With City's Europa League group stage kicking off properly next week against Red Bull Salzburg, another exclusive group of twenty-five has been announced for the first group phase. And again, one ever-present of the squads so far is Shaleum Logan - who didn't travel with the team to the USA in pre-season because he was taking trials with teams in the Championship. If he is to be involved sometime, perhaps in Turin once everything is already decided (one way or another!), then it would hinder him moving to another club involved in the Europa League...
Which is not the case for Roque Santa Cruz. Lazio are the tipped destination for Roque and they finished a good way off European football last season, so this would not harm a potential move there, but there is no reason to exclude other potential buyers. This is as clear a sign as any that Roque's City career is coming to a close - and perhaps, despite a place in the Premiership 25, that pushing him out before the September deadline would've been the ideal solution for both the player and for City.
City have also been obliged to name a second list that states the under-21 players that can be available should City need them. The full list is on the UEFA website, but the youngsters include: Boyata, Nimely, Ibrahim, Ben Mee, Scott Kay, Vidal and Benali. The rules are slightly different than the Premier League ones in that the young players still need to have been at City for a number of years to qualify for this second list - hence why Balotelli needs to be registered for the Europa League and not the Premier League.
In other news, Balotelli has emerged from surgery and his doctor has suggested that a rehabilitation period of six to eight weeks will be necessary before he can return to action - continuing a frustrating start to his City career. It didn't take too long for him to return to the Italian papers either - responding to Milan President Galliani's unhelpful comments by singing Milan songs out of the window. Galliani protested his innocence:
"As a child he was a Milan supporter. This morning I sent him a text message wishing him good luck, seeing as he’s one of our fans.
"Now that’s enough, otherwise we’ll create a diplomatic incident! At the very least I’d like to avoid causing trouble for Manchester City."
If I was being kind to him, I'd suggest he realised this last part just a little too late!
To complete a bit of a rambling post, the 'news' stories circulating suggesting Atletico Madrid are monitoring Silva could just as easily read 'Press are eagerly monitoring Silva for signs of unhappiness.' When he signed, Mancini suggested he would need a bit of time to adapt to the pace and brawn of the Premier League - so substitute and Europa League performances at this stage of the season should hardly be a surprise. He is evidently an enormously talented player, with the right attitude as well, so, needless to say, it is far, far too early for people to be expecting unrest. The fact that the Daily Mail article I read it in was only three lines long says it all.
Think Balotelli should get rid of his agent - what a liability - also AC Milan should stop interfering. And as for the Daily Mail....the Silva 'story' and the one about Kolo and the captaincy too. City bashing again with no justification whatsoever. So desperate for things to go wrong.
ReplyDelete