In a column in British tabloid The Sun, former Barcelona Terry Venables advises Manchester City to try signing Barcelona player Carles Puyol.Manchester City are trying to build a palace on quicksand. But without the right foundations, the whole thing will come crashing down.
I hear the club’s billionaire owners are still hell-bent on making a mega-signing before the close of the transfer window despite being so publicly rejected by Kaka. But it is time to stop playing Dream Team. Forget Kaka, Robinho, Drogba and Veloso. What they desperately need right now is spirit, fight, leadership and backbone.
If they really must buy superstars then the men they should be looking at are Spanish internationals Marcos Senna and Carles Puyol. These are top-drawer players who will bring the qualities City need — leadership, strength, guts, never-say-die.
Senna and Puyol might not be the names to set Arabian blood pulsing, but what a difference they could make to a team leaking goals. Senna was Spain’s best player in last year’s European Championship triumph. Puyol is brilliant at right-back or centre-half, two areas where City are in desperate need of strengthening. It would take a fortune to sign him from Barcelona but money is no object for City, as we found out with their proposals to sign Kaka.
The problem is Puyol is captain of arguably the best team in Europe. Why would he want to swap that for a side who might not even be in the Premier League next season? Huge wages are not enough to sign players of this stature. They demand money ànd success. Until City are a top-four team, world stars will always turn their noses up at them. But the Arab owners want to make a huge impact nòw.
That is the dilemma facing Mark Hughes. He’s a level-headed guy and I’m sure he knows what needs to be done. But how can he say ‘no’ when he’s asked if he would like to sign Kaka?
Read the full column here
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