As a Walsall fan, I look at the transfer dealings of pretty much everyone with envy. Due to this, I find it hard to criticise most of the time. However, Man City and their new range of strikers gives me cause for concern.
The problem? Well, I think it is international travel and jet lag. Tevez (Argentina), Santa Cruz (Paraguay), Robinho (Brazil) and Adebayor (Togo) all have some pretty serious travel to do for international breaks. Given that conventional wisdom would have it that it is difficult to play the weekend after a 14 hour flight, Man City could be left with Craig Bellamy as their only recognised striker on several occasions making them prime targets for an upset.
Allow me to share the mid October international break as an example. Man City travel to Villa on Monday night (05/10) before all the players jet off. On October 10th Paraguay travel to Venezuela before hosting Columbia on the 14th; on these same dates Brazil travel to Bolivia before hosting Venezuela while Argentina travel to Peru and then host Uruguay. Let us not forget that Togo face a difficult trip to Cameroon on the 10th too and maybe a friendly on the 14th. Man City then play again on the 18th away at Wigan.
I now it sounds like a bit of a petty thing to criticise but does it not show a certain lack of foresight and planning to not plan ahead enough to have so many of the players from one position all rendered unplayable at the same time. Surely, even a small amount of thought and planning would have made it prudent to have spent some of the money buying a European striker who will not be expected to fly long haul and play 36 hours later.
Am I wrong because to me it just seems like a big mistake to possibly lose all four of your top strikers to jet lag when quality European alternatives like Huntelaar are available for similar fees.