Man City increase fire power

The inexorable tide of sky blue cash is washing over the football superpowers, sweeping away the best they have into a place where Lamborghinis land in your lap and players earn weekly sums of a stable African nation’s GDP. You got it right- the place is Manchester City, iSport's Pulasta Dhar looks at City's latest recruits and their probable reasons for joining City.

There are mainly 3 reasons why a player would want to move there. The first one, “I want a new challenge”. The second one, “I want to be part of this great team building project at Manchester City”, and the third, “My previous club did not do enough to keep me.” Well, we don’t know Adebayor’s reasons, but Tevez mentioned all three at his unveiling.

tevez Tevez seemed to already have lost his fashionista touch by wearing something peculiar on his head. Well, maybe with no Cristiano to compete with on the training grounds, we can excuse this passé.

Adebayor is close to joining the blues now, and I'm sure he can miss sitters for teams other than Arsenal. It’s a wonderful star cast isn’t it-- Adebayor, Santa Cruz, Robinho and Tevez? Hughes’s job won’t be to spur them on to score goals. His top priority will be procuring ways on how to tell them who will be the ‘millionaire bench warmer’. Well, even Jose Mourinho couldn’t do it that well!

We all expected to witness this when we learned of Robinho’s stunning arrival at Chelsea. Oh sorry! I meant City. Now they have spent the cash on a player who can light up the floodlights of their home ground by running on a treadmill. Well, Tevez is a world-class player and the intent is clear—they want to play in the Champion’s League next season. Not only have they got a top talent, but a global name which will help the further the clubs penetration into the lucrative Asian market.

There is no guarantee that Man City will invade the private world of the Big Four, but these are developments which underline 12 eventful months of new ownership. How Tevez adapts to finding out how the other half lives in Manchester after his success-soaked seasons at Old Trafford will be key to the move. Also, he has to win blue hearts now, not red ones.

United insisted they were willing to pay the £25.5m to secure Tevez's services, but in reality he was never coming back to Old Trafford at that stage. The point of no return had already been reached. Rooney can now fit in the pivotal role often occupied by Ronaldo and Tevez, and mark my words, the red-bull can score! The question to ask is whether Tevez’s presence would have made a big difference to United. The answer is no. But the answer to whether Tevez’s presence at City will make a big difference would have to be affirmative in every sense.

The number 32 is an upgrade on what City currently have and he will be at a club where - and even Eastlands fans know this - aspirations and expectations are currently on an entirely different level. The club owner’s have money which flows like oil, and when a sheikh wants something, he usually gets it.

Emanuel Adebayor, though lazy, scores loads of goals and will make an exciting partnership up front with the untiring Robinho and Tevez. Adebayor is a great buy given the transfer fees a 25 year old striker can demand in today’s crazy football world. I expect Hughes to experiment partnerships of Robinho or Tevez with Adebayor or Santa Cruz. The biggest difference in the transfers is how Arsenal fans wanted Adebayor to go, and how United fans wanted Tevez to stay. Adebayor proved his goal-scoring worth when he netted 30 goals for the gunners in the 07-08 season, a tally which gave him a place among Europe's top marksmen. To find him on the transfer list so early is a big dissapointment.

As City revel in the discomfort their muscle is causing to the established big players, we cannot question Carlos and Emanuel’s move because they honour two of the most important transfer criteria. ‘Are they better than what City have?’ Yes. And ‘Can City afford them?’ You know the answer.