Cheers for such a snidely written piece, you cunts
After a summer of transfer madness at Manchester City, the time has come for the inevitable fall-out.
An acquisition policy which appears to be based on bringing in as many players as possible was never going to keep everybody happy, and so it has proved.
With new Premier League rules stipulating that Premier League clubs can only work with 25-man squads, of which eight members need to be 'home-grown', City's business was always going to leave them top heavy.
Tough calls have had to be made at Eastlands, with some big names, and some not quite so big, seeing their careers left in limbo.
Take Craig Bellamy for example, a man who is captain of his country and who has been scoring goals for fun for the last 13 years.
He plundered 13 goals for City last season, from a role on the flanks, but has found himself unceremoniously dumped from Roberto Mancini's plans for 2010/11.
Bellamy is the tip of the iceberg, though, with the ripple effect of over-exuberant spending affecting all levels of the Blues' ranks.
The further down the food chain you go, the harder the arrival of another international superstar appears to hit.
It seems almost illogical for City to have an academy system at present, as it is impossible to see how any of those looking to forge a career for themselves will have the opportunity to do so at Eastlands.
This could prove to be a problem further down the line, as it will not take long for promising youngsters to realise that they would be better advised to try their luck elsewhere.
Exodus
The exodus has already begun in a way, with a gentle trickle of talent having already made their way towards the exits.
Among those to have bitten the bullet and turned their back on City is promising midfielder Paul Marshall.
He was deemed good enough to represent England at U20 level in 2009, but saw his path to the first-team at his hometown club blocked at every turn.
As a result, he took the decision this summer to join League One outfit Walsall, where he hopes he will be given the kind of opportunities to express himself that he was denied at City.
"It was a tough choice but it was one I had to make to progress my career," Marshall told skysports.com.
"If I hadn't made it, I would still be there now and stuck in their reserves. That is no good to me; it would be a waste sitting in the reserves."
Marshall agrees that many youngsters face an impossible task to get noticed at City, with the club having sped off in a completely different direction following the Abu Dhabi United Group's takeover in 2008.
"I can't see any kids coming through there this season," he added.
"They have got too many players there. At the moment there are very few opportunities to train with the first team, so you have got no chance."
Marshall appeared to be destined for the top before the Middle-Eastern riches arrived, and he admits that he feels wronged at having to take the scenic route back to the top.
Frustration
"It's frustrating and in a way I feel a bit unlucky because this was my year to get promoted into the first-team squad from the reserves," he added.
"A few years ago, when Stuart Pearce was here and the club had no money, you got to train with the first-team every day. It was then my year to go into the reserves, but then the takeover happened and everything changed.
"Once Stuart Pearce got sacked, Sven Goran Eriksson came in and I became an unknown again. Stuart Pearce said great things about me, but it got tough after he went."
The 21-year-old is not about to give up on his dream, though, and believes he has made the right choice in joining Walsall.
He said: "I have come here to get games, so hopefully I will get a few. I am hoping to do well and people will see me doing well. Hopefully in a couple of years I will be back up there at the top level."
Marshall insists he needed no second invitation to move to the Banks's Stadium this summer, having been given a taste of regular action during loan spells at Blackpool, Port Vale and Aberdeen.
"I knew Walsall were a good progressive club and I know Clayton (MacDonald) who plays here and he told me that it was good here," he said.
"The manager rang me and persuaded me to come, he knew what he was on about. I think it all came at the right time for me."
Marshall is now hoping that Chris Hutchings will give him a platform on which to shine, as he admits he is raring to go after starting the club's opening two games of the season on the bench.
"Minutes on the pitch are important aren't they," he said.
Targets
"I think the manager has wanted to give the lads who started the season a chance to get off to a good start.
"I'm not too sure why I haven't been in the starting XI for the last two games, but we haven't done too well so hopefully I will be in the side for Saturday (against Brentford)."
Marshall is determined to play his part for Walsall this season, as they attempt to better last season's 10th place finish in the third tier.
"The target is to try and better last season," said the youngster.
"We lost Troy Deeney (to Watford) a few days before the first game, which was difficult because we had played a few formations in training and in pre-season games and a lot of that was based around Troy being here as a top target man up front. We haven't got that choice at the moment, so we need to address that or we might struggle.
"The ambition, though, from all the players and the manager is to finish better than 10th if we can. If we can get everything together there is no reason why we can't do that."
In order to achieve that target Walsall will need to pick up at home, with a league defeat to MK Dons and a cup setback against Tranmere representing a far from ideal start.
Marshall remains unfazed, though, claiming: "The game the other night against Tranmere, I think they had one attempt on goal. We had four or five clear cut chances, so we just have to forget about that. On another day it could have been 4 or 5-1, so we are just waiting for our luck to change."
Good fortune will invariably play its part over the course of a gruelling campaign, but Walsall are also a team in transition and Marshall knows it will take a while for the Saddlers to click after a busy summer which brought plenty of comings and goings.
He said: "It always does. There have been quite a few new players in here and the manager has found it hard to get everything together. I think he is still experimenting at the moment, but I think we will gel."
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