There were no punch-ups and no fists flying in Manchester City's dressing room last week. Just good old-fashioned verbals.

Typically, it was a vintage performance by Craig Bellamy, bawling out his team-mates after they tossed away a win. In the line of fire was City's back four - Pablo Zabaleta, Kolo Toure, Joleon Lescott and Wayne Bridge - following their draw with Burnley.

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So, if I want Bellamy for the weekend - which I do - that leaves me 6.03 for a fourth middie or defender. Who to choose? And of course, the caveat here is that whomever I pick will be wrong. The candidates after the jump. De Jong or Kompany - Citeh host Burnley. Kompany performed better last week but with Toure likely to return to the defense, De Jong seems like the more likely starter. Click to continue reading...

Manchester City's Nigel de Jong: was he always this damn fine? He's got extra sugar in his coffee, that's for sure.
Mikel Arteta has a knee infection. That doesn't sound good.
Another celebrity A-lister chooses a Victoria Beckham dress. This time it's Drew Barrymore.
Shop Coleen Rooney's makeup collection.

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Manchester City's Nigel de Jong: was he always this damn fine? He's got extra sugar in his coffee, that's for sure.
Mikel Arteta has a knee infection. That doesn't sound good.
Another celebrity A-lister chooses a Victoria Beckham dress. This time it's Drew Barrymore.
Shop Coleen Rooney's makeup collection.

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Stephen Ireland has spoken about the recent incident where he was taken to hospital following the Fulham win:

"Thankfully it wasn't too serious because at the time I thought that was the end of me but I don't even know what it was. I've had every test that there is and still don't know what it was.

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Talented defensive midfielder very much in City's sights.

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MANCHESTER City have been linked with a move for Barcelona's Yaya Toure brother of Blues skipper Kolo.

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"Put the chequebook away we're just fine!"

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Mark Hughes has warned Manchester City fans against expecting many new arrivals in the January transfer window.

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Our man in the North was at Eastlands on Sunday:

Man City 2-2 Fulham

A crazy match, as our trips to Eastlands always seem to be. The common factor, of course, is the home side: City's star-studded ranks play with such abandon – committed to attack despite leaving generous space behind – that it seems Hodgson's normally conservative outfit can't help but join in the fun.

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TOTTENHAM will make a £6million move for Manchester City midfield ace Michael Johnson in the January window.

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It's a good job the club revamped the medical facilities last season as the treatment room is a crowded place currently:

"We have a couple of doubts. Kolo has not trained since Villa due to the bang on the heel he received there, and Craig Bellamy has a little bit of stiffness in his groin.

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I noted in a recent post that so often, goals from set pieces can be the difference maker in Premier League games.
And at half time last night this looked to be the case. Two very evenly matched sides in terms of personnel and outlookwere seperated by a Richard Dunne (didn't you know it) header from a corner. 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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Manchester City midfielder Nigel de Jong has revealed that he has considered a career in motor racing.

"I was always into cars as a kid," the Dutchman revealed. "It started with my grandfather. He worked for Ford for 40 years and every two years he would come home with a new car. I used to go to the factory to see the new models when they were coming out.

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Bit late with this, I know. Much like Michael Owen...
THE GOOD
• Sunday's Manchester derby was the greatest Prem game I've ever seen (please note italics, folks) – even better than the pair of 4-3 belters served up by Liverpool and Newcastle United in the mid-1990s, or the 4-4 belter between Chelsea and Spurs in 2008. Click to continue reading...

From Old Trafford, Attendance 75,066 , Referee Martin Atkinson Manchester United 4 3 Manchester City

Wayne Rooney (2)
Darren Fletcher (49)
Darren Fletcher (80)
Michael Owen (90)

Gareth Barry (16)
Craig Bellamy (52)
Craig Bellamy (90)

Manchester United Team Statistics Manchester City 4 Goals 3 8 Shots On Target 4 10 Shots Off Target 4 6 Shots Blocked 3 11 Corners 1 1 Offsides 1 15 Fouls 16 2 Yellow Cards 2 0 Red Cards 0 59. Click to continue reading...

An interesting piece from Henry Winter in todays Telegraph:

The temporary absence of all his expensive attacking superstars for Sunday's derby may appear a cruel conspiracy to City, but it also provides an opportunity for Hughes to show how he can juggle depleted resources, how he can devise a game-plan to frustrate the champions.

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Much has been written about the way in which Mark Hughes has overhauled the side over the past twelve months, with the deadline day sale of Richard Dunne a symbolic move given his links to the past.
Not only was Dunne the longest serving player, but he was clearly the most experienced City player with his 290 league starts. Click to continue reading...

After confidently predicting that Man City will win the league this year, it is with great delight and a degree of smugness that I've watched Mark Hughes' men confidently open their campaign with a 100% record and zero goals conceded. That's right all you naysayers.... Zero goals conceded! Oh, how the so called experts carped on about City's vulnerabilities at the back, about how they will win or lose each game 4-3.

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Perhaps not the performance many were expecting then.
Whilst three points were anticipated ahead of the game, to take the points with a performance that married grit, determination and tenacity. A 2-0 away victory at Blackburn is precisely the type of result needed if we are to have ambition this season. Click to continue reading...

It's not often that another team in England, let alone in Manchester, hogs the headlines more than Manchester United. But it's not often that a British team gets bought over by an Abu Dhabi investment group, although football clubs are starting to replace private islands and super-yachts as the new playthings for the filthy rich.

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The season is fast approaching, and with preseason friendlies now fully underway squads are getting ready for the 2009/10 Premier League season. Last season saw Aston Villa comfortable in fourth place for much of the season before stuttering over the finish line, but Martin O'Neill's side lead a long list of clubs hoping to crack into the four coveted Champions League spots this season.

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Decisions, decisions?

MANCHESTER CITY and Bolton are battling it out to land Sporting Lisbon's Miguel Veloso.
The Portuguese midfielder, 23, has an agreement with Sporting he can leave for a fee of around £15million and has his heart set on a move to the Premier League.

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Say what you will about the obscene amount of money being spent by Manchester City this summer, but you have to admit that there's a certain perverse pleasure in watching someone build a real-life club lineup in much the same way that most regular joes would create their starting XI in a video game.

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"They showed me the money."
As Noel Gallagher said recently, Manchester City and Real Madrid are currently the two most exciting football clubs in the world.
Nice soundbite, Mr Wonderwall, but in case you hadn't noticed, the season has not started... so City are only exciting because every hyped footballer in the world is linked with a move to Eastlands. Click to continue reading...

Swiss holding midfielder Gelson Fernandes has left Manchester City for Saint Etienne for an undisclosed fee after slipping down the Eastlands' pecking order due to the arrivals of Vincent Kompany and Nigel de Jong.
With the World Cup approaching, Fernandes will have been eager to drive for a regular starting position for Switzerland by impressing at club level and the prospects of achieving this at the City of Manchester Stadium were diminishing ever since Mark Hughes replaced Sven Goran Eriksson as manager. Click to continue reading...

"It is going to be a big year for me. I will not be looking to sit on the bench all the time," said the 22-year-old. I am aware that it is a squad game but I need to play."

>>skysports.com

Whilst his opening season was a good one with us, 2008/09 seemed to see Gelson Fernandes move from bright young prospect to official boo-boy.

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Manchester City were pretty disappointing last season even though they had significantly reinforced the squad and they ended up missing out on the European places. That denied them the chance to lure any world-class players to the club but it could turn out to be a blessing in disguise.

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The Netherlands became the first European team to book their place at the 2010 World Cup Finals at the weekend after their 2-1 win over Iceland in Reykjavik. The Dutch maintained their 100% record in the campaign thanks to a goal apiece from Nigel De Jong and Mark Van Bommel, and it leaves them 11 points clear at the top of Group 9 ahead of Scotland who have a game in hand. Click to continue reading...

I will include my ratings of each player's performance thus far at City using a 1 to 10 scale, 10 being world class, 1 being fit for the Sunday league.
-- Nigel de Jong £17m (8 -- de Jong has been excellent since his arrival from Germany; Looking forward to seeing him play full Premiership season in '09-10)
-- Robinho £32. Click to continue reading...

El Mundial es color, es pasión, es espectáculo de lágrimas y risas, vaya, es una fiesta, y es innegable que siempre comemos ansias contando el tiempo que falta para que llegue. Es por eso que anuncio con bombo y platillo que para éste magno espectáculo a poco mas de un año para que inicie ya están repartidas cuatro invitaciones en el siguiente orden: Japón, Australia, Corea del Sur y Holanda.

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El Mundial es color, es pasión, es espectáculo de lágrimas y risas, vaya, es una fiesta, y es innegable que siempre comemos ansias contando el tiempo que falta para que llegue. Es por eso que anuncio con bombo y platillo que para éste magno espectáculo a poco mas de un año para que inicie ya están repartidas cuatro invitaciones en el siguiente orden: Japón, Australia, Corea del Sur y Holanda.

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All Bundesliga transfers are listed on this page.

You'll find the January 2009 Bundesliga transfers listed here. For the latest transfer rumours and transfer lists for other leagues, see our transfer news column.

If you find a transfer not listed here let us know and we'll add it.

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When Manchester City were taken over last Autumn by foreign investors with pockets deeper than their oil wells, there was hysteria across the footballing world. The media whipped up a frenzy feasting on a seemingly endless list of managerial and transfer targets encouraged by ambitious and occasionally ridiculous club transfer targets.

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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.

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Man United and Man City met at Old Trafford today in what was a clash of two in-form sides. It was expected to be a fairly tight, hotly contested affair with little margin for error. It turned out quite different, in a match in which Carlos Tevez made a huge statement towards Alex Ferguson regarding his future at the club.

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