STUART Pearce is facing a difficult decision over skipper Sylvain Distin and Joey Barton, with the pair's value in the transfer market decreasing on a monthly basis.
Rumours in the north-east suggest that Newcastle centre-back Jean-Alain Boumsong could have played his last game for the club, opening up the possibility of a St James' Park return for Distin.
The Magpies made an unsuccessful bid for Distin last summer. Both Distin and Barton's deals run out at the end of next season.
City, meanwhile, expect old favourite and former Scottish international, Paul Dickov, to join them from Blackburn Rovers on a free transfer.
France remains a potential fertile hunting ground for Pearce who despatched assistant boss Steve Wigley over the Channel on Saturday night for a final check on their league action.
And Lazioés Gallic midfielder Ousmane Dabo, who numbers Unitedés Mikael Silvestre as one of his best friends, is another on whom Pearce is keen.
The 29-year-old, who began his career in Monaco before moving to Italy, is out of contract and is keen to try his hand in the Premiership.
He claims he has already had preliminary talks with City but has yet to discuss money with Pearce.
How many players do you think City need to bring in this summer? Have your say.
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I can see both players sitting tight and seeing out the remaining year of their contract. Players should never be allowed to enter the last year of contracts. SP is not the man to sort out this mess.
About 11 - no seriously nine would do!
City need to get JB and SD on new, extended contracts asap; even if they end up selling them this summer. Their transfer value will be depressed if they only have a year left on their contracts. Also, I would suspect that keeping them would be cheaper than replacing them with players of an equivalent standard, let alone of a higher standard.
OUT -- Barton. (I really don't think we should improve the offer) IN -- Dabo and Malbranque. Hold on to Sylvain Distin with an improved contract. DON'T sell Richards or Sturridge. We definitely need another experienced striker, but Dickov is not good enough.
8
What players do we need most?? It's obvious now: Kiki and Riera have (rightly) gone so we need left sided players. Simple as that really. If Wigley has been to France maybe it was to watch Thomert again.
two-three midfielders, two strikers and one goalkeepers.
In a perverse kind of way the squad would be strengthened by off loading Sibierski, Jihai Sun and Reyna
I think the majority of city fans, couldn't care less anymore, about whether Distin and Barton stay or go. I'm more bothered about what quality we can attract this summer. At this moment in time, some of the names being banded around don't encourage me one bit. I mean Dickov, come on. You're telling me there's not a better striker out there on the market. It's just an easy option again for Pearce. He knows there won't be a lot of work involved to get his signature. The same would go for Fortune, an easy pathetic signing. Get a grip Pearce.
Joey Barton is not as good as he thinks he is.Don't for one minute think we will get good prices for them.Combined Value should realistically be about 10m , we will be lucky to get 5m.When have City NOT been ripped off ??
Sick to death about the Barton, Distin saga. Iv,e changed my tune recently to get rid of the pair of them. We need players who are committed to Manchester City and it is obvious that they are not. However good a player is and I dont believe for one minute that these players are class. Neither of them can pass a ball. If Barton thinks he can improve by going to a top five club tell him to give SWP a ring cause his backside will be planted in the same place as Shauns.
If Dickov's coming back, what about Danny Tiatto, Lee Bradbury, Gary Flitcroft, there all still playing too! Dickov was a cult hero in the late nineties for 2 reasons. Firstly, because of "that" goal against Gillingham and secondly, because he always gave 100% but lets not forget that as a forward his goalscoring record wasn't that good even in the 2nd division. Going back to a player who is well past his best is ludicrous, especially when we've already got an older head in Andy Cole upfront. We'd be better taking a chance on someone like Freddy Eastwood!
Sell Barton & Distin wich will probably net us around ??10 mill ( midfield is our major problem) firstly i see no problem with Richards/nedum taking distin's spot so that sorts itself out.
Midfield we need a complete new one with some flair to, Realistic cash targets...
Christian Wilhelmsson ?? 3 mill , RW
Petrov ?? 2-4 mill center mid
Jarosik center mid ?? 2-4 mill
Martin Devaney LW 750k - ??1 mill
Dabo free
Fortune free
Problem sorted!!! then give the young lads a chance upfront pre season ,sturridge,Etuhu,Miller
Mark, Chesterfield, quite agree with you (for a change) on Distin, Barton and Dickov. Fortune is still young and we need leftfooties. Malbranque another, expensive, possibility although I gather he's looking out for European football. Wouldn't it be nice and maybe easy as well to get both Malbranque and SWP at Eastland? I think the shopping could end there.
Distain is the captain of this club and I think its disgusting the way he has acted, as captain he should say whether he wants to stay or go, or at least sign a new contract and then allow city to sell him so we don??<sup>TM</sup>t loose any money on him. I always thought he was a pathetic excuses for a captain, has anyone ever seen him be vocal on the pitch I know I haven??<sup>TM</sup>t, I don??<sup>TM</sup>t even think he can speak English that well, we need a leader on the pitch someone who can command players, influence players always shouting and that is loyal to the club, Dunne is perfect to be captain, so I couldn??<sup>TM</sup>t care less if we get rid distan.
City do usually get ripped off, Mr Square Pants. And that's true with the purchase and sale of Anelka, Vuoso, and even the 6 million spent on Samaras. However, I don't think City got ripped off with the sale of SWP. 21 million was extremely good value. The bad news is that it doesn't seem to have made the slightest difference to our eternal overhanging debt and knocked a huge hole in not only City's midfield but our general momentum. It will take at least five very good new signings to get City going again. The trap door is already creaking.
To answer the question, we need at least 7 players. But with limited resources, it's unlikely that we'll GET 7 new faces. However, that figure is providing we don't have to sell Barton & Distin to fund new signings, which I think we will. In that case, we'll need a further 9 signings before 31st August (including 2 replacements to keep the numbers up in the squad). In an ideal world, it would be ideal to get two better quality fullbacks. We've been short of a decent left-winger for a while now too, so one of those would be nice. A creative midfielder is a MUST, as is an experienced, quality, tackling/good-passing/leader in the middle. Finally, two more strikers are needed. If one of them is Dickov, then an additional quality striker is a MUST. We need strength in depth up front, which was one of our major failings last season. Dickov provides a different option as well as cover, but we need an 18 to 22 goal-a-season striker. Vassell is okay, but he's never gonna get us a bagful. Samaras started not bad and got decidedly worse. And we might only get 3/4 of a season (at 65 minutes-a-game) out of Cole. That leaves BWP, who didn't look to hot last season (to say the least) and I think he needs to go on loan to a Championship side for a season. Sturridge is very young and untried. Well...that's a big shopping list for a skint club. It's looking more and more obvious that either or both Distin & Barton need to be 'moved on' in order to rebuild the squad. If only we could off-load, Reyna, Sibierski, D.Mills & Thatcher in order to find enough funds instead. But that would mean probably having to bring in even more players, as the squad is threadbare as it is. Oh hum...what a pickle. No holiday for Pearce this summer then? I just hope Wardle is working just as hard trying to find some extra cash from somewhere...tut.
Distin is garbage, no seriously - i don't think we need him, micah can play there as can nedum. And Joey? We do play better with him in the side, but, moneygrabbing scousers who think theyre steven gerrard will not hold us to ransom. So i guess he can go.
Sponge Bob. We sold SWP for ??21million - do you think we got ripped off then?
Clever wheeling and dealing will see us reet. Ben Watson at Palace, Lee Hendrie, Zoltan Gera, Dietmar Hammann, Kieran Richardson, David Nugent, Simon Davies, Julio Arca etc. - there are plenty of players out there that have the raw ability and who just need a change of scenery and some good coaching to get on. Other managers (Curbs, Allardyce etc.) can do it and I'm sure SP has it in him.
I think Distin is a very good centre half. Having said that we have a surplus of good centre halves and we need to get some money in. Besides, he is supposed to be Club Captain but he seems to have cooked that goose doesn't he. Barton is a ver ordinary player who has ideas above his station. Sell both for me.
Sell barton and distin they don't want to sign there contracts so they can get lost! anyway in thormert maybe up front as vassell and samaras can't seem to score at the moment, dabo free centre midfield, fortune free who can play letf back, left wing, left midfield and centre of midfield so left side sorted as thormert can play left too, malbranque maybe as he doesn't want to sign his contract for fulham don't know who else.CTID
OB1 All Manchester based City fans are well aware that J.B. & S.D. have REFUSED point blank to sign new, improved contracts. Has this news passed S.Ox. by?
How do you MAKE a player sign a contract unless you offer him one that will cripple the club financially should they sign it and decide to see it through as did Nigel Clough?
Both players are average to say the least and should be sold a.s.a.p.
The fans dislike J.B. so much after his transfer request and are sick to death of the annual will S.D leave or not farce.Their commitment to the club is purely a financial one and therefore are of no use to us.
P.S. As the self appointed bastion of the English Language, where were the full stops between the initials JB,SD and the acronym asap in your article?
Distin has done a good job for us but wants european football so he can get into the french squad, no one can blame him for that.
Barton is just greedy and thinks the grass is greener.
We should offload both these players and a player exchange for SWP should be considered.
As for new recruits, i think SP should be concentrating on offloading more dead wood like mills, thatcher, sibierski and loaning out BWP to a lower league club for a season.
He seems to be looking abroad for players but i'd prefer british young players from the lower leagues, where moving to city will be a step up and challenge.
JS and Blue Meanie , I stand corrected , I forgot about the SWP fee , I'll give you that one but it still doesn't make up for Daly , Reeves , Phelan , Curle , Bradbury , Brannan , Creaney , Anelka , Vuoso , Negouai etc etc etc.Good sensible list from Bails , add Jason Koumas to that.