Quite rightly there was a celebratory air to City’s new sponsorship deal with Etihad. Early speculation guessed it might be worth £100m, then the figure rose to £300m and finally it was reported as being worth up to £400m over 10 years.
The structuring of the deal to cover stadium naming rights, shirt sponsorship and the new developments on the area surrounding the ground should enable it to fit within Financial Fair Play rules (FFP).
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With the Alexis Sanchez transfer turning into a saga of epic proportions, City are enduring a frustrating time in the transfer window. Financial Fair Play is clearly affecting the buying of players, but selling clubs continue to ask exhorbitant prices.
Reading between the lines, and there’s a great many of them, Sanchez appears to want to move to Barcelona but Udinese are set upon driving the price up as high as possible. Without Barca’s interest the Chilean may well have been a City player by now, but the appeal of the European Champions is undeniable.
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Today the broadsheets report that Roberto Mancini has headed to Abu Dhabi to discuss the summer’s transfer targets, with the intention of asking for more to be spent. Also present will be Garry Cook and Brian Marwood, who are believed to favour culling a few players from the wage bill before making a couple of signings.
City’s plan was to splash the cash prior to Financial Fair Play on young, quality players that will set the squad up for the long term and only need tweaking from now on. An impoved supply line from the Academy would provide future talent.
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City secured third place thanks to goals from Joleon Lescott and Edin Dzeko in a game which saw Joe Hart keep another clean sheet despite a casual first half performance. Bolton failed to take their chances early on and City grew in stature during the second period.
At the outset there were some unexpected changes in the full-back positions. Kolarov wasn’t there and Zabaleta was initially set to start on the bench with Boyata as left-back.
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