Distin Exit Leaves Sour Taste

It was one of the worst kept secrets that ex-City skipper Sylvain Distin wanted out of the club to "seek a fresh challenge". None of us will be surprised that he's left, especially as he's come close to leaving several times over the course of the last few transfer windows.

What will come as a surprise though is that despite interest from quite a few clubs, including an 11th hour attempt by Liverpool to sign him, he's opted to join Portsmouth to pursue his dreams of major domestic and European honours.

Now with respect to Pompey, Distin has taken a big gamble in what at his age will probably be his last "big" move. I know that big Harry has done a sterling job to revive Pompey's fortunes, but as a manager he's got very little European pedigree as indeed do Portsmouth. It is a surprise therefore that Distin has chosen to follow David James to the south coast.

I don't blame Distin at all for wanting to move. He's been a great servant for City; a model professional, without whom, Christ knows we're City would have ended up. His partnership with Dunny has consistently been the best central defensive partnership for the last two to three seasons and we'll miss him next season for sure.

In a sense and now at 29, poor old Distin has wasted his best years at a club that's been in turmoil for a while, and with a recent string of managers that were never going to seriously challenge for any sort of honours.

What really leaves a sour taste though, is that a club like Portsmouth is considered a much better option for winning honours than City. Sadly, at the moment you'd probably have to agree, but that is a damning indictment of the years of under-investment and lack of ambition shown by the board; that's the thing that really hurts the fans.

His swift move and cryptic comments also raise some darker questions about City's future and the ongoing saga of the takeover. Like many fans, I'll believe it when I see it happen and I suspect there will be a few stings in the tail before it actually happens, if indeed it ever does.

I just have a bad feeling about the Thai takeover, especially reading today about the restrictive financial regulations for taking such large sums of money out of Thailand. Given that the ex-PM has a bit of a "colourful" past, it is by no means certain that the deal will actually materialise and it could all end up like it did when he attempted to take control of Liverpool.

So, farewell Sylvain and thanks for five years of service. He is a class act and Harry has again pulled off a bit of a coup. Personally, I think he's rushed into the wrong move, but time will tell.

Barton's Week That Was ........

Well there's never a dull moment being a Blue; that's for sure !

I don't really enjoy being negative towards City - honest I don't, but I have to say that Saturday's performance at Pompey wasn't just bad because we lost, it was more disappointing because once again, it's not the football that's particularly grabbed the headlines, but a certain Mr Barton is once again at the centre of attention for all the wrong reasons.

What is it about Pompey that seems to bring out the worst in some of our players? The infamous Thatcher incident doesn't need any more comment here, but how ironic that it was the hapless Mendes on the receiving end of what looked to me to be a horrendous and indefensible challenge.

I know Mendes keeps scoring irritating and outrageously spectacular goals against us, but let's hope the poor lad hasn't sustained long-term damage to his achilles. Was it accidental or was it deliberate? Only Joey knows the answer to that one, but the ex-player pundits on Sky TV, (i.e the old pros who know better) seemed to be unanimous in their view that it was no accident.

Whatever way you look at it, it was bad .... unacceptably bad, and I for one don't want to see the players in my team putting in potentially career-ending challenges. Rightly or wrongly, City are beginning to get a reputation for on-field thuggery if the comments I've had recently are anything to go by. I do however, expect our lads to play hard, but fair.

I'd like to see Pearce nip this one in the bud and leave our players in no doubt that future, similar transgressions will not be tolerated. In fact, all team managers should do the same, it's not just a City thing, but once again it's us in the spotlight at the moment.

The other matter that Barton seems to be embroiled in, namely being the subject of potential Police action for alleged gesturing, in my opinion is a total waste of everyone's time and should be halted immediately. What a waste of Police resources, and in this instance, I have a certain amount of sympathy for Joey as he, admittedly mainly of his own making, has become an easy target.

Whereas I'm glad City have come quickly to Joey's defence over the gesturing incident, I'm disappointed they haven't given out the right messages over the Mendes tackle. Whatever moral high-ground can be taken from the aftermath of Saturday needs to be grabbed with both hands, and quickly!

It's been a roller-coaster of a week for Joey. One minute, he's newly capped and the answer to England's misfiring midfield and then all of a sudden he's a football's public enemy number one again. It will be a very short England career if he can't sort this part of his game out.

In conclusion, I just wish I had something positive to write about the football :-(