Mancini eyes starlet Poli

Stuart Brennan

March 09, 2010

CITY have added Italian starlet Andrea Poli to their list of "possibles" in this summer's transfer market.

The Blues ran the rule over the 20-year-old Sampdoria midfielder as they beat Lazio 2-1 at the weekend, a game in which under-21 international Poli shone.

City's Italian scout Barry Hunter was at the match, apparently to weigh up Lazio's 22-year-old Argentine striker Mauro Zarate and his Sampdoria counterpart Giampolo Pazzini.

But Hunter came away with Poli's name on his lips, after the £18m-rated player took the plaudits.

He is athletic, runs all day and makes late runs into the area - he says he models himself on Steven Gerrard but has also been compared to Frank Lampard.

He was also taking a close look at Pazzini, who scored the winner.

The 25-year-old Italy international has already made his mark in England, becoming the first man to score a hat-trick at the new Wembley Stadium, when playing for his country's under-21 side.

Shopping

Lazio's Argentine star Zarate did not cover himself in glory, getting sent off for a frustrated rant at the referee.

The 24-year-old also has previous in England, scoring four in 14 games during a loan spell with Birmingham in 2008 - including two against City.

The Blues are likely to concentrate their summer shopping in Serie A - but it could work both ways with AC Milan showing an interest in reports that Emmanuel Adebayor may leave City at the end of the season.

The Rossoneri are said to be already lining up a big-money bid for Wolfsburg striker Edin Dzeko, and fancy pairing him with Adebayor.

There is talk that they may be willing to part with one of combative Italy midfielder Rino Gattuso, erstwhile City target Matthieu Flamini or utility defender Kakha Kaladze in a player-plus-cash deal.

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Army Surplus Special, bringing up the rear. (09/03/2010 at 12:18)

good to see city's italian scout keeping this 'find' out of the media - his transfer fee will now have just tripled..

Drew Peacock (09/03/2010 at 12:32)

So Zarate is a 22 years old AND 24 years old. That is impressive!

M9Lad., ny. (09/03/2010 at 12:32)

Gattuso? Isn't he like 90 now? Maybe they need someone to keep Viera company at the Bingo.

ttp, grt mcr (09/03/2010 at 12:38)

typical.everyman including his dog will be attatched to city.its diabolical,when you see players that are good enought not getting the chance they deserve,especially in the best youth development in the world.

CTID

Blue Jazzman, Marple (09/03/2010 at 12:53)

Poli is reputed to be a box to box midfielder and we have certainly needed one of these since Barton left amd Johnson's career took a nose dive, but this story is just an indication of the struggle for newsworthy material during a two week spell with the team not having a PL game

According to the media, we will be persuing another 100 players from all over the world by the time the next window

Lets face it, until we know whether RM will still be manager, and whether or not we will be in the CL next season, all this talk is titilation

Spare us the boredom MEN

Blutooth (09/03/2010 at 12:57)

There's surely something wrong here.

City scouts taking a good look at young promising starlets way ahead of the transfer window. Next we'll be paying the market price and properly negotiating. I mean, they're not even ex Arsenal players for christs sake. Brian Marwood won't stand for this from his scouts.

When in Rome (09/03/2010 at 13:00)

Army Surplus Special,

Brian Hunter has not said a word, Stuart Brennan has written the article.

True Blue,Galway.Ireland, Galway (09/03/2010 at 13:11)

Transfer speculation with so many games of the season left is simply a space filler for tabloids who cannot find any worthwhile football news.Its water under the bridge and most of it has no substance whatsoever.Leave the transfer game until the season has finished.

Twosips, On a merry go round (09/03/2010 at 13:11)

Who proof reads this garbage? Zarate has two ages?

Shaun Goater's mini briefs, Bermuda (09/03/2010 at 13:24)

That's no way to treat players. Looking for replacements before they've even been told they're surplus to requirements. Same old City, ruining football!

bubba, cleethorpes (09/03/2010 at 13:36)

Plenty of dross available (Balotelli, Gattuso, Cordoba, Kjaer, Pazzini, Maicon) in Serie 'A', if Mancini is allowed to do an old pals act and get mugged. Need to distance ourselves from has beens, or vastly over-rated players, looking for a bumper wage packet. A left back (Ansaldi, or Sissoko) should be a priority for who ever is in charge come the end of the season. If we are to do our shopping in Italy, then may be the calibre of Daniele De Rossi, Antonio Candreva, Matteo Brighi. Pip.. Pip..

Alf (09/03/2010 at 13:41)

Blutooth, surely you didnt read down to the bottom of the article? Flamini or Gattuso or maybe both as makeweights for Ade!! I agree personally that it would be good to see Ade get that move to AC Milan at long last. But do we want either Gattuso who barely makes a full game or Flamini who is one of their reserves??? NO! We are supposed to be dining at the top table nowadays, not the local cafe. No more Vieras, Gattuso's, Flamini's. They can barely make the first Team where they are so how will they help us get into and then challenge for the Champions' League? As for the old 'chestnut' of 'winning mentality and experience' we saw that despite Vieras 'experience' he is still the petulent, dirty player he ever was and who is now enjoying himself at our considerable expense instead of helping us get into the Champions League. Who ever is selcting our so called transfer targets needs to show they have actually got a strategy for acquisitions instead of just collecting players along the way. Its called Professional Football so how about Marwood and Cook actually showing some professionalism?!

proudtobeblue (09/03/2010 at 13:44)

rumour has it City are scouting some kid(?) in Brazil named Pele...they say he is the next Pele! we have now been linked with enough players this summer to fill 10 Premier League teams, or is that the ploy, we are going to have City 1st team/2nd/3rd/4th etc full of Internationals, all playing in the Premeir League, every other club gets relegated then only us can win the title! ingenious I hear you cry!

Chris Chorlton, Chorlton (09/03/2010 at 14:05)

How many Italians have been any good in the premiership?

YadYads (09/03/2010 at 14:14)

Adebayor leaving at the end of the season? news to me..where has that come from!

Kaldze is a joke he has been about since we had kinkladze, a load of rubbish the last half of this story...absolute litter

BI POLAR BLUE getting better (09/03/2010 at 15:03)

When a Quality player reaches a certain point in his career he has normally tasted success and is very wealthy. Only a small % of this type of players have any real burning desire left in them (Tour,Adebayor!!)
The secret is to try and sign somebody who is ready to move up to the level where they can BECOME successfull and wealthy and of course this benefits CITY.
How many more players are we going to provide an OAP rest home to ???
Lets consentrate on bringing in young players who may have to be with CITY a year or so before they are ready to make there debuts.

Infijar Ken, Angola (09/03/2010 at 15:15)

proudtobeblue,
9/03/2010 at 13:44

My idea was that City buy up all the other 1st Team players at the other 19 Clubs i next years Premiership. Then when we loan all those players back again (probably the only way that the Rags and Dippers could exist) next year.

Then when City plays each team Home and Away they wont be able to play their 1st Team. Then City will win the league.

Infijar Ken, Angola (09/03/2010 at 15:16)

Infact City could have some fun and loan the whole Arsenal squad to Tottenham, and loan all Sunderlands squad to the Arse, etc.

Dukinfield Blue, Manchester (09/03/2010 at 15:44)

I sincerely hope that this is another load of tosh from the joke "Journalist" that is the one and only Stuart Brennan. Why do we want to buy any Italians?, there has only ever been one good one in england and that was Gianfranco Zola and that was years ago. If there is any truth in the Adebayor thing then let him go but only for at least what we paid. If we get Champions league then Adebayor is going nowhere.

PJS, Oz (09/03/2010 at 16:07)

bubba, cleethorpes
9/03/2010 at 13:36

Great call on De Rossi, i was thinking last week what a great pick-up he would be, not only the best all-round midfielder in Italy but above all one that would be suited to the pace of the Prem League.

No surprise Roma sold Aquilani for 20mm in the summer and had the "not for sale at any price" on De Rossi. The fact Baconface has been sniffing around there for 3 seasons also says something (couldnt afford him anyway).

Would have been interesting if Roma missed out on CL for a 2nd season and needing to sell another player but probably not going to see De Rossi in the Prem League anytime soon.

The one player i do disagree with you is Balotelli. His weak point is his volatile personality but one that i think Mancini (who gave the guy his debut at 17) could harness and something Mancini had as a player himself. He has the technical skill, pace & strength to be a massive hit in the Prem League (not one of these fancy dan like Corradi or Bianchi) and above all can play in a number of positions. I know Wenger has been keen on him in the past and as much as i hate to say it, he'd be a great hit in their system.

Pivo, Manchester (09/03/2010 at 16:25)

Chris Chorlton, Chorlton 9/03/2010 at 14:05 Zola, Di Matteo and Gianluca Vialli all performed well for Chelsea over several seasons.

Buryblue, Garstang (09/03/2010 at 16:31)

Please no more Italians or Brazilians, very few seem to be able to hack it in the PL.

Pivo, Manchester (09/03/2010 at 16:49)

With ex MEN men Bailey & Clayton now on the City payroll it's not beyond the realms of possibility that some of this info is true - who's to say that the Adebayor part of the article hasn't been put out there to see what reaction the fans give to the story. I think I'd be very unhappy if we only did our recruiting in Italy this summer, obviously it's an area Mancini knows well but we have to broaden our recruitment policy to more than just Italy to get the best. There have been some excellent Italian players over here in the past, it's just unfortunate that we've never had any on our books.

blue in hulme (09/03/2010 at 16:59)

Wouldn't it be of more interest to City fans for an update on Stephen Ireland, Michael Johnson, Martin Petrov and any other injured players (such as Ball)than to have to read more pure speculation in the Evening News about players who are most unlikely to join us? Or does the club treat such information as a closely guarded secret? Surely we should know either way.

Portsmouth Blue (09/03/2010 at 17:15)

Infijar Ken, Angola
9/03/2010 at 15:15

Ken me old mate have you been in the sun too long or youve been on the pop lol

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