yaya toure

Yaya Toure has confirmed that he has joined Manchester City from La Liga champions Barcelona after being told that he was surplus to requirements at the Catalan club.

A reported fee of £24 million will change hands as City at last make the signing that they have been chasing over the last season or so.

Toure will join fellow La Liga player David Silva who was announced as a Manchester City player this week. He will also join up with his brother, the former Arsenal player Kolo Toure who is now installed as captain at Eastlands.

City manager Roberto Mancini said;

“Everyone knows Yaya is a player that we have admired for a long time, we would like to welcome him to Manchester City. He has played at the top level with Barcelona and I am sure his experience and ability will be very important for us.”

The Eastlands club have now spent around £60million already this summer, securing the services of Yaya, Silva and German defender Jerome Boateng, clearly looking to build on last seasons disappointing fifth place finish.

David Silva to join Man City

It was inevitable that La Liga crisis club would have to cash in on on their two star players sooner or later, personally I expected David Villa and David Silva to move on after the success of  Spain in the European Championship.

But somehow the club managed to hang onto them despite the debt problems reported at Valencia. Things changed at the end of this season and Villa promptly signed for Barcelona (where else), but Silva has been linked with several top clubs including City and Chelsea during recent weeks and admitted a few weeks ago that he fancied the challenge of the Premier League.

I have long been an admirer of the little midfielder and while not an Arsenal supporter always thought he would make an excellent signing for the North London club.

But it appears that he has decided to join City, leaving his agent to negotiate the deal while the player is in South Africa hoping to help Spain lift the World Cup.

A fantastic naturally gifted player who pushes forward at pace, Silva is an exceptional signing for the Manchester club and if they can keep him fit he will surely prove to be one of the club’s most significant signings.

Harry Redknapp said that the achievement is a massive step forward for Spurs, who could yet usurp North London rivals Arsenal for third place in the league.

It was a deserved win for Spurs who arrived at Eastlands with only a win in mind, with two strikers and the likes of Aaron Lennon in their starting line up.

Given the strike power on show fans would be forgiven if they expected something more akin to the 6-6 draw that was going on simultaneously in the Scottish Premier League between Hibernian and Motherwell.

But in the end it was a simple headed goal from Peter Crouch that seperated the two Premier League teams, coming in the 82nd minute of a an enthralling match.

A proud Harry Redknapp said, “We came here to a hot atmosphere and got at them and we deserved the win. Crouchy was top class and led the line and he deserved the goal. I also think Jermain Defoe had his best performance away from home for some time.”

A pat on the back from Spurs chairman Daniel Levy followed for Redknapp for what he called an amazing achievement, adding; “Harry’s done a great job and we’re very proud of him and the whole team.”

Things were surely much different in the Manchester City boardroom where the least that was expected at the start of the season was to claim fourth place.

I am sure there would have been a wry smile on the face of former manager Mark Hughes on hearing the result following the manner of his dismissal earlier in the season.

Given his credentials Hughes’ replacement Roberto Mancini is obviously a decent football manager, but whether it is down to his command of the English language or not, he has never come across as being the most confident of Premier League coaches.

His substitution of, perhaps City’s only hope of a goal, in Craig Bellamy for a rusty Roque Santa Cruz last night was nothing less than bewildering and he does not convey the passion that Hughes has shown an abundance of in the past.

Maybe if Mancini stays he will improve things at City, possibly get rid of some of the players he has inherited for others that he would choose himself, but last nights defeat will make recruitment of new players a little more difficult than if City had qualified for the Champions League.

It has to be remembered that Manchester City are still relative newcomers to having massive financial backing, and while Spurs may not have such an enormous luxury they have been among the most prolific clubs in the transfer market for three or four seasons now.

There is a massive squad at Redknapp’s disposal and it is worth bearing in mind that Robbie Keane, Jamie O’Hara and Alan Hutton are all still Spurs players who are currently out on loan.

Overall it is great to see the ‘top four’ dominance broken down and maybe a top six emerging making for an even more competitive and entertaining season to come in August.

Back in August 2009, Burnley caused the first shock of the 2009/2010 Premier League season when Robbie Blake scored the only goal to beat Manchester United.  Today it was the turn of Burnley to be on the end of a shock result.  A different Burnley, under the mismanagement of Brian Laws, defended as poorly as I have ever seen a Premier League team defend.

Within the first 7 minutes Roberto Mancini’s Manchester City were 3-0 up with goals from Emmanuel Adebayor (4 mins), Craig Bellamy (5 mins) & Carlos Tevez (7 mins) and a few Burnley fans decided to head home for an early bath. Several shots later, and Patrick Viera scored with a header to put Man City 4-0 ahead after 20 minutes.  Those Burnley fans that stayed decided to keep warm by clapping and cheering their side on gallantly, and the team appeared to respond by having a couple of shots on target, even though the Burnley defence still looked more akin to a primary school playground than a Premiership football team.

Adebayor scored his second goal at the end of the first half to give Manchester City an astonishing half time lead of 5-0.

As the Burnley walked  back onto the pitch for the second half, looking like Christians entering a lion’s den, the tannoy played Chumbawamba’s hit ‘Tub thumper’ – “I get knocked down, but I get up again!”

The second half began with Burnley on the offensive though the waterlogged pitch was now making hard work of any good quality football; and when Vincent Kompany made it 6-0 after 57 minutes, Burnley’s attempt at giving their supporters anything to cheer about, fell flat.

It took 71 minutes for Burnley to carve the Man City defence apart and a humongous cheer erupted as Steven Fletcher’s shot passed Shay Given and hit the back of the net, to make the score 6-1.

Another hatful of goals on the same day as Chelsea beat Manchester United at Old Trafford to go two points clear at the top of the Premier League in what is turning out to be probably the most exciting Premier League season I can ever remember.

As the game petered out the tannoy announced the player of the match was Burnley’s striker Steven Fletcher. But this week’s sponsor was apparently not Moet but the local butcher. After a 6-1 drubbing, I suppose a pork chop is better than nothing!

Manchester City won the game 4-3 against Sunderland in another exciting goalfest.  But on the final whistle Mark Hughes appeared subdued, and after congratulating each of his players he applauded the crowd and gave them telling goodbye wave.

Surprisingly, Mark Hughes claimed on Sunday that he had not been told until after the match that was to get the sack and be replaced with immediate effect by Roberto Mancini, who had been in the crowd at Eastlands.

Mark Hughes went on to say it was agreed at a pre-season meeting with the Manchester City owner, Abu Dhabi’s Sheikh Mansour, that  a top six finish or 70 points was a realistic target for the 2009/10 season. After Saturday’s win Manchester City was in sixth place and on target to reach 70 points this season.

Furthermore, they had only lost two games all season. One to a last minute injury time winner against the current Premier League champions Manchester United (4-3) and last week to an inform Tottenham Hotspur (3-0), the best record in the Premier League Chelsea have already lost three games, Manchester United have lost five games, Arsenal have lost three games and Liverpool a whopping seven games – none of which have sacked their manager, yet!

They are also in semi-final of the League Cup.  Manchester City’s first semi-final for 28 years!

The fact that Manchester City, not necessarily Mark Hughes, have spent £200 million of Sheikh Mansour’s money is apparently enough to sack a perfectly good young manager who I believe this season would have finished with a trophy and a very real possibility of guaranteed Champions League football next season, which in turn would have opened the door for some of the biggest names in world football to choose the blue half of Manchester over the red devils.

Too many draws and not enough wins was of course Mark Hughes’ problem. This I believe was caused by too many top quality attacking options and not a strong enough defence.

Panic buying led to inflated transfer fees for Jolean Lescott and Kolo Toure when the lure of money failed to capture John Terry’s signature in the summer.  And to rub salt into wounds, former captain Richard Dunne, who was hounded out of the club by someone, is having a great season for Aston Villa.

Whether Mancini will continue to look for proven players in the Premier League or use his Italian connections to bolster a very weak defence we will see in the coming January transfer window.

Certain players definitely appear to have been bought on the request of Mark Hughes.  Rocky Santa Cruz followed him from Blackburn Rovers and Craig Bellamy who had always been admired by Hughes since his days as manager of Wales I would be confident in saying had Mark Hughes stamp of approval.  But remember how both Hughes and Robinho looked dumbstruck the night  he was signed from Real Madrid?

Fitting then that in what appeared to be a final stand, Mark Hughes left Robinho and Emmanuel Adebeyor on the subs bench on Saturday and Rocky Santa Cruz and Craig Bellamy both had a great game and scored three of Manchester City’s four goals.

Roberto Mancini has managed Fiorentina and Inter Milan, where he won three successive Italian League titles and two Italian Cups, before being dismissed in May 2008 and replaced by Jose Mourinho.

Mancini definitely has the right pedigree to take Manchester City to the next level, and with the astute appointment of Brian Kidd as first team coach maybe Manchester City are looking to emulate the successful Anglo-Italian  partnership of Jose Mourinho and Steve Clarke at Chelsea. But with several players – Rocky Santa Cruz, Craig Bellamy, Shay Given, Gareth Barry, Kolo Toure, Nigel De Jong, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Stephen Ireland – already stating how unhappy they are with the sacking of Mark Hughes, Mancini faces a baptism of fire as he prepares to take over the reigns for three games in quick succession, starting with an awkward game against Stoke City on Boxing Day.

At the beginning of the season I wanted Manchester City to break into the top four but now there’s a part of me that wants them to finish mid-table and get thrashed by Manchester United in the forthcoming League Cup semi-final!

Both Wenger and Hughes were involved in a verbal confrontation throughout most of the game, bending the ear of the fourth official, with the Arsenal boss at one time moaning that Hughes had left his technical area.

Wenger was particularly animated, often literally dancing in anger on the touchline at every refereeing decision that went against his team, as Manchester City finally took control of the game in the second half.

The much lauded young Gunners were, in the end, no match against the experience of Manchester City and despite the obvious qualities of the Arsenal squad, how long can they continue without a trophy to show for their efforts.

It has become the norm for the bigger teams to field their less experienced players in the Carling Cup competition and Chelsea followed the example of the Gunners by changing eight players from the team that had beaten Arsenal on Sunday for their game at Blackburn Rovers.

Inevitably they too paid the price of inexperience, losing out on penalties to Rovers, with Paul Robinson the goalkeeping hero with a brilliant save save from Ballack’s penalty and also denying the youngster Kakuta.

The game should never have reached that stage as Blackburn really deserved to win in normal time, only to see Ferreira equalise in the final moments of extra time. At 3-3, Blackburn kept their cool to run out 4-3 winners on penalties.

Carlo Ancelotti said after the game that he was disappointed with the result after a triple half time substitution gamble put Chelsea back into the game. The loss of Kalou with 20 minutes of normal time remaining meant that Chelsea had to play the remainder of the game with only ten men. But he did have the grace to shake the hand of Blackburn’s victorious caretaker manager Neil McDonald after the defeat.

Manchester City will face local rivals United in the semi final, a classic in the making surely, while Blackburn Rovers will play Aston Villa in the other two legged game.

Liverpool look to be struggling to find their consistency and have already lost more games this season than the whole of the 2008/09 season.  While Man. Utd had their usual slow start that included a shock 1-0 defeat away to newly promoted Burnley; Chelsea looked unbeatable until they lost 3-1 and were completely outplayed by a revitalised Wigan side under the leadership of new manager Roberto Martinez.

That said, as the old saying goes ‘the cream always rises to the top’, with eight games played Chelsea lead Manchester Utd by two points followed by Spurs and Man City.  Manchester City And Arsenal (currently in fifth) have a game in hand over the top 3 which could see them both go above Tottenham, with Liverpool already trailing the leaders by six points with three defeats to Chelsea, Aston Villa and Tottenham Hotspur.

The internet is full of websites offering sportsbook betting on every sport and game imaginable.  But there is nothing quite as exciting and unpredictable a sport as football, is there?

The bookies pre-season favourites Chelsea, under the new leadership of Carlo Ancelotti they have been the early pacemakers. Their next three games see them travel away to Aston Villa, Blackburn and Bolton.  While Manchester United play Bolton and Blackburn at home either side of a massive game away to Liverpool.  A sequence of games that could see Chelsea pulling five points clear or possibly the blue half of Manchester breathing down Chelsea’s neck by Saturday 7th November, as they play Wigan and Birmingham way Fulham and Burnley at home.

I still personally believe come the New Year it will once again be a two-horse race between Chelsea and Manchester United but I do hope I’m wrong and the likes of Manchester City keep with leading pack.

Placing a bet on Chelsea is not that rewarding because the soccer odds are usually overwhelming in favour of them winning almost every game in the Premier League.  That said whatever the odds for Chelsea to win their next three Premier League games and remain at the top of the Premiership, for the time being at least, I would happily bet an accumulator on.

The 25 year old has been charged with violent conduct regarding the incident with former team mate Robin Van Persie when Adebayor is alleged to have ’stamped on’ the Arsenal players head. Manchester City have until Wednesday 18.00BST to respond to that charge.

Adebayor is also charged with improper conduct following the incident immediately after scoring City’s third goal, when the player ran the length of the pitch and slid on his knees in front of the Arsenal supporters.

A separate date will be announced for second charge to be considered and the FA have asked for reports from the Greater Manchester Police as well as from officials of both football clubs, in order to identify any supporters involved in violent or aggravating behaviour.

Should the FA find Adebayor guilty of violent conduct as charged, the new FA fast track disciplinary system means he would be given an immediate three match ban, meaning he would miss the derby game against Manchester United. This would represent a big hit on City who are already without Robinho and Carlos Tevez for that game.

Arsenal’s Van Persie may face a charge himself,  not for launching himself into the tackle that was designed to take Adebayor out, but following a complaint from a City fan who says that the Arsenal striker mouthed ’swear words’ at the crowd when celebrating his goal in front of the City supporters.

Tevez will definitely miss Manchester City’s game against Arsenal this weekend, but Mark Hughes has been told that the player may be out of action for up to three weeks although they are obviously hoping it will be less.

“We will do everything in our power to get him fit because, for obvious reasons, he would love to play in that match,” said Hughes.

Another City player who featured in the same international game as Tevez but on the opposing team, Robinho is also a doubt for the Arsenal clash with a swollen ankle. Precautionary scans are being undertaken before a decision is made as to whether the Brazilian striker is fit enough to be included in the team.

That spells out bad news for Chelsea’s Premier League rivals Manchester United who have recently threatened to sue the French club Le Havre over similar allegations of inducements to the parents of Paul Pogba, to bring the player to the UK.

Perhaps assuming that attack is the best form of defence United have become quite verbal over the allegations since the ban was placed on Chelsea. However the Premier League champions are likely to face similar charges from Italian club Fiorentina who are currently considering making a formal complaint over the signing of 16 year old Michele Fornasier.

They may still face charges over the signings of  Federico Macheda who joined from Lazio when he was 16, and another defender, Alberto Massacci, signed from Empoli this summer.

Manchester City are the latest Premier League club to be accused of wrong doing, in their 2008 signing of Jeremy Helan from another French club, Rennes who have confirmed that they have made a formal complaint to FIFA.

Sepp Blatter says the recent action taken against Chelsea is just the start:

“We have to protect the young players. There are many cases on our desk at FIFA. We have one we have settled but there are clubs looking at their books who have already announced that such and such player has no contract with them or is an amateur.

The case we decided was one with a player going from France to England. The clubs take 14 or 15-year-olds and say their parents are coming with them. But they don’t and the players are placed with other families. Then what happens to these players?

Only one in 15 or 20 goes through, so we have to protect them and their futures. Most of these cases we have are from Africa to Europe or South America to Europe. The president of the Brazilian Federation even told me recently I have to stop the exodus of young players.”