The Manchester City Gazette
Squad17 Jul 2034
Matthew Henderson-Hall damages knee ligaments — 25 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 25 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Match17 Jul 2034
Manchester City refuse to drop out of the race
Position 2, 90 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Market17 Jul 2034
Stephen Lawrence asks to leave Manchester City
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad17 Jul 2034
Tempers go at Manchester City
Jérémy Doku was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Market17 Jul 2034
Middlesbrough come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Manchester City did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market17 Jul 2034
Finley Grigg is on his way
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Manchester City is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad17 Jul 2034
Michael Smith is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Market17 Jul 2034
Plymouth Argyle join the queue for Jacob Carter
Add another name to the list: Plymouth Argyle have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Jacob Carter. The answer from Manchester City has not changed — yet.
Squad17 Jul 2034
Vitor Reis falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
In brief
- Loan watch Steven Bennett wants to come home
- Boardroom The Manchester City board put their names to it