Someone please explain.....

to me, who targets the players?

Is it Roberto Mancini?

Is it Txiki Begiristain?

Does Begiristain try to broker the deal on Mancinis behalf?

Or is it A N Other?

http://www.dailystar.co.uk/football/view/299859/City-hunt-Navas-and-Reus/

For starters, any of us could write the shit we see in most of the papers and I bet some of it just comes directly from forums such as ours.

I think Bobby is supposed to say who he wants and it's up to Txiki to go out and get 'em.

I think that was Bobby's problem with Marwood - he couldn't get his first choices.

Tbh that's how i'd expect it to work.

I was still a bit sceptical, when i think back to the Sinclair, Rodwell etc, etc, signings supposedly made by Marwood......didn't know if we were going down the same path here with Txiki.

Mancini had his first choice list and then 2nd choices. I believe we couldn't get any of our first choices so had to go to the back up list and buy shite late on.

And Rodders was on the backup list? A player that Bob might have seen play five minutes as a substitute? I don't buy that. I don't think he was on any list, I think he was bought because of his reputation as a potential player three years ago, before his crockedness came into play.

I guess we have to give Rodwell a chance really, despite him not getting off to the best of starts.....he may well have been bought to eventually replace Barry, clutching at straws here i know!
We have to remember too, he's only 21/22yrs old, so we got plenty of time for him to develop into the player we all hope he'll become. The thing that disappoints me most though is his goal-scoring record, he's not scored 10 goals in around 130 games, pretty piss poor for a midfielder if you ask me.....i see how he missed that open goal at the weekend now

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Rodwell

True, Shaken, but we don't have a great record when it comes to great players with an injury history. I just worry that we've got rid of one Michael Johnson and replaced him with another.

Agreed leo, tbh i think we're all thinking the same.....i guess time'll tell.

It certainly will, mate. I just hope this is one trend we break now and he comes good, he certainly looked the business at Everton before he picked up his injury.

What i don't understand is why we never see any academy players getting a few minutes in the first team. Apart from Guidetti who i am desperate to see get a chance in the first team, we have, over the last few seasons, signed a few youngsters from a few different countries including Germany and Italy yet they never get mentioned again. Where do they disappear to?