Monday Gossip

It may ‘only’ have been in a pre-season game, but David Silva’s sublime display against Inter Milan has rightly earned a plethora of plaudits this morning.
The Independent does a compare-and-contrast job for the mercurial Spaniard alongside Inter’s Wesley Sniejder –

“On the actual pitch yesterday Sneijder was eclipsed by the supreme David Silva. The Spaniard set up City's second goal with a glorious reverse through-ball for Edin Dzeko,” raves Miguel Delaney.

“No one reads too much into any pre-season tournament but there were still some real positives for Mancini to take beyond the tidy nature of the victory. For a start, the thought of Silva combining with Sergio Aguero – who was too fatigued to play – must be hugely appealing for City.”

At the Guardian, David Hytner enthuses about what he saw from Mario Balotelli at the Aviva Stadium.

“For Balotelli it felt a little like redemption. Last Sunday in Los Angeles, against the Galaxy, he had been substituted in disgrace after his attempted back-heeled finish went horribly wrong. Mancini's rollicking was public. Balotelli will forever resemble a maverick but, playing off the left flank against his former club, there was plenty to admire about his first-half showing, in which City were collectively superior to Internazionale.”

Proving that it’s a global game, you can read more of the same at the Jamaica Observer, or have a look at This Is Nottingham to read what Kenny Burns, the former Forest defender, thinks of the enigmatic Italian. Kenny takes no prisoners and goes in with both feet, a bit like he did in his playing days.

Elsewhere there’s speculation about the future of Craig Bellamy on the BBC’s web site, in the words of Roberto Mancini - "If Celtic want Craig... he can go. Craig is a good striker and he can play at Celtic, because they're an important team."

As usual, when we give a side a good beating, particularly of the stature of Inter, Man U go and beat Barca, and more is read into this than our victory, which was more emphatic, if no less important for personal reasons.

All the guff about Sneijder going to Utd, I think on this performance, he should be thinking more about City, than Utd, linking up with Nigel and David, that would be the ultimate midfield trio.

Bewar...did you not think the interview with Schneider seemed to sugest that it wasCity rather than United? I have a feeling that if the Nasri deal isn't done soon then we will go for Schneider.