Wednesday gossip from the club

Oh, what a night! City clinched a top-four finish, albeit via Peter Crouch's own goal, but amid the back-slapping and celebratory headlines this morning, a note of caution from a wise old head.



David Pleat, once Tottenham's manager and a highly-respected, old-school football man, was not overly impressed by the Blues performance and says the Champions League will demand more.

It was, in truth, a long way from being City's best display, and Pleat writes on guardian.co.uk: "On this showing Manchester City will have to improve considerably to make strides in Europe next season. They escaped a long period of playing second fiddle to a smoother-passing Tottenham side.

"Spurs did not create the chances to reflect their dominance of possession but they embarrassed City with the sheer amount of ball they enjoyed. Perhaps City had one eye on Wembley. Maybe they were nervous."

But he also notes: "Carlos Tevez's late introduction added imagination and the right attitude to close down opponents early. He sets an example to his colleagues and his industry and enthusiasm needs to rub off on them.

"City lacked an organised shape and support for one another. Roberto Mancini showed his concern when he sent on Patrick Vieira for Adam Johnson. They needed a more solid base, more tackles and more oomph. When he came on they slowly escaped their straitjacket and their frayed nerves."

Phew! He pulls no punches, the manager who once cavorted across the Maine Road pitch as his Luton saved themselves from relegation. But City can already play much better than this, David ...

Even so, reinforcements will doubtless arrive this summer, and espn.co.uk reckon that Roberto has set his sights on the "mind-blowing signings" (copyright H Redknapp) of Cesc Fabregas and Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

They report: "The Italian has insisted there are roles at the club for Mario Balotelli and Edin Dzeko, but he is also looking at recruits.

"He was asked which player would turn City into champions and rather than roll out the stock answer of Lionel Messi, he simply stated: 'Cesc Fabregas'.

"Arsenal resisted efforts from Barcelona to prise their captain away from the Emirates Stadium last summer, but with another season without silverware the focus may be on Fabregas again.

"Ibrahimovic worked under Mancini in Italy and he may be available, having been sent on loan to AC Milan by Barcelona. 'If Zlatan wants to come to City, I would immediately find a place for him,' Mancini said.

He's never told us that, by the way. But we did know that Carlos Tevez wanted to go to Italy. The skipper put in a transfer request in January but ended up staying.

Yahoo.com now reports: "Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini concedes Carlos Tevez wants to move to Italy.

"Tevez has been linked with Inter Milan and Juventus in recent weeks, while he is also a big money target for Jose Mourinho's Real Madrid.

"Mancini admitted yesterday: 'In December we learned from Carlos that he would like to go and play in Italy. If he changes his mind, however, we would be pleased to have him stay with us.'"

Read it again. Is that actually non-news, or is it just us? Right, we'll get our coats ...

Pleat was right, imo City were poor (in the 2nd half) but i suppose the Cup Final and nerves played a big part. Improvement and investment is without doubt needed for next season though.
I'm still not convinced by Dzeko yet, last night he failed to control or hold up easy balls into him and for the love of god stay up field and stop giving away stupid freekicks in dangerous areas.

Perhaps i've not seen enough of Ibrahimovic but on what i have seen he's been garbage and i for 1 hope City don't sign him or even worse swap him for the departing Tevez. Fabregas would be a top signing (if he came), but could you play him and Silva together? Yeah, i reckon you could.

My main concern with Fab would be his injury record, its not been good with either Spain or Arsenal. Fully fit yes, but I think we would need convincing.

Pleat talks bollocks and always has. There was a 15 minute spell in the 2nd half when City lost their organisation a little but apart from that Spuds offered nothing - Of course the players had " One eye on the Cup Final".

If we're going to sign anyone, we should be pulling all the stops out to get Modric.

Has Pleat still got that shit suit i wonder? Fucking horrible little man.

Don't think Fabregas would come to us, but it would be funny to see the Goons fans going mental if he did.

15 minutes Boris? City were 2nd best vitually all of the 2nd half.

I'm not saying the Spuds were deserving of any goals or a result here but it was us relying on occassional breakaways, not them.

Anyway, a win's a win and that's all that matters.

They were Shaken, but City were still containing them with ease apart from that blip that saw Richards covring for Kolarov at one stage and a bit of general panic. Cudicini would have probably been their MOTM if it wasn't for Modric.

They had a lot of posession, but I think our players seemed pretty happy to let them do so, we limited them to mainly long range speculative efforts, and Hart only really made the one save that kept us in it - Cudicini made two. I don't think we were run ragged by any means.

You're assesment's bang on grated as is Boris's, i agree with both 100%.

I just feel playing like this is a recipe for disaster and asking for trouble (as at Everton), RM has to get them playing for 90minutes and not 45.
The successful teams (ie: The Rags & Chelski) play at a decent pace and tempo throughout the game and imo RM needs to adopt this approach asap, that's all fellas.

David pleat can shove his hush puppies right up his arse the bitter tosspot.
For someone who's been employed in football all his life,he seems to understand very little.As soon as city enter the champions league it's like swapping shopping at tescos to waitrose(far better than the Lidl of yesteryear)and this time next year it will be a vastly different side than last nights.Up until now we've had to buy players from the level below the top and now can seriously challenge for the world class players who wouldn't come and play Europa league.
I thought we allowed spuds possession and concentrated on keeping the shape which in the main they did.Djecko and Johnson had poor games and I think you only realise how effective Gareth Barry is when he's not there.Can't see Carlos starting at Wembley,he looked livid on the touchline when he was told to put his bib back on and I thought it was Mancini demonstrating who was in charge,and to be honest I thought he was right to do so.If he's off at the end of the season as looks likely,then I'd rather play players who have ambitions to be at the club rather than give him the opportunity of a facup winners medal which he didn't get when he played for the ragshit.

Hmm...i agree with most on here. I personally thought Spurs dominated our midfield for long periods of the game (80%) of it....but apart from the shot which skimmed past the post and a great save from Hart - it pretty mounted to nothing......and considering the free-flowing football bollocks that Pleat, the failed manager, stated Spurs play......i'm sure Harry would've been a little pissed off about the way they delivered fuck all in the final 3rd.

Remember - Dzeko should have tucked his chance away, Viera should have scored, so would have a match fit Tevez at the end......so all in all, 4-0 would have been pretty harsh on Spurs.......but who gives a fuck??? 4th and Champions League Football next season.....CAN'T WAIT FOR THE SUMMER SIGNINGS!!!!

We've done that a lot recently, gone one up and then allowed the opposition to come on at us. Spuds, Blackburn, West Ham, only bad example is Everton where we did it and it all went tits up. It's not because the opposition are better than us, I just think Mancini genuinely likes to get an early goal and then shut up shop for the rest of the game, only problem is our defence isn't quite strong enough to do that at the moment, and it leaves us fans shitting ourselves for most of the match.

Oh yeah and I hope we don't get Ibrahimovic - just another Adebayor really.