by stmichael » Mon Apr 30, 2007 1:22 pm
I see we're being linked with Micah Richards again today.
I know this much about Richards - if his talent isn't completely crushed beneath the weight of expectation and carrying the rest of City's defence, he looks like he could be a world-beater to me.
He's got a phenomenal physique for a young lad, allied to an amazing engine. He's effective at RB now, although he'll probably develop into a CB in the long term as his game awareness increases, he's also done a good, competent job in a midfield role when asked to play there. He's not scared to get forward from RB, but doesn't seem to get sucked into neglecting his defensive duties and has the pace to get back quickly when needed. He also didn't look overawed or out of his depth playing for England, unlike some of his more illustrious team-mates. I know several match-going City fans and to a man they rave about this lad, more than they did about SWP for example.
The apparent Chelsea interest and ludicrous price that's likely to go along with it is the only thing that would make me think twice about signing him. In the short term, he'd be good cover for Finnan at RB and with Hyypia slowly vanishing from the first team picture, for Agger and Carra at CB - he's better that Paletta for a start.
Thinking about this has actually helped me to flesh out some of my vague misgivings about the right-sided players I keep hearing us linked with, Simao and Alves in particular. I keep hearing that Alves is a RB, but whenever I see him play he seems to be very much a RW to me. He looks like a very good RW too, but surely we need a defensively minded RB first and foremost? If it's Alves and somebody else, OK, but who's the defensive signing?
Simao, I'm not convinced about at all for a number of reasons. Firstly, his club have taken the pi$$ with his fee for over two years. The last I heard was that he has a clause of £13.5m - considering that we had a bid of £10m accepted before an eleventh-hour change of heart, I'd like to know what he's done since that merits a 35% increase in his price. Secondly, his contribution defensively is the square root of bugger all and as such, if we signed him my point above becomes even more important.
The last thing we need is next season is to regularly see situations like the one mid-week against Chelsea on the left, where we're caught with our full-back near the opposition area, our wide midfielder not filling in the gap behind him effectively and our defence exposed to the counter-attack. I'm all for flowing, attractive attacking football, but not at the expense of defensive solidity.