City already on the case for January

City’s assistant manager Mark Bowen says that the search to bring more top-quality players to the Club is already well underway.

The recent takeover of City and the arrival of Robinho just before the close of the summer transfer window have heightened speculation over who Mark Hughes and his management team might bring in next, but Bowen says that feet will remain firmly on the ground and that thorough profiles of many players are currently being worked on.

He says, “We have people out there looking at names already, we will be travelling Europe over the next few months. We also have the chance, because we know what the budget is, to target players at the very top so if you think you can get them maybe they will come.

“You can also do a lot of background work, a lot of our scouts might almost be like private detectives to see if a target might settle in with us. Are they likely to embrace what we do, not just on the pitch but on the training ground as well?

“The gaffer puts a lot of emphasis on training, and if you are asking players to perform at the highest level of intensity then bringing people in who just want to stand around at training counting the hours to Saturday might upset the balance as well. That homework has to be done.”

The former Norwich City, Spurs and west Ham defender, who has worked alongside Mark Hughes at international domestic level, is also keen to emphasise that City’s approach is not just to bring bodies on board for the sake of it, and that shaping a team is key to looking at potential targets.

“Possibly the hardest job will be careful selection of the players we bring in, but also moulding them into a team,” he continues. “We have to make sure that we have a team.

“You can’t just point at the best players in the world, it does not work that way. You have to man-manage them and motivate them, you have to carefully select who you bring in and who they will work around.

“But look at someone like Stephen Ireland, is there genuinely a better player than him in his position in this country at the moment? You cannot just look at names on paper just because they play for big teams overseas and think that they will do better jobs than people like Stephen.

“You might have the ability to bring in a few more world stars, but then find someone like Robinho could be disenfranchised, so it’s a careful selection, but we will embrace it. We had success at Blackburn by bringing in the right type of players, albeit on a different budget, so it is important we get that situation right, and we are confident that we will do.”