Manchester City manager Mark Hughes is facing a potential shortage of strikers ahead of the club’s Premier League opener against Aston Villa on August 17th.
With record signing Jo due to be on Olympic duty with Brazil when the domestic League campaign gets underway, Hughes may now have lost the services of Zimbabwe international Benjani Mwaruwari.
Benjani is thought to have ruptured a thigh muscle during training, which given that City also have Uefa Cup qualifying round commitments, poses a major problem for manager Mark Hughes.
He could be short of experienced options in attack without £19million new-boy Jo and 29-year-old Benjani, who joined City from Portsmouth as the transfer window was closing last January. The Zimbabwean will be sidelined for the rest of pre-season and probably beyond.
City have sold Georgios Samaras to Celtic and released both Emile Mpenza and Paul Dickov. That leaves Darius Vassell, plus Ched Evans and Daniel Sturridge, who has been away with the England Under-19 squad at the European Championships, as definitely available striking options.
The Italian pair, Bernardo Corradi and Rolando Bianchi, are currently available but both likely to leave before the season starts.
Hughes was expected to meet City’s executive chairman, Garry Cook, at the weekend to discuss transfer plans following Ronaldinho’s decision to join AC Milan rather than move to Eastlands, and no doubt the need for new strikers will be one of the talking-points.
With record signing Jo due to be on Olympic duty with Brazil when the domestic League campaign gets underway, Hughes may now have lost the services of Zimbabwe international Benjani Mwaruwari.
Benjani is thought to have ruptured a thigh muscle during training, which given that City also have Uefa Cup qualifying round commitments, poses a major problem for manager Mark Hughes.
He could be short of experienced options in attack without £19million new-boy Jo and 29-year-old Benjani, who joined City from Portsmouth as the transfer window was closing last January. The Zimbabwean will be sidelined for the rest of pre-season and probably beyond.
City have sold Georgios Samaras to Celtic and released both Emile Mpenza and Paul Dickov. That leaves Darius Vassell, plus Ched Evans and Daniel Sturridge, who has been away with the England Under-19 squad at the European Championships, as definitely available striking options.
The Italian pair, Bernardo Corradi and Rolando Bianchi, are currently available but both likely to leave before the season starts.
Hughes was expected to meet City’s executive chairman, Garry Cook, at the weekend to discuss transfer plans following Ronaldinho’s decision to join AC Milan rather than move to Eastlands, and no doubt the need for new strikers will be one of the talking-points.
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