Well the season is over and the summer transfer is upon us. With City expected to move on a number of players, Mancini has the opportunity to strengthen the squad for next seasons title tilt and champions league push.
But where do City need strengthening? If Tevez stays and Balotelli and Ezekiel benefit from a good pre-season I would suggest we need one more quality striker as the likes of Bellamy, Santa Cruz and Adebeyor will surely move on. Higuan from Madrid is reported to be available at a knock down price of £15M. There is Javier Pastore who is an exciting and young player who would seem to fit the Mancini way of buying young exciting talent.
In midfield, Silva has been key to City’s success of last season, but he cannot play every game next year and with upwards of sixty games a possibility, we need to strengthen in this position. Wesley Schneider is one player who would fit the bill or maybe Luca Modric from Spurs if old Harry can be tempted with Bellamy or Given part of the deal.
Johnson’s second half of the season was poor by anyone’s standards and good preseason or not, unless his attitude changes, he won`t play every game. We have been linked with Sanchez although word recently has suggested that City won`t be held to ransom for this player. Stuart Downing from Villa is a possibility to supplement our wide men.
The hardest position of all to fill will be the left back slot. Kolarov didn’t look good enough in my opinion and there aren’t many great left backs out there. Zabalata can play there but with no left foot he is only a temporary measure.
It has been reported that Cahill from Bolton has been a target for City. I don’t quite understand this one as we have four good centre halves at the club in Kompany, Lescott, Boyata and Toure (who will be back playing in September).
So in short I think we will see a Striker, an Attacking Midfielder, a Winger and a Left-Back coming into the squad. We will also see the departure of at least six or seven players and hopefully Jo.