Is Hughes the new Ardiles? Transfer Talk

Manchester City’s pursuit of Emmanuel Adebayor has me baffled. In collecting forwards like Panini stickers, Mark Hughes seems to be trying to recreate the gung-ho “you score four, we’ll score five” spirit of Spurs under Ossie Ardiles, and we all know where that ended up.

Hughes has already signed Carlos Tevez and Roque Santa Cruz this summer, adding to a front line that includes Robinho, Craig Bellamy and Shaun Wright-Phillips. It’s difficult to see what would be achieved by signing Adebayor, except ensuring an unhappy dressing room.

Hughes should pay more attention to his defence. While John Terry’s head has obviously been turned by the offer to earn a million pounds a minute at City, the Chelsea captain is likely to stay put. The saga has all the hallmarks of Steven Gerrard’s flirtation with Chelsea in 2005 and Frank Lampard’s near-move to Inter Milan last year. In both cases, the players were the winners, eventually lured into staying on vastly-improved contracts.

Without Terry, Hughes is left with Richard Dunne and Micah Richards, two players whose form dipped alarmingly over the course of last season. His other option is Nedum Onohua, a player whose partnership with Richards for the England under-21s yielded seven goals in the semifinal and final alone. Throw in Wayne Bridge and Pablo Zabaleta and it doesn’t look like a top-four defence, let alone a title-winning defence.

Meanwhile over at Anfield, Rafa Benitez is busy accusing Gareth Barry of greed while Xabi Alonso is openly courting a move to Real Madrid. This is a mess of the manager’s own making. Benitez spent the whole of last summer chasing Barry, only to be denied by Villa’s, not Barry’s, financial demands. He did his best to raise the cash by selling Alonso, thus souring his relationship with one of the club’s finest talents. Now with Barry sold to Man City and the under-appreciated Alonso looking to move on, Liverpool could be left with a hole in the heart of the team just when Manchester United appear to be leaving the door open for another Premier League side to claim their title.

How else can we read Sir Alex Ferguson’s declaration that his spending is over for the summer? It seems Fergie has accepted the need to build yet another great side and he’d rather wait a couple of years for the likes of Macheda and Welbeck to come good than spend over-the-odds for someone like Ribery. But make no mistake, the departures of Ronaldo and Tevez dramatically weaken the United squad and the signings of Valencia, Owen and Obertan don’t even go half way to replacing them.

So as United appear set for a season of transition, opportunity knocks for the likes of Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool and even City. It could be one of the most open and exciting seasons in years.