City Do a Barca

Moments after signing Carlos Tevez for 25m, Man City make a 20m pound bid for Emanuel Adebayor.

This begs the question: are City trying to create the squad to run god's perfect formation--the oft referenced but rarely used 1-1-8?  City's possible formation: 

                         Given

                       Richards

                         Barry

                 Ireland        Elano

Robinho                                    Petrov

   Tevez         Adebayor         Bellamy

                     Santa Cruz

Look familiar?  That's because it bears a FRIGHTENING resemblance to Barcelona 07-08:

                        Valdes

                         Puyol

 

                         Toure

               Iniesta        Bojan

    Dos Santos                Ronaldinho

Messi          Gudjohnsen           Henry

                          Eto'o

City's is a slight variation--they'll be playing 4 TRUE strikers, plus Robinho while Barca supplemented 2 true strikers (one playing out of position on the left wing) with 2 creative players (one who used to be the best in the world, one who was on his way to becoming the best in the world) and Eidur Gudjohnsen.

What I'm trying to say is that Sheik Mansour is actually Frank Rijkaard.

I'd Make that Deal (Edition 2)

This is absurd:

"Frank Lampard's future remains uncertain after sources in Italy claimed Internazionale are preparing to offer Chelsea a part-exchange deal of £15m plus the Brazil striker Adriano."

Maybe I wouldn't make this deal. But, at the very least, I'd have to strongly consider it. Inter, you just bid 8m for Frank Lampard who has one year left on his existing contract. 8m is good value for a player who's going to peace out with no compensation when the season is over. Now you're offering twice that value plus Adriano? Adriano is worth no less than 10m (he's a Brazillian, he's a striker, he's 26...if 27 year old Peter Crouch can fetch 11m, surely Adriano's worth at least 10) so, essentially you're offering 25m for a dude who's 30 and, although I've defended him all these years, who has a negligible amount of value. I know I just posted 2 days ago about how much more valuable Lamps is that Gerrard but, come on--when both Lampard and Ballack were hurt, Shaun Wright-Phillips ably performed Lampard's role. He was able to muster some impressive performances and it was a damned shame when he was pushed out of the side. Dealing Lampard makes room for Mikel in the side and creates a space for SWP to slide onto the bench. I can get excited about a lineup that looks like this:

Cech

Bosingwa Terry Carvallho A. Cole

Mikel

Essien Ballack

Deco J. Cole

Drogba


With a bench of: Hilario, Alex, Wright-Phillips, Kalou, Adriano

That's right, I'm advocating for a 4-1-2-2-1. Or, if push comes to shove, a 4-1-4-1. Down 1-0 at half, tell me you wouldn't be excited to be able to mix in Kalou, SWP and Adriano to push for a winner. Or Anelka. I'm Big Phil and I'm already excited about that idea.

All I'm saying is 25m is damn hard to turn down for a 30 year old. That's all I'm saying.