Robinho Manchester City

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Robinho Manchester City

Manchester City - Ready For Lift-Off

Just about every football supporter has a burning sense of optimism in the early days of July each year. Players will recover from injury, rediscover lost form and be joined by those much-needed reinforcements that will mean that this coming season will be the one to remember.

Few can be as optimistic as Manchester City fans, however. They will have been quite prepared to write off season 2008/09 as a year of 'development' and 'acclimatisation'. A new manager, new players - in fact, a totally new regime at the magnificent City of Manchester Stadium, Eastlands, would clearly need time to gel. Even the mega rich owners were prepared to exhibit much-needed ( and perhaps surprising) patience.

But this year will be different. This year must be different. This year, the team will be expected to make that big leap into the upper reaches of the Premier League. Last year, there were a few home performances that could genuinely have been described as first class - the team played fast, attractive attacking football and looked on the verge of great things. Away from Manchester, though, the story was rather different and there clearly were areas that needed attention.

That, unfortunately for City fans, has been the problem. It must be very demoralising for a footballer who thinks he's a good player not to have been linked with a transfer to Manchester City in the past few months. As Mark Hughes resignedly expressed it at a press conference towards the end of last season, 'that's today's rumour.' Yet, just as clearly, the club have been chasing star signatures - Kaka being encouraged to join his Brazilian team mates Robinho and Elano at Eastlands, for example.

The club seem to have two problems encouraging people to sign for them. Firstly, clubs with players to sell see 'Moneybags' Manchester City arriving and add a string of zeros onto any transfer fee that they might have had in mind. Let's face it, billionaires don't get that way by paying over the odds for things, so expect a few more signings slipping away.

More significantly, though, is perhaps that, whilst recognising that Manchester City are on the way to becoming a 'big' club - they're not there yet. At his very first English press conference, the new Chelsea boss, Carlo Ancelotti, claimed that John Terry wouldn't be joining City because they were not a 'big enough club' for him. Similarly, he was in charge at Milan when the attempt was made to tempt Kaka but Ancelotti was quoted as saying, 'For the players, it's important to play in the Champions' League. It's not only money.'

So, as Shakespeare would have put it, 'there's the rub'. You want the best players to take you into the Champions' League but the best players won't come - because you're not in the Champions' League.

But, it's inevitable that some players will want to join the City adventure; Gareth Barry has arrived and the prospect of seeing him playing alongside the excellent Stephen Ireland is a truly enticing one. If Mark Hughes can manage to make Roque Santa Cruz play like he did two seasons' ago at Blackburn, then he could be a real bargain buy. There were also signs in the Under 21 international summer tournament that Micah Richards might have sorted his head out enough to become the player he looked like he might be when he burst onto the England scene.

With one or two more signings sure to follow, you can see why Manchester City fans genuinely feel that this coming season will be the one when they can make that big step forwards and justifiably compare themselves with Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal and that gang up the road in Trafford.

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Robinho Manchester City 08/09 All Goals

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