4:10PM BST 30 Jul 2011
Even the richest club in the world should not snub their nose at a moment of thriftiness when it presents itself. Roberto Mancini stated on the eve of this gentle training exercise that he still requires a right-winger; Shaun Wright-Phillips seemed a man determined to prove the Italian already has one.
The one-time England international, widely linked with a move to a variety of the Premier League's less glamorous outposts this summer, has now scored three times in four pre-season outings, neatly converting Gareth Barry's through ball to put City ahead against the Airtricity League select XI in the opening game of the Dublin Super Cup.
It was a goal he deserved, as one of City's two standout players in an otherwise unremarkable game, and a run of form that suggests he has not yet given up hope of continuing his career at the Etihad Stadium.
His inclusion in this fixture indicates that Mancini, though, has rather different ideas. This was a City side containing just four players who can have any hope of being involved on an even semi-regular basis this year. The rest were young hopefuls, promoted from the Academy for a moment of experience but likely to spend the rest of the season back among their own age group.
Only Barry, Wright-Phillips, the newly-signed Montenegrin defender Stefan Savic and Adam Johnson, scorer of an expertly taken second goal and another wide man widely linked with a move away from Manchester this summer, offered a semblance of class; against a spirited but uninspiring select XI, their class was more than enough to secure a comfortable, even plodding, victory.
Related Articles
Source: Telegraph
Source: Telegraph