Friday gossip

The Samir Nasri story rumbles on, and there's a split in the UK papers as to how soon he may, or may not, be coming to City.
According to the Star, we're trying to give Arsenal the hurry-up: "Arsenal's Samir Nasri has been the subject of a £22m bid by Roberto Mancini's men, who are desperate to lure him to the Etihad Stadium before the season starts.

"But the Gunners are stalling in the hope of keeping Nasri at the Emirates Stadium until next summer, even though he can quit for nothing because he will be a free agent by then. City are losing patience with their top-flight rivals and have told them to make their mind up."

But the tone of the Guardian is quite different with t's to crossed and i's to be dotted over the weekend: "There remains a difference between City and Arsenal in terms of Nasri's valuation but it is expected to be ironed out and the transfer completed before City entertain Swansea City on Monday night. Arsenal expect to bank £25m from the deal while Nasri could earn as much as £180,000 a week at his new employers."

Several papers, including the Mail & the Express, reckon that a potential move for SWP to Bolton has hit a money-related stumbling block but the Star sums it up thus: "A row over finances could threaten Shaun Wright-Phillips move from Manchester City to Bolton. Although Bolton are keen to sign the winger, his GBP60,000 a week wages could become a stumbling block."

But with the season about to start, there are plenty of predictions over what City might do in 2011/12 and the US site Bleacher Report comes off the fence under the headline "Manchester City Must Certainly Challenge for the EPL Title or Else" - that's telling us!

It's a thorough and highly-readable article but sadly we're going to flag up the use of an old, and annoying, cliché:

"Looking at the Manchester City roster, at times I begin to wonder how it is possible for such a strong squad to not perform better. Could it be due to the mentality in the locker room? Or maybe the lack of leadership? With the team lacking chemistry, one certain issue for Mancini is... If you guessed Mario Balotelli, you were right.

"The young Italian still hasn’t figured out how to act like a grown-up and seems content to be an immature child, at least for the time being. With Mancini's options in the front line of Aguero and Edin Dzeko, Balotelli would be an incredible boost to the City squad, that is of course if he actually made an effort. His constant run-ins with his coach, his teammates, as well as his fans make him a serious liability at times.

"Regardless of who is causing problems within the squad, City owners will trust Mancini to make the proper decisions to take the Citizens to the next level. Is Mancini the right coach to put Manchester City on that next level with the Manchester Uniteds and Barcelonas of the world?"

It could have been worse - it could have been "the likes of..."

On the BBC website there is a very good interview with Patrick Vieira, well worth a look.

Just read it john, its nace to have an ex player with such a positive frame of mind.

lee, we are still his employers, so he isn't going to say anything bad about us.

I know boy but the thing thats struck me about Vieiri in the last 18 months of him being here is the positive attitude he brings and how this rubs off on the players.

He seems to be very popular within the squad, but as for rubbing off on the players, thats bang out of order and he should be arrested the dirty French twat.

Probably got it from Wenger