Brian Kidd returns to City

According to the official site, Brian Kidd has taken up the role of Technical Development Manager with the Blues Academy.

This appears to be part of an ongoing overhaul of the Academy that has already seen Jim Cassell move to Abu Dhabi and Andy Welsh take over at Platt Lane. Kidd is understood to get on well with Hughes and he will be charged with helping to bring the young players through to the first team. Steve Wigley had a similar role, when he joined the club a few years ago, before going on to become Stuart Pearce’s assistant.

Having recently turned 60, Kidd will be bringing experience, rather than youthful enthusiasm to a role that will see him head up the in-service training of staff alongside the coaching of youngsters. Kidd is known as a strong family man, who has always sought to work close to his Manchester home. This was cited by Paul Hart as the reason he didn’t take up the offer to remain at Portsmouth. Over the Summer he was linked with a position assisting Tony Pulis at Stoke, and last week with the vacant manager’s job at Barnsley.

Kidd has been lauded as one of the best coaches around ever since his days in charge of the youth team at Old Trafford. He went on to become Fergie’s assistant and the rest is history at Old Trafford. He nearly left to become City’s manager before finally embarking on an ill fated stint managing Blackburn. Since then he popped up at Leeds, Sheffield United and Portsmouth, as well as being Sven’s assistant in the England setup.

As a player, he started out by winning the European Cup with United, but is more fondly remembered by City fans for a stint with us between 1976 and 1979. This was a decent City side, managed by Tony Book, that managed to finish as League runners up behind Liverpool in 1977.

Brian Marwood:

“Brian has vast experience at both Club and International level and will help maintain the excellent development programme we have in place at the Academy.

“As a top class coach he was much in demand when it became clear he wasn’t going to stay at Portsmouth and we are delighted that Brian has chosen to come and work with us. I know he scored nearly 50 goals in his playing days at Maine Road and is greatly admired and respected amongst our fans.”

Andy Welsh:

“I have worked with Brian before and he is both an innovative and forward thinking coach who is amongst the best around. The players and the coaches here are looking forward greatly to working with him. Brian will be a huge asset to us.”

It’s an interesting appointment that once again illustrates the top-to-bottom changes going on at City. Kidd possesses an outstanding cv and it will be fascinating to see what impact he can have.


Farewell Tal Ben Haim

It’s been confirmed that Tal Ben Haim has joined Portsmouth on a four year deal. This was a logical deal with the Israeli international having little chance of first team football at Eastlands, while Pompey are desperate for proven Premier League players to bolster their decimated squad. Throw in the Abu Dhabi link of both clubs owners and it makes even more sense.

City fans never saw the best of Ben Haim, who has struggled since he left Sam Allardyce’s Bolton. Aside from Jo, he was Mark Hughes first signing, and probably his least successful. There was talk that he wasn’t actually a Hughes signing, but I’ve never been convinced by that one. He was happy to leave Chelsea, where he wasn’t getting much first team action, and apparently took a pay cut to join City. How many of our subsequent signings can say that?

The Israeli came in to provide competition for places across the back four, but isn’t quite big enough to dominate at centre-back or skillful enough on the ball for a top class full-back. He made a promising home debut in a pre-season friendly against AC Milan, but from then on struggled along with the rest of the defence to absorb the demands of Hughes’ style of play. A series of individual errors compounded his difficulties, with a particular low point coming away at Hull City. After being selected ahead of Nedum Onuoha, a sloppy back pass led to a goal and Joe Hart being injured.

With the return to form and fitness of Onuoha in the second half of last season, Ben Haim went on loan to Sunderland. A move away from City has seemed inevitable ever since, despite some improved performances in pre-season.


Player ratings: Portsmouth v City

Given – The Irishman didn’t have a great deal to do, and his best save struck him on the shoulder, but who can argue with another clean sheet. Must feel invincible. 7

Richards -  Showed no ill effects from Thursday night and had his best game of the season. An excellent poacher’s finish for the disallowed goal. Let’s hope the injury isn’t serious. 8

Toure – The season’s best defensive performance had the new skipper at it’s heart. His influence seemed to be rubbing off on the improved Richards. 8

Lescott – Barring one Dunney style pass to the opposition, this was an excellent Premier League debut in front of the watching Fabio Capello. Commanding in the air, and patrolled his area of the pitch with authority. 8

Bridge – From being a  man alone in the left back slot last season, he now had Lescott, Barry and Bellamy all helping him out. Little wonder his best form continues. 8

Wright-Phillips – Showed the same graft as Thursday, but without the finishing touches. Needs to work on his link-up play with Tevez and Adebayor. 6

Ireland -  Held his own in midfield until Brown clobbered him. May not be spending as much time running around the Glossop hills as he hoped on the international break.

Barry – With better assistance from Ireland and De Jong, the Englishman controlled the midfield. Even managed a couple of Elano-esque crossfield passes. 8

Bellamy – Worked hard and came into his own in the second halt. The Pompey full-back never had a moments rest. However the Welshman lacked the vision of Robinho and crossing ability of Petrov. 6

Adebayor – Looks capable of scoring every game, and does! He worked the flanks, lead the line and showed the most quality of all the front players. 8

Tevez – Plenty of industry, but still to reach top form. Amongst the harrying, there were some fine touches, but little goal threat. 6

Subs:

Zabaleta – The Argentinian’s passing was tidier than Richards. Picked up his customary booking and to often looked like conceding free-kicks. 6

De Jong – Another late cameo from the Dutchman. Provided a steadying influence in the middle of the park. 6

Man of the match: Barry and the defence all had good games, but the goal machine made the difference: Emmanuel Adebayor.


Verdict: Portsmouth 0 City 1

Goals: Adebayor 30 mins for City.

Emmanuel Adebayor scored in his third successive Premier League game for the Blues to secure a narrow, but deserved, victory over a limited Pompey side.

The big surprise in the line-up was the absence of Robinho. Let’s hope there’s nothing serious amiss with our Brazilian superstar, who had been the subject of a 40 million euro bid from Barcelona according to Marca. There has been nothing in the English press to substantiate this, and hopefully we can get through to Tuesday evening with last season’s top scorer still a blue.

Craig Bellamy lined up on the left, and how Martin Petrov felt about this is anybody’s guess. With Luca Modric injured for Spurs, we can expect some more speculation in the London press about Petrov joining Harry Redknapp at Spurs.

On a more positive note, Joleon Lescott made his Premier League debut for City and looked a very capable defender. There was one Dunney style gaffe when he passed straight to a Pompey forward in the second half, but overall it was a joy to see a genuine left footed central defender finally replace Distin.

The first half was mostly perspiration rather than inspiration and those who appreciate the beautiful game will have missed the silky touches of Robinho. However City were looking solid throughout the side, with the workrate and competitive nature that was the hallmark of Hughes’ Blackburn side clearly in evidence.

When the goal came, it was a straightforward affair with Barry sending over a corner for Adebayor to rise above everyone and nod home. Micah Richards had one of his better games. The hurley burley atmosphere of Fratton Park seemed to suit him, before a painful looking locked left leg saw him make way for Zabaleta. The England U-21 international had been unlucky earlier when having a perfectly good goal disallowed for Gareth Barry being offside. The former Villa man wasn’t interfering with play, but the linesman didn’t realise. For once, a Michel Platini idea, of having officials behind the goal, would have helped City!

Michael Brown didn’t disappoint with some trademark challenges on our midfielders. Somehow, he managed to escape without a caution from Howard Webb. Stephen Ireland was the biggest victim, receiving a knock before half-time which looked to reduce his effectiveness in the second period.

Adebayor continued to look a fantastic signing, even beating full-backs down the flanks, to go along with his usual link up play. Aside from the goal, his best moment was going past two defenders in the penalty area before firing in a shot that was saved by the keeper. Tevez was industrious rather than penetrative and it could be argued that Bellamy’s pace through the middle might have caused Pompey more problems, as we saw in the opening game against Blackburn.

As with the Wolves game, City nearly paid the price for not adding to their first half goal. This time it was the final few minutes where Pompey had their chances. Substitute Nugent, with his first touch after coming on, chested the ball down and should have scored, but somehow managed to hit Given on the shoulder. Shay was then grateful to have a Utaka header land in his arms. At the other end Tevez was hauled down when going through in what looked like a penalty.

Overall, the defence looked stronger, and the team worked better as a unit than in any of the previous games. For the first time, the formation with just two central midfielders, didn’t buckle at any point. The down side was the way possession was conceded to cheaply, and we never found the fluency in creating chances that we had in the first half against Wolves.

Mark Hughes:

“All in all, it was a very satisfying performance, it could have been more emphatic if we had had the goal that was chalked off allowed. At 1-0, there is always that little doubt when they hit balls into your box late on. You just have to stand up to the challenge when that happens, and that is what we are doing at the moment.

“It was important to get a good start to settle everybody down. We are not making any promises about what we can achieve, we will just try to do our very best and be as consistent as we can. We have had the good start we wanted, and we have a good base to build on.”

Match reports:

BBC
Daily Mail
The Guardian

MCFC official site

Manchester Evening News
The Mirror

The Telegraph

The Times

Blog reports:

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