Daily Archives: August 30, 2012

Nigel De Jong and City’s transfer dealings- What is going on?

  By O-Posts Team | August 30, 2012 - 21:53 | , , , , , ,
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The sale of Nigel De Jong is an extremely strange one. Widely regarded as one of the world’s best defensive midfielders, Manchester City are letting the Dutchman leave City for a measly £3.5m to AC Milan. Hardly a good return on for a player in his prime, especially compared to the price he was bought for – £18m.

Nevertheless, Manchester City’s loss is AC Milan’s gain. A domineering defensive midfielder, De Jong is known for a hard tackle and his ability to throttle and dominate the midfield. In fact, despite his “dirty player” reputation, Nigel De Jong has only been sent off once in his career, in the Europa League for Hamburg – for dissent.

This shows a sensible player, one who can be relied on and for £3.5m AC Milan have the bargain of the summer. De Jong is improving Milan’s midfield and is someone who can more than live up to the legacy of Gennaro Gattuso before him.

So who will City replace him with? Victor Wanyama of Celtic; Javi Garcia of Benfica and Daniele De Rossi of Roma have all been touted as De Jong’s successor and time will tell (1 day in fact) whom City will sign to replace him.

What we can know for sure, is that City, if they do not replace De Jong – they will have weakened, and given their Champions League group, that isn’t something that they should be doing right now.

What has happened to City this transfer window? The departure of Adam Johnson has signalled the signing of an arguably weaker winger in Scott Sinclair. They have sold one of the Premier League’s best strikers – Emmanuel Adebayor – for a measly £5m, put into perspective, Blackburn Rovers are paying £8m for League 1 top scorer Jordan Rhodes.

The same can be said for De Jong being sold for £3.5m to AC Milan and Adam Johnson being sold for just £10m to Sunderland, less than what West Ham paid for Matt Jarvis.

Why are City selling for so little? Why are City letting players of such quality go for such measly amounts?

Brian Marwood, Manchester City’s Football Administration Officer, is the man who can be blamed with the calamity of City’s transfer window.

Roberto Mancini came into the summer with Thiago Silva, Eden Hazard, Robin Van Persie and Daniele De Rossi as his main targets, while De Rossi has a slim chance of coming to City before the deadline tomorrow night, City have lost out on every account while Marwood has taken FIFA’s new FFP rules extremely seriously unlike teams such as Chelsea, Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester United this summer.

Marwood’s reluctance to part with cash until the sales of particular players like Emmanuel Adebayor and Adam Johnson had left the club left City in an awkward position. City couldn’t sell the players, therefore sold them cheaply to get them off the wage bill, freeing up funds for new signings.

Hence the reason why City are going into tomorrow’s transfer deadline day to sign 5 players. Maicon – the Inter Milan right back perfect for Roberto Mancini’s new 3-5-2; Richard Wright – the ex Arsenal goalkeeper to replace third choice City keeper Stuart Taylor who’s joined Reading; Javi Garcia – the Benfica defensive midfielder to replace Milan bound Nigel De Jong; Matija Nastasic – a ball playing centre half who is also a perfect fit for Mancini’s 3-5-2.

The last signing, Scott Sinclair, is to replace Adam Johnson. Clearly bought to be a squad player, Scott Sinclair offers City pace, something they lack up front especially. It can be seen as a panic buy, but City are mainly buying him for the English quota and compared to many other English wingers (Downing £20m), Sinclair is pretty cheap.

Why did City sell AJ to replace him with Sinclair though? Mainly Marwood and FFP. His insistence to bring down the wage bill means City sold £90,000 a week Johnson to replace him with £40,000 a week Sinclair, saving £50,000 a week and £2.6m a year.

Some may say Sinclair is ruining his career but Adam Johnson even said he’s happy he had his time with City as he now has something to show for his career. Hopefully Sinclair can do the same.

 

Written by Henry Francis

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Blackburn the start of Jordan’s road to success

  By O-Posts Team | August 30, 2012 - 21:35 | , , , ,
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Jordan Rhodes

Jordan Rhodes has today finalised his move to Blackburn Rovers in a record breaking deal for Huddersfield. The bid, rumoured to be £8million, was Blackburn’s fifth bid for the Scottish international this summer until the Terriers reluctantly accepted the offer.

The 22-year-old joined on a five-year-deal as he aims to help Rovers return to the promised land of the Premier League. But the question is, with such a high fee, is he really worth it?

First of all, we must recognise that the £8million figure is the overall fee. It’s rumoured that the initial fee is £4.5 million with the rest being appearance and goals fees. If Rhodes manages to get the goals to help take Blackburn up into the Premier League, then the add-on fee’s would seem relatively small compared to the money they would bring in. And with Rhodes’s impressive scoring record, there is no doubt that he will help Blackburn on their mission.

In 126 games for Huddersfield, the clinical striker scored 76 times, a scoring record remarkable in any league. Since joining the club in 2009, Rhodes has scored over 20 goals every season, including 40 goals last term.

With six hat-tricks throughout the season, Rhodes went on to win the Golden Boot as well as the League One Player of the Year. His efforts were also gaining reputation in the media, coming fourth in FourFourTwo’s best Football League Players as he became heavily linked with Fulham and Everton.

Rhodes was rewarded with his efforts for Huddersfield and Scotland Under-21s (scoring eight goals) by coming on as a substitute for the senior team in November 2011. Then on his first full start against Australia in August, Rhodes scored his first senior goal. There is no doubt that Rhodes has the eye for goal at every level he has played at, and that has been shown by his two goals for Huddersfield in the start of their Championship campaign.

Rhodes’ signing adds to an already impressive Championship squad for Blackburn. With the full backing and money from the Venky owners, Steve Kean has been able to make some key acquisitions such as Danny Murphy, Dickson Etuhu, Nuno Gomez and Colin Kazim-Richards. There is no doubt that Blackburn has the squad capable of a swift return so the signing of Rhodes will give them extra fire power.

There will be questions as to whether Rhodes will have the ability to make it to the next level but time will tell. History shows us that players who perform in the lower leagues don’t always make it at the top level (Jermaine Beckford, Michael Chopra) but Rhodes does have the ability to improve into an all round striker. Rhodes has a fantastic eye for goal which at any level is extremely useful.

However, eyebrows will be raised at the size of the fee. It equals Blackburn’s record signing with Andrew Cole from Manchester United in 2001. For a club who have been in the Premier League for several years, it does seem strange for a record signing to be made in the Championship. Rover’s fans in particular will question why the money wasn’t used in the previous campaign.

Despite the fee being a bit on the expensive sides, you do feel that it will be worth it. Rhodes has the ability to score many goals in the Championship and will be playing in the Premier League whether it will be for Blackburn or another Premier League team.

If there is a striker to watch in the Championship, it has to be Jordan Rhodes.

 

Written by Craig Lishman

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