Manchester City transfer news

PEP GUARDIOLA cannot get a break. Even when he gets a break.Yet as Manchester City’s Prem misery deepened at Selhurst Park, the sense that even the Catalan magician knows the title is a lost cause was hard to shift.Rico Lewis saw red after a tackle on Trevoh ChalobahCredit: PAPep Guardiola saw his team drop points once againCredit: AlamyCity stars confronted the referee after the gameCredit: ReutersBut Crystal Palace were worth their point earned by goals from Daniel Munoz and Maxence LacroixCredit: GettyIn normal circumstances, finding a way to battle back on terms twice and dominating long periods would have been a sign of City slowly starting to find their feet.But these are not normal circumstances.Not when City have lost four of the previous five league matches to have been blown off title pace before they walked into the teeth of Storm Darragh.And dropping more points, as well as seeing Rico Lewis sent off for two cautions in the space of a quarter of an hour when they should have been pushing for the winner, added to City’s winter woes.read more in footballThere is something wrong with City. Badly wrong.Everyone can see it. Everyone HAS seen it.Yes, at times they can briefly recapture that swagger and poise, can appear on the cusp of regaining their confidence.But it only takes the next mistake to rip that veneer of self-belief away and display the gaping vulnerabilities.Most read in FootballBEST FREE BET SIGN UP OFFERS FOR UK BOOKMAKERSMistakes that continue to emerge under pressure, that allowed Daniel Munoz and then Maxence Lacroix to twice put Palace ahead.In the end, after terrific replies from first Erling Halaand and then, before his dismissal, Lewis, those moments were not enough to earn Palace their first home win over City since 2015 – before Guardiola took the Etihad helm.’I won fair and clean,’ says Jose Mourinho as he hits back after Pep Guardiola dig There are reasons, of course. The City missing list is seemingly limitless – and growing with every passing week.Guardiola, already without John Stones, Nathan Ake, Mateo Kovacic and long-term absentees Rodri and Oscar Bobb, travelled down to the capital without both bronchitis victim Phil Foden and Manuel Akanji.But there cannot be ANY excuses for a team with City’s financial resources.Injuries are simply part of football and it has been Guardiola’s choice to drop Ederson and play Stefan Ortega in goal.What was an additional factor, though, were the conditions, teeming rain and the threat of 50mph-plus winds.Not that the conditions were responsible for the opener, inside four minutes.Jean-Philippe Mateta span off the lazy Josko Gvardiol to play a return to Will Hughes.The midfielder spotted that Lewis had switched off, allowing Daniel Munoz – played onside by Ruben Dias – to run in on goal.Munoz obliged, his drive flicking the inside of Ortega’s glove on its way to the net.Appeals for a VAR reprieve, led by Dias, correctly fell on deaf ears at Stockley Park.Initially, it looked darker for City as Haaland, of all people, wasted two chances to put them back on terms.The first was just three minutes later, when Kevin de Bruyne played perfectly in behind the Palace backline.You would have put your house on Haaland. Instead, he smashed into the face of the onrushing Dean Henderson.Then Haaland shrugged aside Maxence Lacroix to find de Bruyne but overran the return pass, allowing the home defence to hack clear.Ismaila Sarr spooned over from the edge of the box fro Palace before Henderson’s left-hand upright denied Ilkay Gundogan’s volley, with Savinho frustrated as he steered the rebound wide of the other post.But after a brilliant block by Dias prevented Jefferson Lerma making it two after Munoz shrugged off Lewis’ attentions and linked up with Sarr and Mateta, City did equalise.Nunes flung in a ball to the back post where Haaland rose as high as a skyscraper, out-jumping both Henderson and Marc Guehi – back wearing the regular armband after the week’s rainbow furore – and raising his left arm as his header floated into the far corner.Instead of waiting to be congratulated, Haaland urged his team-mates to join him for an impromptu huddle inside the PALACE box before they returned to their own half.Lacroix just prevented De Bruyne’s low cross finding Haaland in front of goal before the interval.City were starting to play, Palace forced deep. Only for Guardiola’s men to cause themselves more damage.Hughes, gifted the ball 30 out, saw his shot deflected behind but jogged over to take the right-wing corner.It looked a routine, middle of the six yard box inswinger.But Ortega was stuck like a statue, Walker got caught underneath the ball, and Lacroix cashed in, thumping home an unstoppable header from close range.Another defeat would have been true crisis.Instead, Palace were unpicked after a drop ball, quick passes between Gundogan, de Bruyne and finally Bernardo Silva creating the opening for Lewis, running through the channel, to lash high right-footed past the stranded Henderson.No celebrations for this goal either – City knew a point was not enough.Henderson clawed away a deflected Savinho effort, Haaland’s header was touched over the bar and you expected the storm to overwhelm Palace.But Lewis, booked for dissent soon after his goal, slid in to send Chalobah flying inside the Palace box, a needless foul that sent them down to 10.READ MORE SUN STORIESIf anyone was going to win it after that, it was Palace. Which tells you all you need to know. More

FORMER Manchester City assistant Mark Bowen has revealed the club once lodged an “accidental” £35m bid for Lionel Messi.And the offer got City’s new ownership in hot water with Barcelona’s president who told the Prem side, “who the f*** do you think you are?”Mark Bowen has revealed the club once lodged an ‘accidental’ bid for Lionel MessiLionel Messi was slowly becoming the best player in the world back in 2008Bowen served as Mark Hughes’ assistant manager at a number of clubs and followed his countryman to City in 2008 following Sheikh Mansour’s takeoverBack in 2008, flushed with cash from their new Abu Dhabi backed owners, City were spending money for fun. During that summer, they brought in Vincent Kompany, Pablo Zabaleta, Tal Ben Haim, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Brazilian striker Jo.But they were still keen to land a marquee name – which eventually saw them break the British transfer record for Robinho from Real Madrid for £32.5m. However, there was a point during that summer that the Cityzens were just throwing out bids here, there and everywhere.READ MORE FOOTBALL NEWSAnd this approach led to a “messy” mix-up which saw City chastised by Barca president Joan Laporta for their accidental £35m Messi bid.Bowen told the ‘Business of Sport’ podcast: “So Garry Cook [Ex-Manchester City CEO] had said to Mark Hughes, right, the owners, they want to make a statement. They have to make a statement straight away, you know.“So we played in the Man City Academy’s Golf Day, and we were on the buggy going around, and almost every 10 minutes, Mark’s phone was going bing, bing, bing.”And at one time we had £30m plus, circa £30m for Dimitar Berbatov, for Robinho, for Franck Ribery, because they were just chucking out to these clubs in Europe, £35m, £30m, to see which one would bite, right?Most read in FootballFOOTBALL FREE BETS AND SIGN UP DEALS”So while all this was going on, Cook’s in London, he’s got different people on the board who are in there, and you’re all chasing around, ringing this, ringing that.”All of a sudden they get this thing through from Barcelona, from Laporta, who basically goes online and in the media saying, ‘who the f*** do Man City think they are, they’re taking the p***'”.Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez’s sons playing in same Inter Miami team as incredible video shows wonderkids in action Robinho was Man City’s first marquee signingHe continued: “So what’s happened here? Well, apparently Man City have offered £35m for Lionel Messi. “Now at the time, believe it or not, it wouldn’t have been a ridiculous thing to say because people were talking at the time about Ribery and Messi, which is the better of the two, whatever.”We get to the bottom of it, true story. So they were kicking off going, what actually happened were all the people in this office and somebody had turned around, probably Cook and said this is getting messy.”So somebody has literally sent an offer to Barcelona for Lionel Messi, we are interested in Lionel Messi. The president’s come back and gone, ‘you think you can buy Lionel Messi off us?'”Robinho’s signing had come out of the blue and the Brazilian made an infamous gaffe on arrival after calling his new club Chelsea.And his reason for signing remains unforgettable: “Yes, I thought I was joining Manchester United.”I was misled by all involved. I wasn’t aware there was another Manchester club.”He made 41 appearances for City before being loaned out to Santos for a season before joining AC Milan.Cook also penned deals for Wayne Bridge, Craig Bellamy, Shay Given and Nigel de Jong.READ MORE SUN STORIESHughes’ No.2 Bowen played in the Premier League for Tottenham Hotspur, Norwich City, West Ham and Charlton. More

EVERY cloud has a Silva lining.There have been plenty of very dark ones gathering over Manchester City over the past six weeks.Manchester City got back to winning ways against Nottingham Forest with a 2-0 winCredit: EPABernardo Silva opened the scoring early in the first halfCredit: REXKevin De Bruyne doubled City’s lead on the half-hour markCredit: EPAUnder-pressure Pep Guardiola couldn’t hide his reliefCredit: GETTYSix defeats in seven extraordinary matches had seen the wheels well and truly come off Pep Guardiola’s juggernaut.Amid it all, there have been plenty of critics forecasting that this is the end of City’s era of dominance.But one of Pep’s stalwarts Bernardo Silva lifted some of the gloom by putting them ahead inside eight minutes here.And by the end, there were clear signs that brighter days could still be ahead for the four-in-row champs.READ MORE ON MAN CITYKevin De Bruyne took centre stage on his first start in almost three months – setting up that opening goal for his fellow midfielder.He also scored one himself and looked like he had never been away as he ran the show for almost 75 minutes before taking the applause from his adoring fans.In some ways it felt like normal service was resumed at the Etihad – but don’t believe it just yet.City gave Forest far more chances than their manager would have liked – and the visitors should have taken at least one of them.Most read in FootballBEST FREE BET SIGN UP OFFERS FOR UK BOOKMAKERSBut at least this performance and result will have given their rivals – many of whom have delighted in the demise of the champions – something to think about.After four straight defeats in the Prem – which had left them 11 points off leaders Liverpool – their first priority was to stop that disastrous run.Pep Guardiola responds to ‘sacked in the morning’ chants at Anfield from Liverpool fans And with De Bruyne around, there is just a different feel to this team.He may not have started a game since mid-September but he didn’t take long to get back to doing what he does best – just eight minutes in fact.Ilkay Gundogan’s cross to the back post was nodded across goal by KDB and there was Bernardo to turn it in from close range.It was the Portuguese midfielder’s first league goal since January and just what was needed to calm the nerves.The home fans have not lost their sense of humour amid their recent slump and some of them chanted ‘City’s staying up’ as the gloom lifted.They had a chance to add a second soon afterwards as Bernardo’s cross was nodded wide by an unmarked Josko Gvardiol.The Croatian defender was axed for the trip to Anfield on Saturday after a horror show against Feyenoord.And he almost dropped his team in it again as he lost a duel with Jota Silva on the wing but Stefan Ortega bailed him out – saving superbly from Morgan Gibbs-White.Then Gvardiol found himself clean through as he raced onto a pass from Erling Haaland but dragged his shot inches wide.De Bruyne seemed to be enjoying his return and thumped a low shot that Matz Sels but drifted wide of the far post.The Belgian had been bossing proceedings for the opening half an hour – but then came a sign of rustiness.His pass back caught Ruben Dias flat-footed and Chris Wood went clean through – only to place his shot wide.As if to make up for it though he doubled City’s lead less than a minute later.His countryman Jeremy Doku made it for him, jinking his way into the box before rolling it back to KDB who thumped a rising shot past Sels.It looked like he took all the frustration of the last few months out on that shot as he scored for the first time since August.Jermer Doku bagged Manchester City’s third goal of match in the 57th minuteCredit: GETTYPep Guardiola gave the returning Kevin De Bruyne a big embrace during the matchCredit: PAPep Guardiola ridiculed claims from Sky pundits that there was a problem between him and De Bruyne – by insisting he was ‘desperate’ to get him back.And no wonder. Even at 33 he still has the quality to turn City’s season around.You could sense the relief around the Etihad – but nobody was getting carried away.They all remember what happened against Feyenoord eight days ago when a three-goal lead was chucked away in 15 minutes of madness.And their team were still offering the visitors chances – with Anthony Elanga curling a shot wide and Alex Moreno seeing a shot superbly blocked by Jack Grealish.There were more openings for Forest after the break with Murillo’s thumping shot just clearing the angle.But just before the hour, City extended their lead with Haaland turning provider as he turned in the centre circle and sent Doku racing clear.The Norwegian was screaming for a return pass but the winger cut in and bent a beauty around Sels from 15 yards.Despite what happened here against Feyenoord, Forest seemed to know the game was up.And City looked to extend their lead with De Bruyne’s cheeky free-kick going just the wrong side of the post with the keeper motionless.READ MORE SUN STORIESThe Belgian playmaker then linked up with Grealish and saw a deflected effort turned around the post by Sels.His work was done though and when he was replaced by Rico Lewis with 17 minutes remaining, he fully deserved his ovation. More