City Vs Swansea: Predicting the Starting 11

By Adrian Meta
City take on Swansea in the Blue’s Premier League season opener. The match will be at the Etihad Stadium, and with new signings potentially coming into the 11, here’s how I expect City to line up.

The back pretty much picks itself with the exception of Aleks Kolarov. I’ve given him the nod over Gael Clichy purely because Swansea are lightweight opposition and Kolarov will be given freedom to bomb forward, knowing he will be covered. He will give City an extra advantage.

Moving to midfield, I’ve picked Milner over Barry because recent fixtures indicate that he is ahead of Gareth Barry in the pecking order, and for me, he’s the better player.

Up front, Balotelli ahead of Aguero. Why? Aguero won’t be completely fit and should be given as much a rest as possible, with a view to a 15-20 min debut appearance. I expect Dzeko to start most games this season. No Tevez because he’s only just came back to training.

There it is. Hopefully I’m right, because with this lineup City should fairly easily overcome Swansea.

New Strikers at Etihad? Manchester City After More Attack.... Do they really need it?

After spending records amount of cash on players last season, Manchester City are out to replace players that many clubs do not have the luxury of replacing. After signing Edin Dzeko, Balotelli and Yaya Toure last season, one would wonder why City are after Neymar, Sergio Aguero and Samir Nasri.
Manchester City boast oneof the most formidable rosters in all of Europe, and this was justified by their third place finish in the Premier League and qualification for the Champions League.
Recently, Manchester City tried to add to this roster by involving themselves with the possible signings of Sergio Aguero , Neymar and Arsenal Frenchman Samir Nasri. With every player mentioned here, City have gone above and beyond monetary expectations. Let us take a look:

Sergio Aguero
Athletico scared off Juventus with a €45 million price tag for the hit-man. Then City came calling offering in excess of this amount for Aguero, plus a contract which will see him earn triple the salary he currently earns. If Tevez remains at City, they will have a strong Argentinian feel to their strike force.

Neymar
 Next on the agenda is Neymar. the Brazilian starlet recently proved he has what it takes to make it in Europe, scoring twice to save Brazil from the hands of Ecuador. Originally his club Santos were not eager to allow other clubs to talk to their star man.

Yet after all the commotion made by Santos, Manchester City were some how allowed to speak to Neymar. It would be reminiscent to not include the fact they were willing to match Neymar's buyout clause of €40 million

Samir Nasri
With Arsenal's French attacking midfielder coming out of contract next season, Arsenal will most likely let him go and the likely destination looks to be the Etihad. With many European clubs trying to secure the services of the attacking midfielder, most namely Manchester United.
City will face fierce competition. Rather than wait, City tabled a €20 million bid for Nasri, although it was quickly rejected by Arsenal.
However the Gunners are re-thinking their decision, after comments made by Nasri suggested he wouldn't re-sign next year. If that proved to be the case, then Nasri would be free to leave the Emirates with no transfer fee incurred

So with such choice available to City, are any of the following signing necessary? Or should they remain content with the squad that delivered them to where they are today?

Big guns line up Aguero!

For the past few years Sergio Aguero has slowly been establishing himself as one of the star forwards in Europe. And it looks as if all his hard work has almost paid off as he starts to attract the attention of a host of big clubs around Europe. Already this transfer window has seen the likes of Madrid, Chelsea and Juventus come calling for the services of the Argentinian.

The 23 year old looks to be one of the star prospects for the next 10 years in football, and rightly so, bagging 23 goals in all competitions in 2010/2011. However his services will not come cheap, with Athletico Madrid vowing not to let go of their prodigy for anything less than his buyout clause of 45million dollars. With many clubs finding themselves in financial difficulty the price tag would certainly restrain any other signings.

So far Aguero's agent claims that they have been in no talks with any clubs, Athletico Madrid confirmed this by claiming that "they have not received any bids for their striker". Aguero is currently training with the national team for the Argentinian Copa America campaign.