Back to work at last Blues. There is relief in the air now that those dazzling new sky blue shirts have finally seen some action after er, a quite Frankly agonising two months.
There is room for cautious optimism as July continues. Following City’s steady win at Doncaster’s media swamped Keepmoat Stadium, the long awaited friendly fixtures continue with Swedes, Shrews and Spaniards on the agenda. I am pleased to see that the squad will not be flying halfway around the world before the Upton Park opener but I sense that will change in the summers to come…
…and what of the squad? Well, SGE will know only too well that it is wafer thin and to his credit he has given the remains of The Stuart Pearce Collective a run out alongside our Academy graduates. It could be that with the the new season starting inside one month, not many more personnel will be shown the door in an effort to bolster the ranks and guard some sort of depth and cover. We shall see whether some of our infamous mercenaries are given a clean slate or a bevvy in the last chance Blue Moon saloon. The fact that SGE doubled the training after his first assessment of the squad was the action of a manager who means business.
Alongside his positive view of the MCFC Academy, Svennis has openly put the accent on youth potential for his first two signings. Rolando Bianchi has bagged a few in Italy which is no mean feat and the promising Swiss Under 21 skipper Gelson Fernandes is destined for a midfield holding role. These moves will be greatly appreciated by a City faithful fed up to the back teeth with barrel scraping journeymen but a couple of level headed schemers would not go amiss…
…and the accent appears to be on a level headed approach under SGE. He exudes a shrewd calm and confidence that we haven’t seen since David Bernstein’s ship stabilising interviews through the dark years. The contrast with Taggart’s smouldering fury will be interesting to witness next month.
So, following the completion of the management team, the rebuilding continues and it will not be an easy task. My current list of media linked signings this summer is going into orbit so I dread to think how many names those agents are circulating!
So far so good and let’s keep the steady as we go momentum rolling.
** Many thanks for your votes on our Goalkeeper poll following Nicky Weaver’s departure. The final count indicated that support for staying with an Isaksson-Hart-Schmeichel line up as opposed to bringing in a new ‘keeper just shaded it by the odd percent.**
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