Wednesday gossip

Wed 19 Oct 2011, 8:48AM
Posted by Tim Oscroft

Sergio Aguero's dramatic injury-time winner eats up acres of space in print and on the web this morning, and there's a clever use of some more great news that emerged earlier on Tuesday.



There are match reports on the win over Villarreal to spare, but of course with our version on this web site you need look no further. Instead, Ian Ladyman's assessment of last night in the Daily Mail is the place to start and he skilfully references the return of one of British rock music's most influential - and much-missed - bands.

Ian kicks off with, "A member of the influential band The Stone Roses once said they would not play another gig until Manchester City had won the Champions League.

"The group revealed they have reformed and will play two concerts in Heaton Park next year before this encounter.

"The musician in question — the Roses’ bass guitarist Mani — happens to be a United fan. He’s had no reason to worry about City success in the 15 years since the band split and, with half of this group stage now behind us, he will not be too concerned that his team’s rivals are ready to conquer Europe.

"Roberto Mancini and his players may not win the competition this season but, given the progress made under their Italian coach, it seems inconceivable that they will not have a profound impact in Europe for years to come."

The Express' John Dillon makes a similar assessment, flagging up the differences between European football and the hurly-burly of the Premier League.

"In the long term, however this group unfolds, City will surely benefit from all of their experiences in Europe this autumn. They are here to learn and an awareness of just how rapidly European teams can counter-attack and catch out Premier League defences more used to the physical assault of English football was immediately on the agenda last night."

Back on a musical theme, kudos to Footballfriendsonline for today's Headline Of The Morning which references the frankly unlikely pairing of Sergio Aguero and Bonnie Tyler - "I Need Aguero, I'm Holding Out For Aguero Til The End Of The Night". Groan.

And of course it wouldn’t be What The Media Says without some transfer talk, and Barcelona's Eric Abidal is convinced we are one a few clubs looking his way. The Daily Star says, "The France star is out of contract in the summer and Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini is ready to pounce if no new deal is agreed.

"Abidal, 32, who would be available on a free transfer, said: “There are clubs that have shown an interest, notably PSG, Milan and Manchester City, but there have been no concrete offers and I can’t say any more."

I agree that this season is very much a learning curve in the CL, the 3 games upto now have proved this. We are a little bit short of where we need to be to enable us to seriously challenge the top teams. Next season (with a couple of additions to the squad) thought, i really do expect us to be pushing for Cup-final place.

Abidal at 32 seems to be too old imo. He'll obviously be 33 in next seasons CL, we shouldn't be looking to sign people of this age anymore.

shaken, we aren't far off where we want to be.

we were well on top against munich for 20 minutes but didn't score. we just needed that early goal and we should have been away.

we can get away with a below par performance in the league against weaker teams, but in the champs league we need to be firing on all cylinders.

I know we're not Dawg, that's why i said "we're a LITTLE bit short of where we need to be".

We've needed that early goal (after dominating) in all 3 games now mate, not got it and subsequently gone behind making things difficult for ourselves. This is the learning curve that i hope RM's taking on board.

i hope so too because it is taking its toll on my nerves!

i don't think we need more players but maybe some more collective experience as a club. tbh i don't understand why we need that because i bet those players last night have played over a hundred chumps league games between them