And so the speculation starts.

[trueblue64]

Manchester City's new manager Roberto Mancini has an extravagant list of January transfer targets that includes some of European football's biggest stars, according to The Sunday Times.

The Italian will have money to spend in the transfer window, though he will be expected to sell players as well in order to boost resources.

However, he is reportedly mulling over bids for a clutch of superstars that includes Barcelona's Thierry Henry (rated at £10m), Liverpool striker Fernando Torres (£80m), Atletico Madrid's Sergio Aguero (£40m) and Benfica winger Angel Di Maria (£35m).

Bayern Munich's Franck Ribery (£65m) is also said to be a target.

To complement that stellar list of attacking talent, Mancini is also apparently considering bids for Liverpool's holding midfielder Javier Mascherano and Barcelona's Yaya Toure, whilst City are set to continue their pursuit of West Ham United's England centre-back Matthew Upson.

Exits from Eastlands also look to be on the agenda, with Kolo Toure reportedly unhappy at the manner of Mark Hughes's sacking.

Craig Bellamy and several other players are also highly displeased with the way events have transpired and are said to be in "revolt" by several sources on Sunday.

Goal.com UK

[Im_Spartacus]

Manchester City's new manager Roberto Mancini has an extravagant list of January transfer targets that includes some of European football's biggest stars, according to The Sunday Times.

The Italian will have money to spend in the transfer window, though he will be expected to sell players as well in order to boost resources.

However, he is reportedly mulling over bids for a clutch of superstars that includes Barcelona's Thierry Henry (rated at £10m), Liverpool striker Fernando Torres (£80m), Atletico Madrid's Sergio Aguero (£40m) and Benfica winger Angel Di Maria (£35m).

Bayern Munich's Franck Ribery (£65m) is also said to be a target.

To complement that stellar list of attacking talent, Mancini is also apparently considering bids for Liverpool's holding midfielder Javier Mascherano and Barcelona's Yaya Toure, whilst City are set to continue their pursuit of West Ham U***d's England centre-back Matthew Upson.

Exits from Eastlands also look to be on the agenda, with Kolo Toure reportedly unhappy at the manner of Mark Hughes's sacking.

Craig Bellamy and several other players are also highly displeased with the way events have transpired and are said to be in "revolt" by several sources on Sunday.

Goal.com UK

City interested in Torres, Toure, De Maria, Ribery and Aguero shocker. Fuck me, they thought long and hard about that.

[Citizen of Oslo]

Same names as last week then.

[blootoof]

Same names as last week then.

Considering Manciti (see what I did there?) was nailed on after the Hull game, his list might not be far off.

[Citizen of Oslo]

You've got a point. Manciti has propably been watching more City games than most of us the last few weeks.

[Lev Bronstein]

Mancini will have already given his list of targets as part of the selection process. I would also have thought that he would have to have convinced the "selection panel" that they are realistic. We don't want more Kaka.

[john68]

...and so the magic roundabout starts all over again...another round of new players...another period of waiting for new players to be settled in...AND THE TARGET IS STILL TOP FOUR THIS SEASON.

[Socrates]

...and so the magic roundabout starts all over again...another round of new players...another period of waiting for new players to be settled in...AND THE TARGET IS STILL TOP FOUR THIS SEASON.

Hughes was already talking about new signings in January so what's the difference?

[Lev Bronstein]

Oh yes, and exits.

Surely, anyone who leaves the club will have to take a wage cut, unless the club pay them to go. Now that would look stupid.

[mkwhit77]

Same names as last week then.

Considering Manciti (see what I did there?) was nailed on after the Hull game, his list might not be far off.

It's still the same list that we had at the start of the season & the season before that

[zuricity]

...and so the magic roundabout starts all over again...another round of new players...another period of waiting for new players to be settled in...AND THE TARGET IS STILL TOP FOUR THIS SEASON.

John68, I can't see the problem. This PL this season is wide open, the title is there for the taking. It's going to be damn close all the way. So if we can get our defence sorted out we will be up there. We've got to stop shipping goals every game.

Sometimes when you watch the way we can stroke the ball around and pull goals out of nothing , it's almost magical. However, any good work done by the Attack is penalised because of shoddy defending and in my opinion a very unstable midfield. Perhaps if the midfield players were really performing it would give the defence more time to do their job.

[Vhero]

Wow they took a long hard think eh?? But I reckon we got a chance of getting bigger names now with Mancini than we ever did with Hughes. Especially considering how close we are to top 4.

[FA cup winners 2006]

Wow they took a long hard think eh?? But I reckon we got a chance of getting bigger names now with Mancini than we ever did with Hughes. Especially considering how close we are to top 4.

but is mancini going to be a big enough of a draw to get the likes of torres and ribery or any other top class player to push us on

[Blackadder2]

Let's say we do pull off an interesting signing or two on Jan 1st.

Would they be available for the Cup semi-final or would cup rules on eligibility rule them out?

[Douglas Higginbottom]

I thought the target was top 6? That was according to NQDP yesterday wasn't it?

[giokingkladze]

I thought the target was top 6? That was according to NQDP yesterday wasn't it?

Are you going down to see what's going on tomorrow doug?

[Spurge]

Wow they took a long hard think eh?? But I reckon we got a chance of getting bigger names now with Mancini than we ever did with Hughes. Especially considering how close we are to top 4.

but is mancini going to be a big enough of a draw to get the likes of torres and ribery or any other top class player to push us on

Not sure if it's a case of whether Mancini is a big enough draw I think perhaps players are more likely to be put off by the fact that we are becoming a higher profile joke.

[Bluez]

...and so the magic roundabout starts all over again...another round of new players...another period of waiting for new players to be settled in...AND THE TARGET IS STILL TOP FOUR THIS SEASON.

Hughes was already talking about new signings in January so what's the difference?

It will all come down to how many players are bought. Hughes was talking about a couple to strenghthen cxertain areas. If Mancini buys 2 or 3 players there is no problem, he just has to fit them in with what we have. If he buys 8 or 9 we are back to square one. We now have a very strong squad, the problem was just getting them to defend as a unit.

[Socrates]

...and so the magic roundabout starts all over again...another round of new players...another period of waiting for new players to be settled in...AND THE TARGET IS STILL TOP FOUR THIS SEASON.

Hughes was already talking about new signings in January so what's the difference?

It will all come down to how many players are bought. Hughes was talking about a couple to strenghthen cxertain areas. If Mancini buys 2 or 3 players there is no problem, he just has to fit them in with what we have. If he buys 8 or 9 we are back to square one. We now have a very strong squad, the problem was just getting them to defend as a unit.

8 or 9 in a January window is a bit fanciful... Players are hard to get, won't be more than a couple.

[john68]

...and so the magic roundabout starts all over again...another round of new players...another period of waiting for new players to be settled in...AND THE TARGET IS STILL TOP FOUR THIS SEASON.

Hughes was already talking about new signings in January so what's the difference?

Jon,
Pretending stupidity ain't your best talent.