Emmanuel Adebayor has vowed to produce the best season of his career after being handed Manchester City’s No.9 shirt.
The striker has moved across from No.25 to take the shirt vacated by Valeri Bojinov’s permanent departure to Parma and is keen to play a key part in City’s push for Champions League football this season.
By his own admission, the striker was not at his best last season following his £25million move north from Arsenal.
He said: “I’ve had a chance to play a couple of games in pre-season, and I can get better, so that’s what I’m aiming to do.
“I want to keep going, keep believing that I can improve my game. Every striker has to try to improve, so that’s what I’m doing. And I hope that this will be my best season.”
While Kolarov waits to be allocated a number, City’s other summer signings have been slotted into the squad.
David Silva takes the No.21 shirt he wore for Valencia – and wears for Spain – while Jerome Boateng has been given No.17, which Martin Petrov had last season. Yaya Toure, meanwhile, has taken No.42.
Adebayor’s old position at No.25 has passed on to Joe Hart, who is back from a season’s loan at Birmingham.
Mancini has hinted that Hart may start the season as second choice to Shay Given, who has retained the No.1 shirt.
“Joe Hart will be first-choice goalkeeper for the next 10 years for England,” said the Italian coach.
“I don’t know if he will be my first-choice, it depends. I will pick the players who deserve to play.
“I don’t know if I will rotate the players, it depends. At the start of the season I will decide who is No. 1.
“Shay is not fit at the moment. He is not 100 per cent ready to go in goal but we must wait and be patient because it was not a small problem. It was a big problem two months ago and we have a month more.”
Jo, who was not given a City shirt number last season as he went out on loan to Everton and Galatasaray, takes the No.27 vacated by Benjani’s release – and may soon follow him out of Eastlands.
Several of the Under-21 players have switched squad numbers, with centre-back Dedryck Boyata moving up from No. 44 to No. 38.
City have, as usual, left the No. 23 shirt vacant as a tribute to Marc-Vivien Foe, who sported that number during his time at Maine Road, and who died while playing for Cameroon against Colombia at the Confederations Cup in 2003.
City squad numbers:
1 Shay Given
2 Micah Richards
3 Wayne Bridge
4 Nedum Onuoha
5 Pablo Zabaleta
6 Michael Johnson
7 Stephen Ireland
8 Shaun Wright-Phillips
9 Emmanuel Adebayor
10 Robinho; 11 Adam Johnson
12 Stuart Taylor
13 -
14 Roque Santa Cruz
15 -
16 -
17 Jerome Boateng
18 Gareth Barry
19 Joleon Lescott
20 Felipe Caicedo
21 David Silv
22 -
23 Retired in memory of Marc-Vivien Foe
24 Patrick Vieira
25 Joe Hart
26 David Gonzalez
27 Jo; 28 Kolo Toure
29 Kelvin Etuhu
30 Shaleum Logan
31 Adam Clayton
32 Carlos Tevez
33 Vincent Kompany
34 Nigel de Jong
35 Scott Kay
36 Javan Vidal
37 Gunnar Nielsen
38 Dedryck Boyat
39 Craig Bellamy
40 Vladimir Weiss
41 Ben Mee
42 Yaya Toure
43 Alex Nimely
44 David Ball
45 Greg Cunningham
46 Loris Karius
47 James Poole
48 Ryan McGivern
49 Donal McDermott
50 Abdisalam Ibrahim
51 Kieran Trippier
52 Andrew Tutte
53 Chris Chantler
54 Tom Smith
55 Sean Tse
56 Frederic Veseli
57 Reece Wabara
58 Ahmad Benali
59 Omar Elabdellaoui
60 John Guidetti
61 Jeremy Helan
62 Abdul Razak
63 Eirik Johansen
What is your verdict on the squad? Have your say.
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ALFIEBOY, GRAVESEND (30/07/2010 at 14:22)
Revealed: The story behind Manchester United's unprecedented campaign to sell season tickets in face of fan backlash
*Club instigated biggest-ever summer marketing push to fill stadium *Hired temporary ticket office staff to flood fans with calls & emails *Fans angry at failure to reinvest £80m Cristiano Ronaldo cash
tony 1finga, wythenshawe (30/07/2010 at 14:26)
BI POLAR BLUE getting better (30/07/2010 at 14:29)
Having watched his fantastic display againt Arsenal it did seem he had gone up a few gears !!!! Lets hope Roberto can get Ade to commit himself to 40/45 good performances a season noy just when he feels like it .
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Drew Peacock (30/07/2010 at 14:34)
Michael Greenhouse (30/07/2010 at 14:55)
MCFC.OK, manchester (30/07/2010 at 14:56)
What do you mean they're rubbish, they've only spent 400m in 2 years, chorlton (30/07/2010 at 15:00)
Ballack.
All he does is lose CL finals and WC finals.
Park, all he does is run rings around Liverpool.
What do you mean they're rubbish, they've only spent 400m in 2 years, chorlton (30/07/2010 at 15:01)
Goal.com is about as reliable as Adebayor, who incidently is who you might want to comment on.
I will. You were rubbish at Arsenal and now you're even more rubbish at City. Fair play though you get paid 2 million a week.
Dribble, Manchester (30/07/2010 at 15:05)
Michael Ballack?
Evan Georgiou (30/07/2010 at 15:09)
Quasimodo's Leotard, Paris (30/07/2010 at 15:10)
It's big.
Never Boo a Blue and FFS Stay Till the End, Sale (30/07/2010 at 15:37)
Ade was so bad at Arsenal he scored 30 goals in one season, really hope he doesn't pull that sort of stunt for us. I'll have a little wager with you sad rag, adebayor will score at least 3 times as many goals as little poo does. Can't wait to see him up against Chris Smalling
j phil (30/07/2010 at 15:45)
Christian Negouai - and remember how much luck he had!
Ewesy, Workington (30/07/2010 at 16:13)
ROGERMELLIE, DENTON (30/07/2010 at 16:29)
In all competitions,we need;
30 from you;
30 from Carlito
30 from Super Mario
50 consildated from Midfield and Defence
If we can do this we will win the Planet Pluto cup and beyond!!
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Shaun, At My Desk (30/07/2010 at 16:45)
On his day he is virtually un-playable,and I fully expect him to score twenty goals plus
without all the interruptions he had last term.
richard lyons (30/07/2010 at 17:01)
What do you mean they're rubbish, they've only spent 400m in 2 years, chorlton (30/07/2010 at 17:42)
How about a bet that Adebayor scores more than all of our strikers but doesnt win as many medals? Actually thats not fair, Il give you 50/1. That ok?
City have spent 400m and signed 3 decent players and you wonder why everyone calls you a comedy club.
truebluetoronto, M19 to SW14 to Toronto to Oshawa Ontario (30/07/2010 at 18:04)
Ade, learn the off-side rule, and do practice drills until you get it, and learn to stay in the game, not drift in and out like last year.
Simon Bolton (30/07/2010 at 18:31)
Rita Fitton, I love Garry Cook, Florida & Manchester (30/07/2010 at 18:44)
ex.hattersleyblue, kettering (30/07/2010 at 18:56)
bubba, cleethorpes (30/07/2010 at 19:04)
Once a blue,always a blue, Levenshulme, Manchester (30/07/2010 at 19:20)
Needs to really step up his game.
14 goals was a decent return all things considered (africa,bans etc )
can we get 20 out of him this time round?-can't wait ti find out!
micheal ok, The Emerald Isle,surrounded by BLUE water. (30/07/2010 at 20:11)
ballack was not playing in this years world cup final.
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