Sinclair close to City switch

Scott Sinclair is edging towards a move to Manchester City after Swansea’s first-team coach, Alan Curtis, described his departure to the north as ‘just a matter of time’.

Swansea appear to have already moved to replace Sinclair after they lodged a successful £6 million bid for Celtic’s Ki Sung-Yueng.

The much sought after 23-year-old had told new manager, Michael Laudrup, that he would not agree to a deal with the Welsh side and since then many clubs have been rumoured to be interested.

However, Manchester City seem to be the favourites to capture the services of the winger despite their initial bid of £5 million being swiftly rejected by Huw Jenkins, Swansea chairmen.

Mancini will know that he must stump up a lot more cash to prise away the talented youngster, especially as Swansea are likely to have other options with Brendan Rogers purportedly trying to entice his ex-player with a move to Anfield.

Mancini will be eager to sort out a deal well before deadline-day so as not to pay an inflated price, but he will have greater priorities than the addition of another attacking-minded player.

Overnight it was claimed that Manchester City had offered an incredible £30 million for David Luiz. But today the Daily Mail, who initially ran the story, took the story down from their website. Nevertheless, it is true that Mancini has fears regarding the depth of his back four.

Fundamentally, after Lescott and Kompany there are no centre-backs who can provide a spine to the team. Daniel Agger at Liverpool is a name that is continually mentioned, but after his cataclysmic display in the defeat against West Brom, Mancini will question his capabilities to produce results at the highest level.

All in all, this summer seems to rumble on rather unsuccessfully for City. They did manage to capture Rodwell but they missed out on this summer’s big name, Robin Van Persie.

Mancini would be a lot wiser to spend less time chasing goals that he doesn’t particularly need (City amassed the most in the league last season with 93) and spend a little more focussing on acquiring some defensive depth, which he so sorely lacks.

Raffi Salama, Football Correspondent