JAMIE REDKNAPP: Why Terry - not Adebayor - is vital to City's mission

14 July 2009 02:24
Friday morning was always defence versus the attackers. We would have the best players, the heroes, the flair boys. And the defenders would win nine times out of 10. If you can't defend, you don't win matches, even training-ground kick-abouts. Manchester United kept 38 clean sheets in all competitions last season, which explains why they won the title (they had 11 1-0 wins in the Barclays Premier League alone). So there's the evidence. Yes, they had quality in attack, but their title pursuit was built on the back four and goalkeeper. Manchester City's all-star line -up of strikers looks impressive - more than that, it looks electrifying - but they have to build a defence, or else it will be the Real Madrid galacticos reborn; lots of goals and nothing else to show for it. In seven of the last 10 years, the team who won the title have also boasted the best defensive record. It's why Mark Hughes wants to sign John Terry. If he is successful in taking the Chelsea captain, it will represent a shift in power - and then City will have to be taken very seriously as title contenders. All the top three - Manchester United, Liverpool and Chelsea - have defensive kingpins. Signing Terry would be City's 'Claude Makelele moment', the deal that shows that they mean business. Chelsea suddenly find themselves knocked off their perch. Before, they were the big boys in the playground. Now City are bullying clubs with their financial clout. Terry is Chelsea's heartbeat. If he is sold to City, that will see a power shift. The news yesterday that they have completed the signing of Carlos Tevez and are plundering Arsenal for Emmanuel Adebayor leaves us all wondering how Hughes will accommodate his forwards. Unless he is planning to reintroduce the fatal Ossie Ardiles front five that took Tottenham precisely nowhere, how do you make it work between Robinho, Craig Bellamy, Roque Santa Cruz, Tevez, Adebayor and Shaun Wright-Phillips? Even if you play three of them, that's three with the hump! These days, players don't go knocking on the manager's door. They send their agents straight in to the owners and it immediately creates a divide, with the pressure increasing on the manager. Most players, despite the salaries, want to play. Bellamy, for instance, loves his football and will be a divisive character around the dressing room if he has no release for his energy when Saturday comes. Apart from the League Cup, City will have few midweek games, either. So no resting players for Europe. They have a squad for the Champions League, but no Champions League fixtures. Until yesterday's swoop for Adebayor, I could see Tevez and Robinho as foils for Santa Cruz in an all-South American front three - a line-up that would have pace and height and the all-action Tevez to muck in away from home, when one or two of their players usually go missing. Now, I see a lot of entertainment, a team-sheet packed with attacking superstars but holes to plug at the back. Opponents will just suck them in, hit them on the counter and race into their back four at will. It's why the potential signing of Adebayor is exciting but the hoped-for signing of Terry is on a different level entirely.

Source: Daily_Mail