File this one under Holy Bloody Crap. Manchester City, a club that was in the third tier of English football not too long ago, is today the richest football club in the world, the fortune of their owners estimated at about $50 billion.

City wasted no time in flashing their newfound cash, offering about $200 million yesterday as they tried in vain to lure David Villa from Valencia and Mario Gomez from Stuttgart. Click to continue reading...

Welcome back to a new season of Manchester City football!

Yes, I understand that two league matches, and a round and a half of UEFA Cup matches, have already been played. But, there hasn't been anything worth remembering until the Citizens 3-0 dismantling of West Ham this past Sunday. A friend of mine, who is a Hammers supporter, informed me that City was lucky that they were able to play most of the match a man up as West Ham midfielder Mark Noble was sent off in the 39th minute with his second yellow card of the day. Click to continue reading...

First, let's remind ourselves of how last season finished.

And here's how the table will look in May 2009 (yeah, right!):

1. Chelsea
It's boring to say, but this is a team that suffered the chaos of Jose Mourinho's sacking, the listlessness of Avram Grant's leadership, and was hit by multiple injuries and absences last year—and they still took the title to the last day and only lost the Champions League final on penalties. Click to continue reading...

Manchester City's 2007-2008 campaign was their best since rejoining the Premiership after a few years of purgatory in England's lower levels. Manager Sven-Göran Eriksson compiled a very respectable 19-11-15 record in his first year on the job, guiding the club to a 9th-place finish, a trip to the Carling Cup quarterfinals, and a berth in the UEFA Cup through their fair play record. Click to continue reading...

As hinted to in earlier posts, it's almost time for my second annual Premiership preview.

Beginning this Friday, August 1, I'll be covering two teams a day for 10 days, starting with the club I believe will finish dead last this year and working my way up in order to the eventual league champion. Click to continue reading...

City start European campaign with solid win Sparky Hughes will be relatively happy to come away from the Faroe Islands with a win and a clean sheet. Fine goals by Martin Petrov and Dietmar Hamann - his first in more... Click to continue reading...

Manchester City kicked off their official season yesterday with a 2-0 victory over EB Streymur of the Faroe Islands. The match is City's first of their UEFA Cup qualifiers.

First half goals from Martin Petrov and Dietmar Hamann give City a crucial 2-0 aggregate advantage heading into the second leg which will be played in England. Click to continue reading...

A manager's success is directly tied to the players he recruits, so naturally, the manager needs to make his money count. Clubs always have reservations about making money available to their manager, especially when players like David Nugent are bought for £6 million, but these ten buys were truly divine. Click to continue reading...

Out of all the Premier League football managers that should lose their jobs in the summer, would Sven-Goran Eriksson have been on anyone's top three list? You could argue that Paul Jewell has done nothing to halt Derby's depressing run of form (if anything, he's made it worse), you might even say that Alan Curbishley [. Click to continue reading...

Many people are calling it the bargain of the January transfer window. While it cost around £9 million for Portsmouth to sign Jermain Defoe from Tottenham, Manchester City have acquired Benjani from the Hampshire club for an initial fee of less than £4 million. The Daily Mail report that City's star performer this season is [. Click to continue reading...

And on we go to face Sheff U.

Martin Petrov carries on his personal crusade to be personally involved via assists or goals in more attacking intent than a whole team showed last year.

In truth West Ham could have been 2/3 -o up before we decided to make a game of it in the last half hour. Click to continue reading...

Newcastle become the latest club to feel the force of Sven Goran Eriksson's blue revoloution.

Despite taking a suprise lead through the impressive Obafemi Martins, Newcastle held the lead for just eight minutes. In reality they were lucky to get eight minutes as a city side clearly high on confidence and with lynchpins's Elano and Petrov, finally looking like they are approaching full fitness, pulling the strings that newcastle could clearly not live with. Click to continue reading...

Slovenia vs. Belarus, Arena Petrol - Celje
Bulgaria vs. Luxembourg, Vasil Levski National Stadium - Sofia
Albania vs. Netherlands, Qemal Stafa - Tirana

Wow, what a crappy way to end my previews. I would personally rather slip n' slide on a gravel driveway naked than watch Belarus take on Slovenia. If Hleb is playing, the visitors should win, 1-0. Click to continue reading...

Due to international duty, quite a few key players were unavailable for this week's training session, namely Pablo, Pernia, Maxi, Seitaridis, Simao, Raul Garcia, and Jurado. Who did participate? Leo Franco; Falcón; Antonio López; Luccin; Braulio; Mista; Zé Castro; Maniche; Vara; Eller; Kun; Reyes; Perea; Luis García; Forlán; Cléber Santana. Early Thoughts on the Derby The main focus [. Click to continue reading...

Finally a player that the press pack hordes have linked us to in recent times has actually pitched up at Eastlands as Bulgarian international Martin Petrov succumbed to the Sven-gali like charm to climb aboard the re-building programme.

The MEN (I think) were first up with confirmation this morning, following up from a couple of links posted on here last night (keep them coming by the way) and the usual rumours in the mainstream press. Click to continue reading...

Petrov is set to sign for Manchester City after agreeing to an 8 million euro contract. I liked Petrov and am sad to see him go, but since that awful knee ligament injury and the recent arrival of Luis Garcia, his future at the club has been in doubt. Best of luck to him at [...] Click to continue reading...

The 28yr old LEFT WINGER !!! has signed for City on a three year deal for 4.7 million.

City have beaten off stiff competion from amongst others Spurs to land the Bulgarian International.

Alistair Mackintosh put it down to the sven factor !

A youtube taster

With a couple of Italians, plus a striker possibly still to come in im buzzing like an ann summers party for the start of the new season. Click to continue reading...

 Centre-back Pablo has dismissed a possible move to Real Zaragoza or Deportivo La Coruña today by making it clear he wishes to stay with los rojiblancos: I have the support of the coach and board to allow me to stay here...I feel like an important player here and I want prove that I am this season. At [...] Click to continue reading...

Well, it looks likely. Many sources (AS and MARCA) are reporting that he didn't participate in the squad's training session in order to consider offers from a few clubs. I hate to write about rumours/speculation but it's difficult to pass this one up because it's all over the Spanish press (and English press.) Here are three [...] Click to continue reading...

There was quite a bit of of speculation surrounding a possible move for Petrov to Spurs last season. Part of it had to do with the Bulgarian connection Berbatov had joined Spurs that summer and it was believed Petrov would be enticed by the thought of playing alongside his fellow countryman. Well, that never came [...] Click to continue reading...