Weaver Exit Signals New Era

I've got mixed feelings about Nicky Weaver leaving City.

Although he's not yet 30, he seems to have been at the club for an age and somewhat of a permanent fixture during a decade of constant change.

To be fair though, Weaver was lucky to play as many games as he did last season and had it not been for an unfortunate injury to Isaksson, he would have had another frustrating season on the bench. Although during the season he showed what a good shot stopper he is, his command of the area, particularly with crosses still left a lot of cause for concern.

With Weaver, young Kaspar and emerging talent Joe Hart all now fighting for that No 2 spot, something had to give and unfortunately for Nicky, it was him.

Whether Sven wanted to quickly cut all linkages with the City of old as a bold statement of intent is unknown, but nevertheless Weaver's exit heralds a new era for City and is just the start of wholesale changes to the club and playing staff, something that is long overdue.

I'd like to wish Nicky all the best and thank him for all the memories, especially the infamous penalty shoot-out at Wembley.

I think we also need to pay tribute to his resilience and fighting spirit having come back from a series of injuries and setbacks which would have seen many other players throw in the towel and give up on their football careers.

Good luck at the Valley Nicky - you deserved a testimonial at the least.

SWP Return To City Unlikely

There's been a load of speculation about SWP coming back to City pretty much ever since he left for Chelsea. Loan deals never materialised, but now with Frank and Sven almost at the helm City would be able to meet the £10-12m transfer tag that would see Chelsea offload him.

Much as I'd like to see him return, he's never given the impression that this would be an acceptable option for him and has been determined to cling on at Chelsea, almost to prove to himself that leaving City wasn't a big mistake. We know it was, he knows it, but for obvious reasons he cannot admit it publicly.

Listening to his Dad on Talksport last night, he pretty much ruled out a return to Eastlands which is a big shame. Shaun was a big favourite up here and illuminated many a dull winters afternoon with scintillating pace and exquisite skills. Most City fans, like me would love to see him back.

His Dad is a big influence on Shaun, and if he says he's not coming back, that's probably the end of it. I guess at the end of the day, money talks, but if his other options turn out to the likes of West Ham and Villa, he and his Dad might just need to have a re-think. Even so, reading between the lines, at the moment, I wouldn't put the probability of SWP coming home at more than 25%.

Good News For Sibierski ?

Not the fact that French Tony has just signed for Wigan on a free and will be playing alongside Titus Bramble, but the fact he is now spared the nightmare prospect of teaming up with Joey Barton once again.

It was Joey who famously said that City's French player legion were over-rated and not worthy of a blue shirt.... now hang on a minute, that reminds me of another soon to be ex-City player; now if only I could remember ???

In Defence Of Corradi ...Somebody Has to !

Poor old Bernardo has copped loads of flak in the media all season, but especially in the last few days. He seems to have taken over from Joey as public enemy number one, but as nobody else has stuck up for him, I thought I'd take on the challenge.

Corradi himself has also gone public with criticism of his manager, Stuart Pearce and clearly is not enjoying life at Eastlands.

There is normally a swift parting of the ways when a player publicly slags his manager off, so it is certain that Corradi's time in the blue of City will not last much longer.

City's lack of fire power this season has been a frequent source of ridicule from the rest of the football world and rightly so. It's embarrassing that with an array of international strikers in our squad, we have so far only managed a pathetic 22 league goals in 29 matches.

But, is it fair that Corradi seems to be taking the bulk of the blame for City's desperate form in front of goal; I think Bernardo is getting a rough deal here, as the situation is not that black and white.

True, Corradi has been disappointing in terms of goal scored, but whenever I've seen him play, he's always given 100% which is more than Samaras, for example. Corradi's failure has been more to do with lack of technique and application rather than just coasting around or hiding on the pitch like some sort of Greek tragedy (geddit ?).

Furthermore, any striker is only as good as the quality of supply he gets from the midfield. This has been a real problem for City in the last few seasons and with a complete lack of decent wingers to fire in crosses to the strikers, it's no wonder that Corradi ( & Samaras for that matter) have looked completely inept in front of goal. For Christ's sake, we have the tallest strike partnership in the Premiership and we can't cross a decent ball into them !!

Corradi may have stood a better chance is he'd have been picked in his proper postion as a central striker ( not drifting out to the right and left hunting for the ball) and if Pearce had picked a team and formation that played to his obvious physical strengths; ditto for Samaras, but I'm less forgiving in his case because unlike Corradi, Samaras just hasn't looked interested all season.

So, we're now left with an almost certain parting of the ways as Corradi looks to head home to Italy and who can blame him. This also means City and more specifically Pearce will kiss goodbye to another £2 million with the £6m spend of Samaras looking like it will also disappear into the sunset without any proper return unless something dramatically changes.

It makes me really nervous when I read that Pearce is looking for investment. Sure, more money would be great, but City haven't bought a really decent outfield player that has worked out since the days of Rosler, Kinkladze or Bernarbia. There are probably others that I can't recall off the top of my head, but the point is, it was a long time ago and my confidence in the current management making shrewd transfer investments is not high.

So, it will soon be arrivederci Bernardo ! In the end you tried hard but just weren't good enough, but I think you were also also a victim of the current management culture within the club and that wasn't entirely your fault.

Mido Not The Answer For City

It's been widely reported that City have tabled a £3m bid for Spurs' Egyptian striker Mido.

One the one hand it's nice to see City being linked with international strikers instead of Division 1 players for a change, but I don't really see Mido as the answer to our goal-scoring problems.

Last night's Carling Cup semi final between Spurs and Arsenal confirmed to me that Mido is pretty much like the two strikers we already have ( Samaras and Corradi ), namely big and slow. On a number of occasions last night, he got absolutely nowhere near good crosses and his lack of pace was clear to see.

I also have some nagging doubts about his fitness and temperament and his ability to last a full season. Our last couple of strikers (Messrs Anelka and Cole) were also known for being aloof and moody and I don't think having such players doesn't anything for team spirit.

What we're crying out for up front is pace, and clearly, despite Mido's undoubted talents, this isn't one of them

City's Latest Transfer Target Revealed

Stuart Pearce has admitted he's finding it tough trying to attract new players into the club; I wonder why ??

Reports earlier this evening suggest that a new signing is imminent, details here

Should stiffen up the defence ;-)

Barton's Clause For Concern

As this year's January transfer window draws to a nervous conclusion, it has once again proved to be an underwhelming month of rumour and general inactivity. Nothing much ever seems to happen in this mid-season transfer window apart from unhelpful speculation and general unsettling of players, managers and fans. Personally, I think it's time to rethink the whole transfer window thing.

Without tempting fate, it now looks like our "crown jewels" of Barton and Richards will stay for a while longer, having learned from SWP's badly advised move to the greener grass of Stamford Bridge, where he now commands a regular place on the bench. It looks like both have realised their chances of international honours are greatly improved by staying at Eastlands as bigger fish in an albeit smaller pond, but nevertheless will be playing week in, week out and catching the eye of the England selectors.

The down side from all this, is that it's now public knowledge that Joey has a clause in his contract whereby an offer of £5.5m for his services allows another club to talk to him. Although it would now appear that he'll stay this time around, he'll be viewed as fair game in the summer when clubs are more serious about new signings.

It seems that such clauses are now common practice, but why did City allow such a low trigger value? What were City's commercial people thinking about when with Joey's potential, they agreed to such a derisory valuation? If City are now considering waving a new contract in front of Joey, they need to ensure that any future financial thresholds are set much higher; we just can't afford to give our best players away on the cheap.

But with every dark cloud comes a silver lining..... if reports are to be believed, it now looks like Joey has parted company with agent, Willie McKay.... allegedly !