City outgoing transfer talk: 26 July – will Ireland make 25 man squad?
Much is being made in the press of Stephen Ireland’s future, however the player himself has stated his desire to stay till Christmas and see how it goes.
“I have read about supposed interest but I have not heard anything directly. Ideally I would like to stay here and build a future here. I am not going to rush into anything. I think it is best if I see what happens during the first half of the season.”
Hopefully there will be a place for Ireland in the 25 man squad, though it may need a quick upturn in form to fully convince Mancini. If Milner joins Silva and Balotelli is seen as someone who can play the flanks, then it becomes difficult to see places for both Bellamy and Ireland in the squad.
Mancini has confirmed Robinho doesn’t want to return, and it will be interesting to see what happens with the Brazilian. Could a deal for Ibrahimovic still be on the cards? Christian Larrson claims the Swede has unofficially been put up for sale by Barca.
“I don’t know about Robinho’s situation because he doesn’t want to come back.”
With the majority of signings having been made, attention is starting to turn to the 25 man squad. Mancini spelled this out, in case it wasn’t clear enough to any of our fringe players.
“I have now, with all the new signings, 30 players. It is important that we get to the start of the season with only 25 players because that is the number of names we can put on the list.
“It is better for me and the other players who are not on the list that they go to another team. I think it is better for the extra that they go rather than staying and not playing. That would be a big problem, for the players and for us.”
Nithin
26 July 2010 - 1:56 pm
Last season, city forced their captain dunne out of the club. This time its gonna be Ireland and Bellamy, though they gave their efforts for the club whole heartedly. Money can buy stars ,not loyal players.
The Truth
26 July 2010 - 2:13 pm
Absolute disgrace if we let this artist of a footballer. Get shut of Barry, Zabaleta, Vieira & Richards if we need too they’re charlatans or past it.
Mack
26 July 2010 - 4:45 pm
This is about the Club not the player. Though he is a player with great potential but in the end everything comes to the player’s hard work to materialize those potentials. Unfortunately, Ireland has been off his game during last season and with the amount of investment the club is making, this is something that can not be afforded. Glory does not come for free, not only you do need to invest, but also you do need to make sacrifices that are painful like this one
man city fan
26 July 2010 - 5:51 pm
if it was up to me i would have sold SWP-RSC-garrido-onuoha-jo-robinho-etuhu-caicedo-
loan out m.johnson-weiss-ibrahim-ireland
Blue Moon Rising
2 August 2010 - 11:53 am
There’s no way Ireland should be let go… He hasn’t become a bad player over night. He was by a long shot our best player just a season ago. If he was not up to the same level last season then surely 1. the fact that the system has changed which does not allow him to get forward as much and 2. a lot of niggly injuries meant he was never going to look as he did. I think Ireland showed in patches in the pre-season games so far that he is still our most inventive midfield player and still has a great eye for a pass. I’m not sure under the current system where there are two strikers played and two defensive midfielders Ireland will look as good as he did. It’s like Chelsea telling Lampard or Liverpool telling Gerard to sit in the middle and not to get to far forward. If this happend to these players they also would not get as many goals and assists and have such a positive affect on their team’s performances… If the system is changed so that City play with one striker (like Chelsea do with Drogba and Liverpool do with Torres – when fit) then Ireland is up there with Lampard and Gerard…