Further reports of a deal for Jerome Boateng

The M.E.N. has followed yesterday’s reports of a deal being done for Jerome Boateng with confirmation from it’s own source in Hamburg.

Neither City or Hamburg are confirming the deal, though it looks increasingly like Boateng will be the tall, young defender we sign. Previously we’d been linked with Simon Kjaer and Neven Subotic. Therefore this looks like a continuation of a transfer policy that was being formed under the Mark Hughes regime, and seems to feature Brian Marwood and Mike Rigg (who was with Hughes at Blackburn).

Oliver Kay reported earlier in the week that City were looking to sign some quality younger players to strengthen the squad, before going for bigger names if we secure a Champions League place.

There’s little footage of Boateng available, but at 6′ 3″ he sounds big enough to deal with the more direct teams in the Premier League, and ought to have decent technique if he can play both full-back and centre-back.

The M.E.N. also claim City are lining up Napoli’s Slovakian attacking midfielder Marek Hamsik (age 22), while Oliver Kay thought we were looking at Mesut Özil (age 21), the Werder Bremen playmaker.

This all sounds like an excellent and exciting transfer policy for the club to be persuing.

• Does anyone know more about these players?