Manchester City: Distin out, Silvestre in?
The longer Silvan Distin’s new contract offer goes left unsigned the more likely his departure looms. The Manchester Evening News are today indicating that City will allow the French central defender to leave for £5million, and that Middlesbrough and Portsmouth are poised to acquire his services.
With £5 million in the City coffers how would Stuart Pearce go about replacing his regular centre half?
The emergence last season of Micah Richards has been a tremendous boost to the club and it’s fans. In an otherwise poor run in to last season Richards was the one bright star, playing at fullback, centre half and central midfield. Interviewed recently on the club’s own website Richards stated that centre half was his preferred position. It’s my own personal opinion that already Richards is not far off being a better player than Distin, and I would have no qualms if he teams up with Richard Dunne for the coming season.
If or when Distin departs a very good a first choice pairing of Dunne and Richards will be supported by the promising youngsters Nedum Onouha and Matthew Mills. The only problem I can envisage is if Richard Dunne were to get injured City would then have a very young pairing at the heart of their defence.
Although Stuart Pearce has strengthened his central midfield and strikers he has not replaced the left sided players Kiki Musampa or Albert Riera, who he released from their loan spells at the end of last season. The pre-season games so far have indicated that the immerging youngster Ishmael Miller is being groomed for this position but despite showing very good form he has yet to cut his teeth in the highly competitive premiership.
Whilst City have some decent players to chose at fullback, most notably Nedum Onouha (right back) and Stephen Jordon (left back), if the club wants to move up a level then quality, established players need to be brought in for these positions.
If Stuart Pearce were to look across town he may notice that Mikael Silvestre has been pushed down the pecking order at rivals Manchester United. With the arrivals of Vidic and Evre, plus the return to full fitness of Brown and Heinze, it could be fair to guess that Silvestre will only have a bit part to play in United’s season.
Silvestre to me is primarily an excellent left back. With his energy and pace he could give someone like City options coming forward from the back as well as being sound defensively. The added bonus to City would be that should Richard Dunne get injured then he could provide experienced cover at centre half. Also were Ishmael Miller to struggle then he could be pushed up to provide natural balance at left midfield.
Would Silvestre move to City?
With the 28 year old expecting to feature less and less at United he may want to play regular football at the prime of his career. A move to local rivals City would mean he doesn’t have uproot from Manchester. And last, but by no means least, City’s new signing from Lazio, Osomane Dabo, has already spoken of Silvestre as a friend from their earlier careers in France, who helped him with advice on his latest move. A friendly face at City would help smooth any potential move.
Would United sell Silvestre?
As mentioned before United now have sufficient cover at left back and centre half. Even though Silvestre would still be a valuable squad member United are looking to strengthen in other positions, and a decent offer of between £3m to £4million may yet tempt them to sell. Although the speculation was that Ferguson was to have an ample war chest for summer transfers the reality seems to be less promising, and selling the likes of Silvestre may be an option.
If as expected Distin departs Manchester City soon then Stuart Pearce could do worse than to use most of the funds on his fellow compatriot across the City. Any money left over from the dealings could then be used towards prising Steve Sidwell away from Reading.
Manchester City fans may not like going after a United player but in this case I think it makes perfect sense.
What do you think?
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- 2 reasons why Silvestre is still at Manchester United
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Discussion - 12 Responses
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Welcome to the site mate
1) You want Evra? We can give you Evra.
2) Silvestre is a left-back who cannot cross, and a centre-half who forgets to mark his opponents. I’d prefer O’Shea playing at left-back or centre-half instead of Silvestre.
Any United fans want to speak about Silvestre?
We could use the 5 mil, yea.
Sylvestre should stick to making cartoons with tweety-pie! The footballing version is an absolute wanker and should not be allowed inside COMS unless he’s wearing a united shirt. His contributions to City’s win last january are a reminder of what a waste of space he is.
agree that richards is already just about as good as distin, and with games under his belt will soon become far better. disagree we should get silvestre…not because he’s a rag (i’d gladly take wes brown off their hands), but because he’s half the player he was 2 or 3 years ago…and even that wasn’t great. wayne bridge for a similar fee to what you mentioned would be a better bet for me, if we wanted to spend that much on a full-back. however, a left-sided midfielder is surely a bigger priority?
Silvestra…lol
United fans hate the clueless wonder and how the hell did he ever get capped? Sorry but you can have him at Lens as he is french and would feel right at home…
I do like Sylvain and he is really a nice fella, but his greed is a let down and he can get stuffed for all I care. He has earned enough from the premiership to retire and be financially secure plus where are Sylvains caps? He ain’t no captain, arm band or no arm band?
He also only plays for 75 mins and never 90. Richard Dunne is a far better player and we at City are happy with what we hae so far and thats not just Micah, its also the fact that Ned Onouha is a far better prospect for the future than Sylvain. So Sylvain better wake up or just stay in his dream world and grab what he can elsewhere. No single player is bigger than our club!
Silvestre sucks. Too many mistakes, lazy, and has massive head. Just take him away so Fergie has no choice but to play someone else. You could also take Fletcher and Miller. After that I think we have a pretty strong team, capable of doing anything.
mate - you are nuts. whenever we play the rags, silvestre is the first name i check for on the team sheet - if he is playing I know that we are in with a chance. he has slipped down their pecking order because he is absolute sh*te.
Despite the bad rap Silvestre has (from United fans and footy fans in general), he’s not that bad, and his pace and strength would help Manchester City. He’s better than what you’ve got already.
That being said, Silvestre is also above Evra in the pecking order and because he can cover centre-half as well, I don’t see him leaving unless United bring another recruit in midfield and O’Shea moves back into defence. And even then, I’d see Evra leaving, not Silvestre.
But he would be a good signing for City, yea
Ahmed dude.
You really are having a laugh to say Silvestra is above any Rag player in the pecking order. And only a Rag would say he would be a good signing for City.
If you did’nt realise it? We do have the best academy in the Premiership and why do we need anymore pensioners? Dieter is a good signing and so is Dickov for what he delivers to our squad. But come on what does Silvestra deliver to any squad?
Anyway goodbye Distin, big chance of Europe and caps at Fratton park eh? ROFL!!!
maybe you could play Silvestre in midfield Ahmed, he couldn’t be any worse than some of the jokers you’ve got there.
Dougie - I know you’re a man city fan but seriously, Silvestre is better than your players
fat frank - I’m a United fan, so we’ve got people like Scholes, Carrick, Giggs and Ronaldo in the middle of the park. We’re full, thank you. But Silvestre can play left-back, launch air balls into the crowd and repeatedly give the ball back to the opposition in our own half so they can try to attack.
A gem of a player
Silvestre would be a brilliant signing for mcfc. He would be the best player in the squad by far. He could even get a starting place upfront in the squad mcfc have…..
knowing how stupid city fans are, if you havent guessed i am a united fan. You can have silvestre. sh#t at united, best player at city.
i accept sivestre go to man city but manu need to buy in a defender that can replace sivestre such as daniel alves and boca juniors ’s sivestre