According to today’s Yorkshire Evening Post, City have agreed compensation with Leeds United over the transfer of 14-year-olds, George Swan and Louis Hutton.
Their move hit the headlines a few weeks ago, when outrage stories on the movement of young players proliferated in the aftermath of Chelsea’s ban for the illicit signing of Gael Kakuta. Ken Bates had chipped in demanding points deductions for clubs taking young players, but not for the first time this has proved to be bluster from the ex-Chelsea chairman.
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Emmanuel Adabyor has escaped a ban for his goal celebration against Arsenal, at least for the time being. He does get a £25,000 fine and a two match suspended ban till December 2010. The official City site claims Mark Hughes was delighted.
Mark Hughes:
“We are just glad to put it all behind us now and I am relieved he will be able to play at Aston Villa on Monday night.”
“Manu was in great form before his suspension and having him available again is a huge boost to us.”
In the initial aftermath of the match and back page furore that followed, it looked as though the FA would come down hard on Adebayor. Allowing time to pass before the hearing today may well have worked in City’s favour.
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Against Arsenal it was initially his work-rate that impressed as we sought to keep Arsnal’s passing moves at bay. There was a decent opportunity where he turned and hit the ball at Almunia. This proved to be a warm-up as he took a second chance with a better connection to score his first of the season.
Arguably his contribution to the fourth goal was even more impressive. Tracking back and dispossessing Clichy with an excellent challenge, he turned defence into attack, sprinted upfield before laying the ball off for Wright-Phillips to score.
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The Cup gods smiled on City this lunchtime, granting us a home tie against Championship side Scunthorpe in the fourth round of the Carling Cup. The game will take place on the week beginning 26th October.
City did well to avoid any of the 12 other Premier League sides left in the compeition, and Mark Hughes will doubtless be confident of progressing to the quarter finals.
The Iron are holding their own in the Championship after getting promoted via the play-offs last season. At Wembley, they beat a Millwall side managed by former City coach Kenny Jackett. It’s often been noted how Sven’s side went downhill after Jackett left, and it’s interesting to wonder what might have been had he not been tempted by the delights of the New Den.
Given their recent promotion and respectable start in the Championship, City will be facing a confident Iron team, and we’ll need to be mindful of that. The prospect of a trip to Eastlands should excite them and I’d expect a few more in the away end than the 91 from Fulham. With all due respect, it’s hardly a glamour tie for us, and hopefully City will price tickets accordingly.
With Mark Hughes rightly looking to win the Carling Cup this season, it’s interesting to look at how the draw panned out for our potential rivals. With the ‘big four’ all fielding weaker teams in this competition, it’s hard to say where the biggest threats lie.
Sunderland and Villa both fielded strong sides in the last round and are now playing each other, so one of them will be out of the way.
I was surprised to see Everton field a strong side last time, given they’re having to cope with the Europa League as well, and it will be good to see either them or Spurs go out at White Hart Lane.
Arsenal always use this competition for their conveyor belt of youngsters, so it will be interesting to see how they fare against a Liverpool side that scraped past Leeds.
United have landed themselves an easier tie against struggling Barnsley. If City are going to be doing better in cup competitions, then it’s likely we’ll start seeing more of United. At the moment I’m quite happy to avoid them.
Stat facts: City have only played Scunthorpe 4 times competitively but have won them all scoring 21 times! Last time, Robbie Fowler bagged a hat-trick in the FA Cup in 2006. The only League Cup tie finished 6-0 in the 1974/75 season.
Check out video of Scunthorpe’s latest exploits on their BBC page here if you wish. (At the time of writing it’s showing their victory in the previous round against Port Vale).
- Do you have any thoughts on the draw, or memories of previous encounters against the Irons? (I confess I barely remember the Fowler hat-trick though I’m sure I was there!)