City looking to sign ‘six players’

Charlie Wyett, The Sun’s football editor, reported this morning on Twitter that Alex Neil is looking to recruit “up to 6 players” for the upcoming Premier League campaign. I immediately asked him whether this included the already-signed Dorrans and Mulumbu, and he simply replied “yes”.

The number in itself isn’t particularly ground breaking. Six or seven seems to be the average number of signings for newly promoted clubs. What’s more interesting is what areas of the pitch those four other potential signings could strengthen. Wyett, who’s also a life long Norwich fan, stated that one of those areas will almost certainly be left-back.

With left-back Martin Olsson now out for at least a couple of months following his needed shoulder surgery, and Javier Garrido’s release from the club in May, City are painfully weak in that department. A new left-back could also spell the end for Harry Toffolo’s Norwich career, as the youngster is already considering a permanent move to Swindon Town to get regular first team football.

That leaves three potential newcomers to the club, if Wyett is accurate. It seems beyond doubt that at least one of these will be a striker. We’re already light in that area following Becchio’s inevitable departure, so we will likely see a replacement. If some papers are to be believed, we could well be without Gary Hooper come the opening game against Crystal Palace on 8 August. And with the ridiculous number of strikers we’ve been linked with, it may not be a surprise to see two new names up front.

One of the final two will likely be a centre-back. Virgil Van Dijk, the Celtic back, is currently the favourite to be a potential partner with Sébastien Bassong next season. Very few City fans would be against those two forces of nature coming together. Not even Luis Suarez would get past those two (maybe).

The final signing? Who knows. Maybe it’ll be a centre mid—a much needed addition. Eight players potentially fighting over two places could be interesting. But don’t expect any big announcements any time soon. Echoing how social media has been the last week or so, Wyett described the situation as “quiet”. Looks like we’ll just have to keep talking about that big yellow Aviva box for a few more weeks.