Manchester City: Terry's All Gold?

Manchester City was quickly out of the metaphorical spending blocks this summer and set up purchases of Gareth Barry for £12m (2 June 2009) and Roque Santa Cruz for £17.5m (22 June 2009) before the notional opening of the window on the traditional contract renewal date of 1 July. Also with Joe Hart loaned out to Birmingham for the season a couple of reserve 'keepers in Stuart Taylor and Gunnar Nielsen have been brought in as cover for Shay Given. These signings, like the ones in January of Shay Given (£8m), Nigel de Jong (£16m), Wayne Bridge (£12m) and Craig Bellamy (£14m) look like sound investments for a club intent on breaking into the top six - but are not the marquee signings that would suggest that a top four finish was more than reasonably possible.

City still has an eye on four £20m+ signings which could see Arsenal, especially, anxiously glancing over its shoulder. The most likely of these signings is the hyper-active Carlos Tevez, who looks a bit expensive at £25m, but has three seasons of Premier League experience and works harder than most imported forwards. But his league goal return in the last three seasons of 7, 13 and 6 after 68 starts and 21 substitute appearances needs some improvement.

Secondly Samuel Eto'o from Barcelona could offer goals but there is a reason that such a prolific and quality forward is available for £25m and that is a temperament that makes Didier Drogba appear to be as positive as the unlikely lovechild of Davina McColl and Graham Norton. Not sure that Mark Hughes will want another delicate forward in the squad.

Inter Milan's right-back Maicon is reckoned to be the best attacking full-back in the world by some pundits, unsurprisingly Inter have quoted a figure of £30m to Real Madrid as a result - a figure that Madrid have baulked at, but he could be a sound investment for City adding a fantastic attacking threat to a defence that is otherwise, somewhat predictably, defensive.

Finally there will be the All Gold option of John Terry. Terry could conceivably be the catalyst that will convince Robinho to stay for a long time and other world superstars to join this summer. If the speculation in January seemed a little half-hearted (at least until the Kaka bid, which I think convinced a lot of people that City could seriously bid for anyone) this summer the lack of comment from the England captain is instructive. Chelsea don't have to sell, so the very fact that the speculation has been allowed to run on for weeks with no comment from Terry means that the transfer is a possibility as it is naive to believe that the Chelsea hierarchy won't have put enormous pressure on Terry to make an announcement to commit his future to Chelsea. Buying Terry is not without some difficulties, at 28 his type of defender may only have four or five years left at the top - you don't take so many hits for the team without cost- and his back does keep him out of a number of games each season. But his presence would be such a lift to the entire club that it would be worth an extra ten points a season. The speculation is that City would like to negotiate from a base of £30m, but would be prepared to break the incoming British transfer record and spend something like £40m to land Terry - as well as pay the man over £10m a season in wages.

With the Terry transfer still far from certain other centre-halves have entered the frame, Joleon Lescott (Daily Star, 2 July) has been linked for £15m although a couple more million may be needed to extract him from Everton; Lucio (Daily Mail, 6 July), the Bayern Munich defender has also been linked.

With so many first team players arriving there is likely to be plenty of outbound activity, with strikers a prime area for thinning. Vassell, Ball, Hamann and Mills have been released, with Jo likely to return to Everton on loan (Sun, 1 July), Benjani openly talking about a cut-price return to Portsmouth (Portsmouth News, 3 July) or Stoke (Sun, 6 July), Caicedo is being linked with Sporting Lisbon (Telegraph, 4 July), Richard Dunne with Sunderland (Daily Mail, 4 July) or Tottenham (Sun, 7 July), Gelson Fernandes (News of the World, 5 July) to Bolton or St Etienne (Daily Mail, 10 July), Craig Bellamy (Times, 8 July) to Tottenham ... pauses for breath ... Ched Evans to Sheffield United (Daily Mail, 7 July).

It would be unsurprising if City raised £20m from the sale or release of 10 or more players this summer and created a big gap in the wage bill as a result.

City should get Tevez, I'm unconvinced that Eto'o will enjoy the physicality of the Premier League so whether he is bought or not may not be crucial, Maicon would add an extra dimension to the team but John Terry would be the man that would turn a team likely to finish fifth or sixth into one that is likely to finish third or fourth next season. The City rebuilding is continuing apace and the momentum that is gathering is very impressive indeed. In my opinion, top six is now the lowest likely achievement for the club in 2009/10 and if Terry can be tempted from Chelsea then the expectation of a top four finish will be huge.

Manchester City, Summer Transfer Window 2009 (to 10 July 2009)

IN:
Gareth Barry (Aston Villa) £12m
Roque Santa Cruz (Blackburn) £17.5m
Gunnar Nielsen (Blackburn) Free
Stuart Taylor (Aston Villa) Free

OUT:
Daniel Sturridge (Chelsea) Tribunal
Joe Hart (Birmingham) Loan
Darius Vassell (Ankaragücü) Free
Michael Ball (Free agent) Released
Dietmar Hamann (Free agent) Released
Danny Mills (Free agent) Released