Well when your side is screaming out for a centre half, why not simply go out and sign a centre midfielder who’s lost his pace and has struggled with injuries for 3 seasons. Yes, Roberto Mancini seems to think that by signing a creaky Patrick Vieira, it’ll help shore up a leaky defence. 5 years ago, Viera was clearly one of the best centre midfielders in Europe, but his four years in Italy have seen his reputation decline.

Whilst certainly not past it by any stretch of the imagination, I cannot believe Vieira can cope with the pace of Premiership football any more. I know his move is motivated by being a regular starter for France, but he hasn’t started a competitive game for Les Blues since August 2007 and I do not see the benefit of disrupting the midfield pairing of Gareth Barry and Nigel De Jong.

It also sends a signal that the manager has no confidence in his midfield anchor men, when Manchester City’s back four have been far more culpable for their weaknesses this season. Barry and De Jong have been amongst City’s better performers this season, and for all the spin that has accompanied Mancini’s victories against Stoke City, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Middlesbrough, it’s doubtful that City wouldn’t have won those games with Mark Hughes in charge.

It seems like City are entering that dimension that Real Madrid lived in where players are signed on reputation rather than ability and the wisdom in signing Vieira will become clearer over the next few weeks. The warning signs are there though with Vieira’s total appearances over the last 3 and a half seasons at Internazionale totals 72 games in all competitions. Italian football is not the high paced, frenetic standard of the Premiership and I don’t think Vieira will be able to cope.

By all means, Vieira was one of the stand out midfielders in world football during his spell at Arsenal, of that there is absolutely no doubt. Yet Wenger’s transfer policy of removing older players before they deteriorate at Arsenal has yet to blow up in his face. Remember everyone banging on about what a great pair of signings Adebayor and Toure were in the summer? They’ve strangely gone quiet already. Adebayor’s 6 goals this season and the leakiest defence in the Premierships top ten seem to once again back Wengers judgement.

Of course, the additional revenue that Vieira will bring through shirt sales will be the only thing that Gary Cook will be interested in. The ability the cover the wage package of apparently £140,000 a week won’t be overly important to the owners but surely the value has to be on the pitch. We’re not talking about a David Beckham icon here, we’re talking about a man who can’t get in the worse French team in 15 years. Vieira struggled to cope with the recovery period in his spell at Arsenal when he was at his prime, so I’ve no idea how he can cope with the demands it’ll put on him now.

Mourinho has been deploying him solely as a defensive midfielder, but he still tries to play his old role and gets caught out of position, he hasnt got the pace to get back and he lacks the tenacity to fly in to the tackles like he used to. He’s earned rave reviews for his last Inter performance against Chievo, but come on, it’s hardly the Milan derby is it. I just don’t see the wisdom of the signing, I just feel it’ll tarnish one of the best midfielders in Premiership history’s legacy and that would be a shame.

During the takeover of Manchester City last summer, City’s Chief Executive, Gary Cook made several rather tasteless comments but one stood out above all the others for me. During an interview with the Daily Telegraph, Cook was outlining City’s plan for world domination. As Wednesday’s defeat at Tottenham showed, sometimes things don’t go to plan.

During a rather ill-judged interview, which looking back, is quite hilarious now, Cook had this to say: “China and India are gagging for football content to watch and we’re going to tell them that City is their content. We need a superstar to get through that door. Richard Dunne doesn’t roll off the tongue in Beijing. Ronaldinho brings access to major sponsors and financial reward”

Going on their current way of doing business at Manchester City, they’ll try sign Ronaldinho, who is nowhere near the player he was between 2003 and 2006. Yet Richard Dunne has been instrumental in Aston Villa’s fantastic form this season by continuing in the same vein that saw him Manchester City’s player of the year in 4 out of his last 5 seasons at the club. A great club build from the back by having a superb defence which allows the flair players to express themselves. Cook was out of order to pour scorn on Dunne especially judging by the comedy defending Lescott, Toure and Bridge have offered so far this season.

If anything, Manchester City are crying out for a player like Richard Dunne, but as Cook said, he doesn’t sell shirts in China. Why on earth would Manchester City want someone who can defend but just isn’t glamorous enough. He just gives 100% and puts his body on the line, always pushing himself to keep his side in every game. For club and country, Dunne has always been Mr. Consistency over the last 6 seasons and Aston Villa are now benefiting from his work rate.

Since joining Villa, Dunne has slotted in seamlessly and allowed O’Neill’s side to concentrate on their effective counter attacking game. By knowing they have such a dependable and reliable player behind them, Villa’s attacking quartet can concentrate on trying to run teams ragged. With the pace that Villa have, Dunne’s strength and presence at the back allows the team to quickly break out and take advantage.

With the experience last season will have given some of the players, they’ll know that they have to avoid a repeat of running out of steam once the season came down to the run in. With Downing now almost fully match fit and Collins complementing Dunne at the back, Villa have a real squad that can enable them to stay the pace.

Everyone has been surprised by Everton’s slow start, but they’ve been ripped apart by injuries to the point they were reliant on the youth set up at Goodison, but Spurs and Manchester City are also up there with Villa. For once we have 7 or 8 sides battling at the top of the table and the Premiership is all the better for it. Liverpool continue to press the self destruct button too which strengthens the pretenders attempts to gain a top 4 slot.

Under Martin O’Neill and with the reliable Richard Dunne in the team, Aston Villa will be hoping they can look down on Manchester City. I wonder then if Gary Cook will see any Aston Villa shirts with Dunne on the back during his summer holidays. I really hope he does.

So it’s official now, Manchester City’s owners have shown there true colours with yesterdays sacking of Mark Hughes and replacing him with Roberto Mancini. Rumours had been circling Hughes since Saturday morning, with several British papers stating that the game against Sunderland was to be his last. The board of Manchester City can no longer hide the delusion that powers the boardroom, a complete lack of the fundamental understanding of football and the team ethic.

Yes, they’ve spent massively over the last 18 months, but quite where this decision now sits with the empty promises over the summer that Mark Hughes was a long term investment is anyone’s guess. Here is a team that sits in 6th, with a game in hand, with a forthcoming League Cup semi-final next month against United to come. Apparently, this simply isn’t good enough.

Of course, only an idiot would think that you could create a title challenging side in 18months. Regardless of the investment or the monies spent, this is fantasy football based on the idea that if something costs a lot of money it must be good. Football doesn’t work like that. All the hoo haa about Robinho when he signed has been proved to be just that. He’s nowhere near as good as his marketing team tell us and it’s now apparent. Yet he cost £31 million and he’s Brazilian, so he must be brilliant it seems. All those people banging on about him being one of the best players in the world seem to be keeping their heads down these days.

City fans, some of footballs most hardy and loyal followers will be surprised by this but it’s not a situation they’re not accustomed to. During the tenure of Peter Swales, most fans needed an encyclopedia to keep up with the manager merry go round at Maine Road. It was no surprise that the side yo-yoed between the top two divisions for nearly two decades, with a season in the third tier for good measure. Of course, that situation will surely not repeat itself, but the boardroom now resembles that of a tantrum throwing teenager.

The statement issued by Manchester City yesterday speaks volumes about the little understanding of football they have.  “A return of two wins in 11 Premier League games is clearly not in line with the targets that were agreed and set, Sheikh Mansour and the board felt that there was no evidence that the situation would fundamentally change.”

I feel for Hughes, I don’t feel he’s been given enough time for the side to gel. Don’t let the outlay cloud the truth of what has gone on here. In fact, you have to question who was choosing their transfer targets. With the exception of Bellamy and Given, most of the big outlay players simply haven’t delivered consistently. No-one is questioning Wengers decision to sell Toure and Adebayor anymore are they? To create a side takes time, patience and knowledge.

Yet, the decision to install Mancini shows two things: The decision to install Hughes had already been taken and Mancini tapped up to replace him and by appointing Mancini, a complete lack of the understanding of football. The owners of Manchester City want to be the best side in the world, but they appoint someone who hasn’t managed since being sacked by Inter Milan in April 2008. Why no offer for Hiddink? Frank Rijkaard? even Jose Mourinho?

Mancini was sacked after his continual failure to trouble the further rounds of the Champions League but his tenure at Inter is rose tinted. With the exception of Roma, all of Inters major rivals were embroiled in the match fixing scandal of 2006. So Mancini’s first title was given to them after Juventus were stripped of it. The second title was won when all their rivals were deducted points, or in Juventus’ situation, relegated to Serie B and Roma couldn’t capitalise. They were also able to strip players from the other teams who were punished, so how great a manager was he really?

Mancini was sacked before the third title was assured. Yet Sheikh Mansour thinks he’s the man to make them a great side? Fantastic decision making there Sheikh Mansour, I don’t think Chelsea will be losing any sleep. Yet another Fantasy Football decision based of a complete lack of knowledge of the game. Manchester City fans deserve respect, not this ridiculous attempt to sign every person you’ve heard of. It was a dreadful decision to sack Hughes, but an even worse one to replace him with Mancini.

When Mark Hughes agreed to replace Sven Goran Eriksson last summer, no doubt he knew things would be interesting at Manchester City, it very rarely isn’t in the sky blue half of Manchester, but I doubt he’d have expected anything like the events that ultimately played out. What with the takeover and the crazy final day of the summer transfer window, with City making 10 bids of over £15 million for players, it was probably the maddest 24 hours the City faithful could remember in years.

After that, he’s coped remarkably well with the media speculation, both about transfer targets and his own future at the club, showing a calm and assured exterior throughout the season. Of course there have been hiccups along the way, the F.A. Cup defeat, losing 3-0 at home to Forest probably the lowest point along with the embarrassment of being kicked out of the League Cup at Brighton on penalties. Yet, this is a team still trying to find its feet and he has added some excellent signings along the way.

Shay Given is one of the best goalkeepers in Europe, as hard as that signing was on the promising Joe Hart, Wayne Bridge a consistent and dependable left back. Vincent Kompany has long been touted as one of Europe’s most promising players as is Nigel De Jong and Stephen Ireland has been magnificent all season. Of course, question marks were raised over the signing of Craig Bellamy, but if anyone can get him playing to his full potential, it’s Hughes, their relationship built during his time as Wales and Blackburn manager.

Now the owner has laid down the aim for next season, a top 6 finish, which for a manager who took Blackburn to the UEFA Cup twice and had 3 top 10 finishes in a row, should be a piece of cake with the resources at his disposal. Mubarak’s statement released on Tuesday was a vindication for Hughes and the work in progress that Manchester City should be classed as. It seemed a reasoned and balanced indication of what the owner wants for Manchester City, regardless of the rubbish and speculation that you can read every day about them, such as this nonsense!

City have had some dreadful press this year, with so many lazy journalists writing rubbish about them because it fills space in empty papers. Here in the UK, we have a couple of papers who are renowned for being so far of the mark with transfer stories as to be laughable. Suffice to say, if you see a transfer story printed in either the Daily Express or the Daily Star, chances are it’ll never happen. Last season, they had a success rate of 8% for transfer stories, the lowest in England by some distance.

That’s not to say they’ve not been their own worst enemy at times, Chief Executive Gary Cook has said some eyebrow raising things during his time at Eastlands, the comments about Richard Dunne were especially unkind, “China and India are gagging for football content to watch and we’re going to tell them that City is their content. We need a superstar to get through that door. Richard Dunne doesn’t roll off the tongue in Beijing. Ronaldinho brings access to major sponsors and financial reward.”

Now that may be true but players like Richard Dunne win you titles by allowing the superstars to play and thankfully Cook has calmed his comments down over the last couple of months after the rather choice words used toward Kaka and A.C. Milan. He needs to deliver the players to move City up a level from where they’ve been the last couple of years. A consistent goal scorer is key, as is a fit and skilful left sided midfielder to add to four or five signings to strengthen the squad. Hughes will be looking to shift some dead wood out too as well as tie Stephen Ireland down to a new long term contract.

Hughes now knows his goals, no doubt his list of transfer targets already is on Gary Cooks desk and as soon as the season finishes on Sunday, City will begin the search to add some more quality to the potential they already have on their books. With Tottenham, Everton and Aston Villa all showing flashes this season, we could finally get a season to remember in 2009-2010 and not just the same 4 clubs sharing out the trophies once again.

Could Manchester City finally put their 33 year major trophy drought to bed this season by winning the UEFA Cup this season? Why not, what  with Ajax crashing out last night at the hands of Marseille and Zenit St Petersburg and CSKA Moscow losing today, the competition for the trophy is getting into the nitty gritty stage and it seems to be opening up for City. Mark Hughes side has been wildly inconsistent, putting 6 past Portsmouth and 5 past Hull City, but dumped out of the League Cup by Brighton on penalties and were humiliated at home 3-0 by Nottingham Forest in the F.A. Cup but they’ve been impressive in the UEFA Cup both at home and abroad this season. With only one away win in the league, it’s been a strange season for the City faithful.

Tonight they travel to Northern Jutland to face Aalborg with a 2-0 lead and a chance to move into the Quarter Finals for a real crack at the trophy. Yet, Manchester City have a history of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory which is unparalled in English Football that has seen their fans develop a very healthy ability to laugh at themselves. Surely this could be their season to finally put a proper smile on faces of the City faithful? It’s certainly a weaker UEFA Cup than it could have been with AC Milan, Aston Villa, Tottenham, Fiorentina, Bordeaux and Valencia all being removed from the competition before we even reached the last 16.I don’t think Mark Hughes will be upset to see any of those sides out at all. Their first 11 is certainly as good as some of the remaining teams in the competition, maybe one of the best, so it’s not impossible to imagine City lifting the trophy in Turkey on May 20th.

City though have perhaps received a little too much stick this season for me. Sure they’ve become the richest club in the world but it’s still a transitional season for them. Thankfully for us, Chief Executive Gary Cook seems to have kept a very low profile after his rather childish comments about AC Milan and Kaka in January, which is a blessing for us all. His rather acidic nature and bombastic attitude doesn’t sit well people and attracts as much criticism as it deserves, but Hughes has also had a fair amount of flak, unfairly I feel. It’s a learning curve for everyone at Manchester City, ever since the Robinho signing, they’ve suddenly moved onto a different level but they’ve got their best chance of some serious silverware for a long time in the UEFA Cup.

If they can negotiate tonight’s away leg, which knowing City, is no forgone conclusion, then the key teams to avoid are Werder Bremen and whoever wins in the tie of the round, Galatasaray v SV Hamburg. Martin Jol’s team have a lot to do and need to score in Turkey tonight to have any chance to get through but if they do, then they’ll become the favourite for the cup. If City can avoid those teams, then reaching the final becomes a realistic proposition for Mark Hughes. I hope they do get there, he’s dealt with rumour and counter rumour all season with supreme patience, fending questions about his future, transfers, ongoing issues with certain big name players and the change in expectations once Manchester City were ought by the Abu Dhabi United Group, with courtesy.He deserves a bit of luck after everything that’s been thrown at him throughout the season.

I wish them all the best in Europe and hope we get a Hamburg and Manchester City final for the last ever UEFA Cup final before we welcome the Europa League next season.