Man City Want Thierry Henry, Mark Hughes Just Wants Some Kompany

There was always something fishy about Man City’s pursuit of Ronaldinho. It didn’t feel quite right, I think for two reasons: 1) He was never really going to join, and 2) The plan to sign him up seemed to be based on his big name status, rather than what he was capable of offering Citeh on the field. Did he fit into Mark Hughes gameplan? Who cares, he’s famous!

As we all know, Ronnie went to Milan and not Manchester. But – despite Thaksin Shinawatra’s recent problems – Citeh are now apparently chasing another big name player. Which one? Any of them.

Word has it that City are still looking for a “box office signing”, a big name a la Ronaldinho and have apparently drawn up a shortlist headed by none other than Thierry Henry.

This is a crazy transfer policy for all kinds of reasons. First of all, good luck getting a genuine superstar to sign for Man City with the current uncertain state of the club. Second, appears this is all being done above Mark Hughes’ head. That’s not how Hughes succeeded at Blackburn. Hughes succeeded at Blackburn because he built his own team brick by brick with non-superstar but supersmart signings like Roque Santa Cruz.

And seems that – given the chance – Hughes would be capable of making similar smart signings for City. Like Vincent Kompany for example. The 22 year old big Belgian defender is a hot property, he’s big, he’s strong, and he’s got great ball skills and Hughes managed to sign the guy today by taking advantage of the argument between Kompany and his club Hamburg over when he supposed to return to them from Olympic duty with Belgium.

Smooth moves like that suggest it would be smarter to just back Hughes with whatever money is available and tell him to build his own team, rather than go chasing galacticos who’ll politely decline your advances.

Some Related Stories:

Category: English Premier League