Manchester City are ready to pay £100m+ to reunite Lionel Messi with Pep Guardiola at the Etihad in the upcoming transfer window. The sensational switch to bring the five-time winner of the FIFA Ballon d’ Or from the Nou Camp to Manchester, is finally set to happen, with City believed to have already agreed to meet the buy-out clause in the superstar striker’s contract. Sources close to City claim the […]

Does Txiki Begiristain deserve a tick in the box or a ticking off, after presiding over eight transfer windows since joining Manchester City in October 2012? With the summer transfer window creaking on its hinges ready to slam shut tonight, City’s Director of Football seems to be putting together more loan deals than Wonga, Amigo and Pounds to Pocket, combined. Maybe he should consider changing his nickname from Txiki to […]

Joe Hart has – in the words of the song from the iconic ‘Italian Job’ movie – been forced to join the ‘self preservation society’ by Pep Guardiola. The new City boss has blown the ‘bloody doors off’ Hart’s Manchester City career, as the deposed keeper is left with little option but to join Torino on a season long loan deal to Serie A. Pep’s pedigree as the pre-eminent manager […]

Fairly or unfairly, it’s pretty damn certain that Joe Hart is heading for the Etihad exit in the next few days. Last night saw an outpouring of emotion for City’s popular keeper, as thousands of fans sang his name and applauded his every touch during the win over Steaua Bucharest. Pep Guardiola even gave Joe the captain’s armband for what will surely be his last appearance as a City blue. […]

Manuel Pellegrini’s luxuriant grey locks are probably the only ‘target’ for the hairdryer treatment in Manchester City’s dressing room this season. That has to change – and fast, if City are to win the Premier League for a third time in five years.  The cool Chilean is a dignified figure, the personification of composure, not given to red mist reactions, but something has to give if he is to engineer […]

If somebody said Manchester City had every chance of topping the Premier League – at least seven points clear of Chelsea – going into the second international break of the season, who in sky blue, wouldn’t have taken it? By the same token, how many City fans would have turned down the prospect of a historic Champions League win on German soil and being well poised in a very challenging […]

In a second article where Read But Never Red goes slightly ‘off piste’ from writing exclusively about Manchester City, we once again delve into the thoughts of a football manager and head of youth development, this time on the topic of aspiring goalkeepers. The often ‘colourful’ and controversial manager is concerned that many professional clubs in England are inadvertently blighting the potential of youngsters, by imposing strict height requirements before […]

It was ‘all go’ at the Etihad Stadium – Super Frankie Lampard was going west, ‘Jimmy’ Milner was going east (down the East Lancs Road to be precise) and, quite astonishingly, Yaya Toure was going nowhere! With the Runners-up slot safely secured for the second time in three seasons, Manchester City were going for a sixth win on the spin, a clean sheet so Joe Hart could grab another Golden […]

Automatic Champions League qualification secured, highest scorers and best goal difference in the division, five consecutive wins, a shoe-in for the Golden Boot Award and the Golden Glove within grasp… Manchester City are clearly a club in meltdown! Yes, City have missed out this season on the trophies that really matter, but does anyone really believe that Sheikh Mansour is going to allow his quest for football’s Holy Grail to […]

Two years and 362 days ago Queen’s Park Rangers came to the Etihad Stadium, desperately seeking a result to dig themselves out of the relegation mire. Their hosts just needed to win to ensure their first ever Premier League crown and be acclaimed as Champions of England after a 44-year wait. Three years on, and both Manchester City and QPR would happily embrace the circumstances that prevailed on May 13th, […]