Thursday club gossip

Vincent Kompany's encouraging noises about wanting to be with City for years to come crop up all over the place this morning.


As ever when all the papers have the same quotes there will be a different slant in different publications. "The 25-year-old has been one of the inspirations behind City's charge to the FA Cup final and increasingly more certain challenge for a Champions League place. Having come so far in such a short period of time, it is hardly a surprise that the Belgium international wants to hang around for a lot longer," says the Independent.

The Star takes a more provocative line, reckoning Vinnie is being coveted by several big names from across Europe:

"The Belgian star has emerged as one of the best defenders in the Premier League this season following a string of faultless displays. Boss Roberto Mancini fears losing Kompany to one of Europe’s big guns this summer and is keen to tie him down to a new contract.

"Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Juventus have all been keeping close tabs on Kompany’s progress in the last six months.

"But he has no intention of quitting City and would be more than happy to sign a long-term deal with the FA Cup finalists."

He may be out of the team at the moment with injury, but Micah Richards has caught the eye of none other than the man who captained Brazil's best-ever side. Carlos Alberto, who lifted the Jules Rimet Trophy in 1970, has been waxing lyrical about our Micah in a Brazilian magazine, and the eagle-eyed John Cross of the Daily Mirror has aired his thoughts.

"To me, possibilities for him to become captain of the English national team seem a very obvious path for such a player. But to become the best in his position in the world would only fulfil the promise I saw in him as a 17-year old." High praise indeed from a legendary figure, the rest of the article is well worth a look.

Rumours of mooted departures from City have gone around the world, with the Bangladesh Star picking up a newswire story that Bayern Munich are thought to be looking at Jerome Boateng & Emmanuel Adebayor.

Its good to here he wants to stay and we ar'nt talking of cashing in on our best players like we did in the past, makes me wonder why MH played Kompany as DM for so long when we were struging to keep a clean sheet against Burnley and Wigan. We should be calming the Micah talk though, he had this pressure placed on his shoulders when he first broke into the England squad and we all saw how it affected him. I think its good news the talk is of the fringe players being allowed to leave, i was embaressed by Ade the other night, i thought the way he kicked players in the air was very childish and not the type of image we want at our club, even though the cheating cunts deserved it. The future is bright, the future is blue.