This is City

Barton wants out

JOEY Barton has handed in a transfer request despite Stuart Pearce being keen to keep the midfielder at City.

Barton had been offered a new contract and was in talks with the club but it would appear he has turned the new deal down.

Greek signs for Blues

CITY are to sign Greek striker Georgios Samaras in a £6m deal.

The move will see the 20-year-old arrive at City on a four and a half year deal following a medical.

The departure of Robbie Fowler yesterday left the Blues seriously short of options up front and if all the talk is to be believed then Samaras has a bright future ahead of him.

Here's hoping he is unveiled before this Wednesday's game against Newcastle.

Greek striker set to sign

CITY look set to splash out £4.8 million on 20-year-old Greek striker Georgios Samaras from Dutch side Heerenveen.

He has scored seven goals this season and at 6ft 3in could add a bit of an aerial punch up front.

And whilst browsing around the internet I noticed the US Soccer Players site features a piece on the antics of Stuart Pearce. They love him.

Jansen fails to show; winger watch

SOME strange things happen in the world of City. Today Matt Jensen was set to train with the Blues but he didn’t turn up.

The striker, who has been released by Blackburn Rovers, was invited by Stuart Pearce but failed to turn up.

Aussies eye up Andy Cole

THE chief executive of Australian A-League side Queensland Roar has said he would be delighted to see Andy Cole at his club next season.

Lawrence Oudendky said someone of the calibre of Cole or Teddy Sheringham would be great for his side and that he would be interested in signing a 'super-striker' in 2006.

Many A-League sides have taken on players coming to the end of their career including Andy Cole's former strike partner at both United and Blackburn Rovers, Dwight Yorke, who is currently playing for Sydney FC.

Del Piero heading to City?

WITH the transfer window set to close tonight there is talk that City are looking to sign Juventas star Alessandro Del Piero.

It's likely to be just newspaper talk, but it would be entertaining to see him at Eastlands and he is not featuring at Juve much these days and with a World Cup next year - who knows!

Distin staying put

A COUPLE of interesting stories on the transfer front today, the first has seen Pearce insist that City captain Sylvain Distin is staying put.

The City boss has slapped a ‘Not for Sale’ sign on the defender after reports that Liverpool were interested in the Frenchman.

And possible City target Dean Ashton has signed a 12-month extension saying his future lies at Norwich.

Speaking at a press conference this afternoon, he said: "I feel my ambition is matched by Norwich City football club.”

Bring Dean on

JUST seen this short line in The Guardian's match report for the game against Birmingham:

"A sensational goal," said Pearce, who revealed afterwards that City had made a substantial bid for a player last week, thought to be Norwich's Dean Ashton.

I was saying to friends that the first player we should have bought after selling SWP was 21-year-old Ashton, I just hope we are not too late.

City offer Hussein contract

MANCHESTER City have given Qatar midfielder Yasser Hussein a six-month contract and let promising youngster Karl Bermingham out on a month’s loan.

Hussein will be with City until the New Year having impressed the City management in training and now that his paperwork has been sorted he could be a useful addition to the team.

Allardyce says ‘up Stelios bid’

BOLTON boss Sam Allardyce has said the Blues must up their offer if they want to capture Greek international Stelios Giannakopoulos.

Man City boss Stuart Pearce seems keen to capture the signature of the midfielder and believes he could fill the space left by Shaun Wright Phillips.

Pearce offered £1m for the 31-year-old on Saturday and he is out of contract next summer and earlier this year was linked to a move to Liverpool.

After seeing the game against West Brom I thought we needed a bit of guile to unlock a team that was happy to sit back and soak up the pressure.

Not sure Stelios is the man for that.