Transfer Targets: Oscar Cardozo

The following was submitted by Kevez

Full Name: Óscar René Cardozo

Born: 20th May 1983, Juan Eulogio Estigarribia, Paraguay

Height: 1m 94cm

Position: Striker

Current Club: Benfica

Former Club: Club Atlético 3 de Febrero (PAR), Club Nacional (PAR), Club Atlético Newell's Old Boys (ARG)
Squad Number: 7

Club Career: 181 appearances, 106 goals

International Record: Paraguay, 29 caps, 4 goals at full international level

Did You Know? Cardozo is nicknamed "Tacuara" which in Guarani, a Paraguayan Indian language, means "big cane."

First Impressions

Cardozo is a big, strong centre forward who is excellent in the air and possesses a fairly good touch, technique and movement for a big guy. He has a habit of getting himself into the right areas and although he does miss some chances that he should really convert, he has an excellent strike rate at club level. Cardozo is an expert penalty and free kick taker.

Do We Need Him?

My opinion is that given as Craig Bellamy seems to play as a left winger these days we only really have Carlos Tevez and Emmanuel Adebayor as serious striking options which means that we really need more striking options if we are serious about challenging on all fronts. I fully expect Jo, Valeri Bojinov, Felipe Caicedo and Robinho to all be shown the door this summer and Roque Santa Cruz always seems to be injured or trying to get himself match fit which is not really of much use to us. Of course we have a pressing need for players in other positions but I can seriously see 1 if not 2 strikers being signed this summer as a welcome addition to our main 2 forwards as successful teams usually require 3 to 4 strikers to see them through a long, tough season.

The Likely Cost

Benfica are rumoured to have paid around €11.1 million for Cardozo in June 2007 – They acquired 100% of the player which has taken care of any previous co-ownership issues. Benfica are rumoured to not be in the best financial state so a bid of around £12 - £18 million should be more than enough to acquire the player.

Chances Of Success?

I think that we’re going to need another big striker as an alternative to Adebayor and despite wanting to see Santa Cruz succeed there must be some doubt whether that will actually happen given his awful luck with injuries. Cardozo has usually been something of an understudy to Santa Cruz at international level but there is no doubt that he would give better value for money as he seems to be a lot less susceptible to injuries and probably has a better all-round set of skills. Seeing that Cardozo’s agent seems to have been giving encouraging signs to the press today I’d rate this one as about 8/10.

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How It All Began

The following was submitted by BlueWolf.

It was the late 19th century – 1880 to be exact – and the City of Manchester was a grimy grease-hole where law and order was best described as 'not done very well'. The Industrial Revolution that had begun in the city, and spread Worldwide had put Manchester firmly on the map¹, resulting in many to come to this place to find employment at some degrading and unfilling workplace (not at all like today).

Trouble was that there were many that arrived that had the common sense and skill of a cabbage, and so for these men, their days were spent drinking, wandering around aimlessly, picking random fights and rogering anything that moved (again, not at all like today).

This turn of events had however not gone unnoticed by a certain Anna Connell of St. Mark's Church in West Gorton, who had taken it upon herself to propose that the local men needed something better to do, than beating ten tons of shit out of each other. She even pointed to the passage of scripture in Thessalonians 1, ch5, v7, that states: “For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night; and they that are buggered up the jacksie will more than likely be relatively upset during the night”.

Suggesting to the Church Warden, William Beastow, she surmised that the men's daily routine would be better served via the church organising games in the manner of a new and upcoming sport called 'football'.
And so it became so; the first and only club to have been formed by a woman – yes, I know! I find it as hard to believe as you do, but that's what history says. So the next time your woman complains about you watching the game, you just remind her of ol' Anna. Put that in your pipe and smoke it! And while you're at it, make me some dinner woman, I'm hungry.

Anyway, the team was named St. Mark's (wonder how long it took her to come up with that name), and the men finally had something to do. The first game was set-up and went off without much fuss, until they realised upon arriving that there was no-one to play with and that they would actually need some opponents; something that Anna had failed to realise initially (silly cow).

Once the confusion that had occured during their first game had been solved, the men that signed up for the team of St. Mark's spent their days practising this so-called football, and being preached to about the error of their ways. So successful was Ms Connell's approach, that it was reported that sexual assualt in the area dropped by a staggering 37%, although there were some that attributed this to the fact that the men were too knackered to 'get it up', due to the intensive short-passing and 4-3-3-1 system she had introduced.

It is worthy to note that from 1875 up until the incarnation of the St. Mark's football team, the church had played cricket, which of course they had been ridiculed by the nearby St. Peter's for playing a game fit for pansies. To this day, St. Peter's still holds their annual tiddly-winks tournament, and they are very proud of it, thank you very much.

¹ This was the first time that Manchester had actually accomplished anything noteworthy since 1439, when Horace Bogshaw had declared himself the reincarnation of a hamster, and successor to the throne of England.

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Transfer Target - Miloš Krasic

The following was submitted by Kevez

Full Name: Miloš Krasic
Born: 1st November 1984, Kosovska Mitrovica, Kosovo
Height: 1m 85cm
Position: Winger/Attacking Midfielder
Current Club: CSKA Moscow
Former Club: FK Vojvodina
Squad Number: 17
Club Career: 216 appearances, 31 goals
International Record: Serbia, 29 caps, 2 goals at full international level
Did You Know? Krasic was part of CSKA Moscows 2004-2005 UEFA Cup winning team, the first ever Russian team to win a major European trophy.

First Impressions

Krasic looks to be a very useful player not least because of his versatility as despite being primarily right footed, he can play down either flank or as a central attacking midfielder. He is very quick and looks a very tricky and clever player who can pick out an excellent through ball and a decent cross. On the evidence that I have seen he looks like he can certainly hit a ball from long range and if anything could be better at shooting from inside the box – An exciting prospect.

Do We Need Him?

As I said in a previous scouting report in this series one area of weakness in the squad in my opinion is the lack of flair and creativity in the central midfield area and Krasic looks like he could be a Kinkladze type player if employed in that role. The player particularly prefers to play in a central role than out wide. As it happens we currently look well stocked with left wingers at the moment although that could well change this summer but if we are looking to play a right footed winger down the correct side again then there would appear to be few better options in world football than Krasic particularly as SWP hasn’t particularly impressed everyone this season and Krasic appears to have the type of pace that Shaun once had.

The Likely Cost

There doesn’t appear to be any talk of a minimum release clause so I would rate Krasic in the region of £15-£20 million which would be a similar fee to what City paid CSKA for Brazilian striker Jo. I’d be guessing that if they are looking to cash in this summer that they will want the full fee up front rather than a clause based deal which was the case for that particular player who flopped.

Chances Of Success
I’d probably rate our chances of signing Krasic at about 7/10 as there is no doubting that he is a top player but that reason coupled with the fact that he currently plays in Russia will no doubt mean that we would face stiff competition for the player from several of Europes top clubs as he will be a highly sought after player at the likely asking price – However if a bidding war did ensue then CSKA would probably prefer to sell to the likes of City as they would almost certainly maximize their return on the player.

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Cook Must Go

The following was submitted by mcfcirish.

As the title of my article suggests, this is not going to be a Gary Cook love in; let me also say from the start if you are in support of Gary Cook and his policies, I am not bashing you or anything similar, I am simply putting forward reasons why I think the guy has got to go.

Now as we all know, Mr Cook is our CEO. He joined us on June of 2008 after a spell at Nike in the United States. As his profile on www.mcfc.co.uk describes, he is 'an expert at creating and managing global brands and growth' .However I for one struggle to find any good thing Cook has done for us. One of the first blotches on his copy book came in the summer of 2009, whilst on a business trip to the far east. Cook in his role of 'City Ambassador' thought, 'The name Richard Dunne doesnt roll off the tounge here'. Well Garry, while Dunne may have been performing poorly at the time, he was at the club an awful lot longer than you were. Also, if he was trying to help sell the club, why would you knock the then captain? Sadly, this would not be Cook's last involvment with Dunne, who of course was sold to Aston Villa on the last day of the summer transfer window. Dunne on international duty with the Republic of Ireland in Bulgaria at the time, was informed that the club needed to sell him because they 'needed the money'.

Next of course came the Kaka debacle: a player valued at something like £100,000,000. Now according to who you believe, City never made a formal bid but Cook released a statment on the City website saying no formal contact had been made, nor had a bid. But yet, a few days later, he appeared outside Eastlands talking to Sky Sports News accusing AC Milan of 'bottling it'. Now, again, I dont know if City made an offer or not, but to come out and say that AC had bottled it is un-professional at best, and childish at worst. We didn't get Kaka, but Cook couldn't accept that, so had to fire in a very embarassing broadside. Of course there was a similar story with Eto'o; another madly priced player, someone like Kaka, who City didnt need but probably would have spelt a paycheck so big for Cook he would have needed a new wallet. We did not get Eto'o - again, according to who you believe, City walked away first but again a pretty high profile embarrasment for us.

Fast forward a few months and City have just beaten Sunderland 4-3 at Eastlands. However, talk is not about the win but how Hughes' days are up. Indeed, at the end of the game, Hughes came on the pitch and waved to the crowd as if to say goodbye. Of course the game was up for Mark, and before the day was out it was announced that Hughes had gone and that Roberto Mancini would take his place. A press conference was called for the folowing Monday at Eastlands where Mancini was to be un-vieled. However, it was Cook who took centre stage, first stating why Hughes had been sacked and just when Roberto Mancini had been contacted. His version of events didn't seem to add up with Mr. Mancini's, nor did the length of Mancini's contract. During the whole conference Cook looked bullish and refused to answer all but a few of the press' questions; leaving more people, including myself, questioning what was the real truth.

Of course then there was the combined incidents at the Uwe Rossler dinner, where Cook referred to us as Manchester Utd and then at a pub in the States pre-Carling Cup semi final vs Utd, stating that we were going to be the biggest club in the World - forgetting that we had done nothing to give that statment a hint of truth. Of course we were beaten at the Swamp, and Cook's remarks made us look about as bad as I'm sure we were all feeling.

Now, my mind was long made up before the last two examples, but I had to list them as they were the most recent. I hear people talk about there having to be changes in the summer: players maybe even a manager. May I remind people that Mancini has barely been here 6 months? What I am propsing is a change of CEO. If we are to get top 4 and Champions League, there will be a much bigger spotlight on us and the last thing we need is someone undermining us from within. This is not an attack on the club I love but an attack on someone who I feel has constantly put his own shelfish ego ahead of the clubs needs. Cook has done enough damage, so, for the good of the club, I feel he HAS to go. Only then can we move forward and work without fear from someone, who lest we forget, is a Birmingham City fan.

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Hughes Vs Mancini

The following piece was submitted by Scraggster

This is the first of my "Hughes v Mancini" articles.

Here are the statistics about the amount of appearances and sub appearances made by Manchester City's players under Mark Hughes and then under Roberto Mancini.

Key:

40 - Forty starting appearances
(3) - Three appearances from the bench
* - January Signing

(Statistics are in chronological order and are from all competitions)

Manchester City under Hughes:

Hughes managed 21 games in all competitions.

Shay Given: 21
Gareth Barry: 20
Shaun Wright-Phillips: 19 (1)
Carlos Tevez: 18 (2)
Kolo Toure (c): 18
Wayne Bridge: 17
Joleon Lescott: 16
Emmanuel Adebayor: 15
Stephen Ireland: 14 (5)
Craig Bellamy: 14 (3)
Micah Richards: 14
Nigel de Jong: 13 (3)
Pablo Zabaleta: 8 (3)
Robinho: 6 (1)
Sylvinho: 4
Martin Petrov: 3 (7)
Roque Santa Cruz: 3 (6)
Vincent Kompany: 3 (5)
Nedum Onouha: 2 (2)
Richard Dunne (sold): 2
Vladimir Weiss: 0 (3)
Michael Johnson: 0 (2)
Benjani: 0 (1)

Major injuries (3 games missed or more) were sustained by:

•Wayne Bridge
•Joleon Lescott
•Robinho
•Martin Petrov
•Roque Santa Cruz
•Vincent Kompany
•Nedum Onouha
•Michael Johnson
•Benjani

Suspensions awarded to:

•Pablo Zabaleta
•Craig Bellamy
Manchester City under Mancini:

Mancini has managed 20 games in all competitions so far.

Shay Given: 19
Pablo Zabaleta: 18 (2)
Nigel de Jong: 18 (1)
Gareth Barry: 17 (1)
Vincent Kompany: 17
Carlos Tevez: 14 (1)
Craig Bellamy: 11 (6)
Micah Richards: 12 (1)
Javier Garrido: 9 (2)
Stephen Ireland: 9 (1)
Kolo Toure (c): 9
Martin Petrov: 8 (2)
Emmanuel Adebayor: 8 (1)
*Adam Johnson: 7 (2)
Joleon Lescott: 7 (1)
Wayne Bridge: 7
Shaun Wright-Phillips: 6 (7)
Dedryck Boyata: 5 (2)
*Patrick Vieira: 4 (4)
Roque Santa Cruz: 3 (6)
Sylvinho: 3 (6)
Benjani: 3 (2)
Nedum Onouha: 2 (4)
Robinho: 2 (3)
Vladimir Weiss: 1
Abdi Ibrahim: 1 (1)
Stuart Taylor: 1
Greg Cunningham: 0 (1)

Major injuries (3 games missed or more) were sustained by:

•Micah Richards
•Stephen Ireland
•Kolo Toure (c)
•Martin Petrov
•Joleon Lescott
•Wayne Bridge
•Shaun Wright-Phillips
•Roque Santa Cruz
•Nedum Onouha

Suspensions awarded to:

•Emmanuel Adebayor
•Patrick Vieira

Compassionate leave given to:

•Emmanuel Adebayor
•Carlos Tevez
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There is clearly a difference between the players used by Mark Hughes and by Roberto Mancini, and this is taking into account all the injuries, suspensions and unavailabilities. Firstly, the most used player by both managers is Shay Given which is no surprise. However, Hughes no.2 and no.3 are Gareth Barry and Shaun Wright-Phillips. Mancini's no.2 and no.3 are Pablo Zabaleta and Nigel de Jong. And then there's Shaun Wright-Phillips who finds himself behind the likes of Martin Petrov and Javier Garrido in Mancini's list which for a regular in Fabio Capello's squad, isn't good enough. And there's no excuses, this has nothing to do with his contract negotiations but everything to do with his poor form and attitude.

Another big-mover in Mancini's list is Vincent Kompany who had actually returned for selection 11 games before Hughes' departure. But Mancini has used the Belgian in virtually every game he's managed and sees him as an integral part of the squad. Then there's Javier Garrido, who didn't make 1 appearance under Hughes but has flourished under Mancini scoring a fantastic goal at Molineux. Finally we have Nedum Onouha who I rate very highly, but unfortunately for Onouha, he managed to injured at exactly the wrong times under both managers; when he was put into the starting eleven, he got injured almost staright away.

Mancini has also put his trust into the Academy's prospects, most notably Dedryck Boyata. I hadn't heard of young Boyata before he was thrust into the spotlight at the Riverside and was then selected to play both ties of the Manchester derby semi-finals in which he did himself proud. Boyata recently signed a new contract and is a very promising prospect. Mancini has also used the likes of Abdi Ibrahim and Greg Cunningham.

Then there's the January signings. Adam Johnson (who was probably not signed by Mancini) has really flourished in his 7 starts and has managed to thrust name into the picture for a late surge into Fabio Capello's provisional 30-man squad at the World Cup. Finally, there's Patrick Vieira, disliked by many but I think he may have an important part to play yet despite his lack of pace.

What are your thoughts? What do these statistics tell you?

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