A couple of enforced moves anyway for Mark Hughes tomorrow evening:

"Kolo is not fit, and neither is Martin, while there is a doubt over Wayne and he may well not be involved. Kolo and Martin should hopefully be alright for the weekend, but they are not quite right at the moment.

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Goal.com reported a story which featured in Daily Mirror about a possible exchange deal involving Kompany and Robinho for Yaya Toure and Puyol. This definitely has to be a joke or an imagination of some disturbed mind. Howelse you can explain the exchange of one of the best defensive midfielder and defender for two players who are struggling to find a regular place in the Manchester City side. Click to continue reading...

Some comments from Michael Johnson following his return to action both in the victory over West Ham, and for the reserves against Liverpool:

"I never felt like I wouldn't come back but the whole absence has toughened me up mentally and that will serve me in good stead because as much as this game is about fitness and skill you need to be mentally attuned too.

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Amidst last nights victory saw the albeit brief, but nonetheless significant appearance of Michael Johnson, who was introduced with little over two minutes remaining.
I must confess to being an unabashed Johnson-ite, and have waxed lyrical about his talents throughout his period of absence through injury. Click to continue reading...

"There's an understanding that at times the next game or opposition might not be the right one for them to be in the side.

"I look at the opposition and the threats our players can make - against different teams you need different threats. That will always come into my thinking, and the players understand that.

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Pepe Guardiola's Barcelona side continued their US tour with a stuttering performance against Mexican side Guadalajara and were lucky to come away with a point with Bojan tapping in to spare the Champions League winners blushes.

Don't forget to check out Online Football Manager!

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Pepe Guardiola's Barca side continue their sell out tour of the States with a comfortable victory over the Sounders with Lionel Messi being their chief tormentor with two goals, including a superb long range effort.

• Will Abramovich's wallet get Messi into a Chelsea shirt? (23)
• Man City Battler Kompany is £12m Barcelona Target (3)
• Man United Set for Slightly Odd £12m Barcelona Bid?

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Shaun Wright-Phillips may not think so, but there could well be some similarities between Chelsea and ourselves - from his own perspective at least.
Now, with the summer additions, Wright-Phillips could find himself on the outside looking in, much like his time at Chelsea.
Mark Hughes now realistically has two players in every position. Click to continue reading...

As expected, the possible transfer of Kolo Toure has progressed since news broke this afternoon that we were in talks with Arsenal and The Guardian reports that Toure is set to leave Arsenal's training camp this evening to ahead of undergoing a medical:

Touré is expected to fly directly into Manchester to take a medical examination tomorrow and finalise the personal terms of a contract that will see him join the growing band of players at City who earn in excess of £100,000 a week.

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Much is made of the strength in depth of the top four in comparison to rest of the Premier League, with an indication of this strength being the quality of your substitutes bench.
During 2008/09, the bench would routinely feature the likes of Hamman, Etuhu, Garrido, Evans, Caicedo, Gelson, Vassell and Glauber. Click to continue reading...

Manchester City is behaving like a kid with their first credit card, like Victoria Beckham at the LA Galaxy team store, like a alcoholic with a $1000 liquor store gift certificate...they are out of control. This is not just out of control, it's completely out of balance (or is it...read on).
They seem to be executing a brilliant strategy that I have named "The Reverse USA Emergency Phone Number Plan" aka. Click to continue reading...

Manchester City is behaving like a kid with their first credit card, like Victoria Beckham at the LA Galaxy team store, like a alcoholic with a $1000 liquor store gift certificate...they are out of control. This is not just out of control, it's completely out of balance (or is it...read on).
They seem to be executing a brilliant strategy that I have named "The Reverse USA Emergency Phone Number Plan" aka. Click to continue reading...

Seems to have a strong vertical leap. Will be very much called upon to
combat the likes of not just Didier Drogba and Fernando Torres but
Cousin and Kompany.

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Manchester City midfielder Vincent Kompany has revealed he was set to sign for arch rivals United - but his mother ruled it out. Instead she insisted he stay in his native Belgium and finish his education. That was six years ago when the then 17-year-old Kompany had already tasted Champions League football with Anderlecht. Click to continue reading...

Having witnessed that gutless, spineless, passionless excuse for a team rolled over by a Rags side that rarely needed to get out of second gear I wonder with MH in charge whether we have effectively seen the end of 'derbies' as we knew them.
I don't ask that just because I rate Hughes as too negative, no not at all, I can sit and watch Kompany and De Jong pass the ball backwards and sideways all day with the best of them before its (eventually) hoofed up to the lone striker.

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A disappointing day, and like Jack, for me there were too many echoes of the 1-0 defeat earlier this season in todays game, and we never really convinced that we were ever likely to be in the game.
Principally, we lacked the intent, belief and purpose that was needed to take anything from todays game. Click to continue reading...

Man United 2 - 0 Man City

Ronaldo 18, Tevez 45

Manchester United: Van der Sar, R Da Silva, Vidic, Evans, Evra, Ronaldo, Fletcher, Giggs, Park, Berbatov, Tevez.

Manchester United Subs: Kuszczak, Neville, Rooney, Carrick, Nani, Scholes, O'Shea.

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The 151st Manchester derby is upon us this Sunday, and added to the usual spice of a derby clash, a couple of sub plots have been thrown in to the mix, namely United aiming for the title and ourselves gunning for seventh spot to secure Europa League qualification next season.
Looking at our final three games, I feel six points should be enough to achieve this but I would argue that taking something from tomorrows game would be a huge boost. Click to continue reading...

[BBC preview, MEN preview]
Mixed emotions appear to be the mood around the blogosphere heading into tomorrow's Quarter final first leg in Hamburg.
On the one hand we have put in some good performances away from home in Europe this season with plenty of parallels being drawn with our group stage game at Schalke where we came away with an impressive victory. Click to continue reading...

Arsenal is back. Just a half hour until kick off. For those watching the game, post links to feeds here, as I will do as well. Glad that things are starting up against here are the starting line ups via BBC Sport:

Arsenal: Almunia, Sagna, Toure, Gallas, Clichy, Fabregas, Song Billong, Denilson, Walcott, Adebayor, Arshavin.

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div style="text-align: center;"[a href="http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/saturday-s-key-battles-arsenal-v-man-city"arsenal.com preview/a, a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/7972747.stm"bbc sport preview/a]br //divbr /The bookies make us very much second favourites for Saturday's trip to The Emirates, and even putting aside our miserable away form, Arsenal's resurgence of late backs this up in what is expected to be a very different game than when we met a href="http://bitterandblue. Click to continue reading...

1 - 0 A.Valencia 16'
1 - 1 V.Kompany 22'
2 - 1 A.Zaki (Pen) 34'
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Less than two months ago, Mark Hughes was the manager of Blackburn, a team with players more at ease playing soccer's version of the Highland games or rugby. Effete is not the word here. These players played like they wanted to tear another orifice in their opponent and stick a Union Jack in them.

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First Ronaldinho, now Henry - it seems that Manchester City, like it or not, are hell bent on making a star signing that who can help raise the club's profile across the world. Jo and Kompany are starts, but to really get things going Cook and co want a BIG name. With that in mind, here [...] Click to continue reading...

Özellikle Emirates Kupası'nda Hamburg'u izledikten sonra Bundesliga'da bu sezon dikkat çekici işler yapacaklarını burada da çizittirmiştim. Kadrolarındaki en dikkat çekici isimlerinden biriydi Kompany. Manchester City bitirmiş işi. Olimpik oyunlara katılma konusundaki inadı nedeniyle kulüp yönetimiyle papaz olmuş, bu nedenle ayrılışı kolaylaşmıştır. Click to continue reading...

HAVING suffered three warm-up losses on the spin to China, Japan and South Korea, at least the talk of an Olyroos medal at the Beijing Games, which kick-off with Thursday's opener against Serbia, has stopped. In truth, having drawn one of the toughest groups and in a tournament featuring players of the ilk of Riquelme, Messi, Aguero, Mascherano, Kalou, Diego, Pato, Ronaldinho, Kompany, Click to continue reading...

The Sun reports that Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger isn't looking to sign any defensive personnel during the summer months, with the Frenchman denying any current interest in Vincent Kompany. Wenger managed to woo Welsh whelp Aaron Ramsey from under the noses of Man Utd, something that was certain to have sent The Lord [. Click to continue reading...

So Setanta Sports has a weird article this morning, and it's got quotes from Arsene Wenger about Hamburg's center back Vincent Kompany. Kompany has been linked with us this summer as he could be just the type of defender we need, but Wenger has for some reason completely ruled it out.

"I have known Kompany for a long time, since he was 16. Click to continue reading...

Ok I have not been into following the Nasri story every single waking second like many sites seem to be but I have been keeping everyone someone updated so now I can officially confirm that Samir Nasri will sign for Arsenal in the coming week, most likely on Tuesday. Monday is a bank holiday in the UK and so it may happen then but most likely not. Click to continue reading...