Has Manchester City’s stature finally reached the Champions League level?

Before the Arab takeover in 2008, Manchester City were just another mid table team with mediocre set of players, more like Fulham of these days. They had won 2 league titles prior to that and had a pretty small trophy cabinet to boast of. Unlike Roman Abrahmovich at Chelsea, the wealthy Arab owners of Blue Manchester didn’t have prosperous beginnings in their initial years. Now, after 5 years under the Sheikh’s rule and an influx in an excess of 600 million$, the noisy neighbors have won 3 trophies, which include 2 FA Cups and a Premier League.

While they have been consistent in staying among the top 5 in the domestic league, their disastrous failures in the Champions League has landed them at the crossroads of uncertainty. Roberto Mancini was sacked after 4 seasons in charge, a tumultuous tenure in which he had to endure the egos of Tevez and Balotelli. While all this was the front end of the club, many changes were taking place behind the scenes. The club management underwent a massive shakeup which saw experienced personnel from Barcelona appointed to develop a better youth system, and the first team coaching staff is in the process of a huge makeover following Mancini’s sacking after the FA Cup final defeat at the hands of Wigan Athletic.

A trophy-less season after the nail-biting triumph in the League in the previous raised concerns over the future of the club and loyalty of the players. Also, the failure to step past the group stages of the Champions League, the trophy which everyone craves for, has left the owner with no choice but to take drastic action and restructure the team to bring it back to winning ways. And that is exactly the direction Shiekh Mansour is pointing his ship at. With the team already overflowing with talented players, new acquisitions in the form of Fernandinho and Jesus Navas have added a new dimension to a multi-faceted squad.

The Champions league level, as mentioned in the header, implies that the team is able to reach the semifinals at the very least. Now, how can just two signings and a new manager make a club, which has under-performed at every level, compete for top honors in Europe and Domestic cups? Well, with Manchester City, it is looking as though that would be the case. Let’s take a deeper look at which positions the team was lacking and what significance these two new signings would have over the course of the next season.

Jesus Navas

The Spanish and Seville winger has been on the radar of almost every top club in Europe from the past 8-10 years. He went close to becoming a Chelsea player, but decided to stay at Sevilla. The prime reason for his stay at his home club for so long attributes to his medical condition. Navas suffers from chronic homesickness and seizures and this very condition has been his evil, restricting his adventures to only Spain. This was also the reason for the failed transfer to Chelsea in 2006 after the clubs agreed a fee.

So, what has changed now? Navas has allegedly overcome this syndrome and is now prepared to venture into English shores. With a foray of Spanish players residing in England at the moment, Navas might as well feel at home. Issues aside, what does he bring to the table on a football pitch?

Prolific, sublime quality. If you want to rubber stamp the word “winger” beside a name, you can do that a million times beside Jesus Navas. You won’t get a much more ‘wingy’, ’widey’ winger anywhere in the world. Navas plays predominantly on the right wing and is a very good dribbler. He has a slender figure and possesses electric pace, beating defenders in a flash to produce juicy crosses for the center forwards. He needs to be more stocked up for the English challenge. Though his ball control is not so Spanishy, he has decent control for Premier League standards. The only downside to the transfer is his age. Navas will turn 28 this November and this obviously means his curve goes down from now on, with him having reached his peak.

Man City have had a mixed approach in handling wingers over the past seasons. Some of the notable ones being SWP, Adam Johnson, Craig Bellamy and Vladimir Weiss. Their style of football never depended much on the ability of pure wingplay. Of the above mentioned players, only SWP was an out-and-out winger, all others were used as inverted ones. Navas isn’t an inverted winger, and is most effective when used wide right. How the new manager will infuse him into the squad remains to be seen.

Fernandinho

Fernandinho is what you can call the ‘holy grail of midfield’, or rather a complete midfielder. He has the ability to play anywhere in the middle of the pitch and will do what ever you want him to do in that position. He can break up the opposition attacks and launch swift counters. His passing range is fantastic and there is also this long range shooting in his bag of tricks. He has good pace and stamina and is quick in possession. While he is not as burly a figure as Yaya Toure, he comes in with a good level of physicality.A new hope for City?

It is evident from the Champions League games how important Fernandinho was for Shakhtar’s midfield in countering the likes of Juventus, Chelsea and Dortmund. Though his domestic league in Turkey is way off compared to the EPL in terms of quality and intensity, his performances in Europe have caught more than an eye and Man City didn’t waste any time in seizing the opportunity to bring the Brazilian to England.

Man City has been playing 4-2-3-1, 4-4-2 and 3-5-2 over the past few seasons. The present set of players they possess is versatile enough to be adjusted into any of these three, but there is always a weak link which can be exploited by the opposition. That is where Fernandinho comes in. His ability to play in a 4-3-3 or a 4-2-3-1 or rather in any midfield, gives any manager that freedom to tinker with the formation and tactics with other players. With the likes of Yaya Toure and Javi Garcia already in the squad, the Brazilian’s signature will not only provide competition for starting places but also tactical versatility for the manager.

The Forecast

The transfer window is always busy with all the rumors flying around in holiday packages. And Man City will obviously be one of the busiest rumor airport owing to the riches of the club. Edin Dzeko, Carlos Tevez, Milner, Sinclair and Barry are rumored to be on their way out, while there is an endless list of incoming players. In an honest and sensible point of view, the departments in need of reinforcements are the defense and attack, with one central defender and a striker. Along with those two, we might as well see another winger and a fullback added to the squad taking the total signings in summer to 6.

What Man City lacked in the past two seasons in the UCL is depth in squad to play twice a week and produce favorable results. While their first season saw them closely miss out to Napoli and Bayern, the last one was pure implosion with the likes of Real Madrid and Dortmund in the group. With the signings of Navas and Fernandinho, the owner has made a statement of his UCL ambitions. Whether Man City will go on to win the thing or not is a question for another day, But they surely will aiming higher than the Quarterfinals this term.