as Sven Goran Eriksson signed him under the nose of fat Harry.’
Version 2
‘Geovanni went on a two week trial with the English Premier League club, however he signed a one year deal at Manchester City on 17th July 2007 where he will again be one of the greatest talents in the game as super Sven’s Blue and White army start to control Europe’
Version 3
‘However, he is now Sven Goran Eriksson’s latest signing at Comedy Central.
Version 4
‘He is now Sven Goran Eriksson’s latest signing at Man City - He would never consider a move to Comedy Central (Man U).
Version 5
‘He is now Sven Goran Eriksson’s latest signing at Manchester City (Gods Own Team).’
Version 6
‘After a short two-week trial at Portsmouth in July 2007 he decided to join Manchester City on a one year deal on July 17 2007. That’s one in the eye for ‘Arry. CTID!
Final version
‘However, after a short trial at Portsmouth in July 2007 he decided to join Manchester City on a one year deal on July 17 2007.’
Squad list updated
It’s starting to look a little healthier now, though I’m figuring we still need a minimum of two midfielders and three defenders for the start of the season. I’ve put the list in the Squad & Stats section and will update it whenever there’s a signing.
When City were poor (part 1)
News that City have a swanky new coach stands in stark contrast to Frank Clark’s problems with the City bus.
In his autobiography, Kicking with Both Feet, Clark reveals how run-down the club had become when he joined in December 1996. The players didn’t have enough training kit and ‘had to go scratching round picking up bits and pieces wherever they could’. The restaurant at the Platt Lane training ground was open to the public and expected to make a profit. ‘It was chips with everything and no thought was given to the players’ nutritional needs as professional athletes,’ Clark writes. But it was City’s team bus that best summed how the club had declined:
“The team bus was archaic and totally unsuitable. It was shabby and there were no facilities on it at all to occupy the players on long journeys. No food was available after the game, yet there was always beer on offer. It was ridiculous.
I set about changing things as quickly as possible. We got them proper kit and I explored why we had such an ancient bus. It turned out we had been with the same company for 60 years. I called in their managing director and he was amazed to find we weren’t happy. I reeled off our complaints and he said that was the first bit of feedback he’s ever had. He gave us a better coach straight away as a temporary measure and then set about getting one exactly as we had wanted. Beer on the coach was banned and we set about providing proper food.”
Newcastle ready for Barton
Browsing through the Volvo buses website I discovered that the firm have just completed a revolutionary prototype for Newcastle United.
Here’s an exclusive shot of the coach Newcastle will be using to transport Joey Barton in this season:
