Source: Daily_Mail
Without leaders like Terry, Ferdinand or Carragher, can City ever be united?
There will perhaps be few neutrals in football too disappointed at Manchester City's failure to lure John Terry from Chelsea via a £35million transfer fee and £1m-a-month in wages. To the traditionalists, money should never conquer all.
For City manager Mark Hughes, however, Terry's decision to stay at Stamford Bridge has left him with a problem that threatens to undermine some of what he has managed to achieve in the transfer market so far this summer.
John Terry
On the bawl: City missed out on John Terry (above) but their interest in him shows a need for an inspirational figure such as Rio Ferdinand (below left) or Jamie Carragher (below right)
Rio Ferdinand
Jamie Carragher
Certainly City look a lot stronger now than the squad who malfunctioned so badly at times last season. They will look more balanced once, as expected, the signing of defenders Kolo Toure and Joleon Lescott are completed in time for the trip to Blackburn on the opening day of the Barclays Premier League season on August 15.
Nevertheless, Terry's decision not to leave Chelsea has left Hughes's expensively assembled team without a world-class defender and also minus a genuine leader. In being ready to commit so much money to the Terry deal, Hughes knew he was perhaps paying over the odds for a 28-year-old. However, he had been given the go-ahead by the club's Arab owners to spend as much as it took after explaining how badly his dressing room needed a figurehead.
Many of City's problems last season stemmed not from a lack of talent but from a lack of team unity and direction. In short, there was a lack of professionalism. It was this, as much as obvious defensive problems, that Hughes believed Terry would go a long way to solving when he embarked on perhaps his most ambitious player pursuit of all back in January.
At times last season, Hughes struggled to contain the rampant egos of players such as the Brazilians Robinho and Elano and to stem vitriol spread by unhappy fringe players such as Tal Ben Haim.
In the modern game, such a problem can overshadow much of what a manager tries to do.
This pre-season, Elano and Ben Haim have trained with the reserves and Hughes has added individuals of stature and substance in the shape of Gareth Barry, Carlos Tevez and Roque Santa Cruz. However, adding the volatile Emmanuel Adebayor to his squad will be seen by some as a risk.
What City need more than anything if they are seriously to consider a place in the top four this time is a reliable captain. Chelsea, for example, have Terry and he is supported by Frank Lampard. Liverpool have Steven Gerrard, backed up by Jamie Carragher. At Manchester United, Gary Neville still controls the dressing room and, when he does not play, Ryan Giggs and Rio Ferdinand are more than capable understudies.
At the very top clubs, these players inspire others often without saying anything. It comes from reputation, from what they have achieved in the game and from their relationship with the coaching staff and the supporters.
In many ways, especially at clubs like United, they embody the very ethos of the manager. Currently, City rely on Richard Dunne, a good professional but a player who struggled to control his own game last season, never mind look after the performances and attitudes of others.
Players such as Shaun Wright-Phillips, Stephen Ireland and Vincent Kompany are certainly in the Hughes camp as he tries to focus his squad, as is Craig Bellamy. But the first three do not really stand out as captaincy material, and though Bellamy skippers Wales he will perhaps not command a regular first-team place at Eastlands.
In attempting to buy Terry, Hughes (right) effectively tried to install a ready-made leader. Now that his plan has failed, there are not too many others around.
Following Terry's decision, Hughes has already been told by his board he has the all-clear to target another big-name signing. He would love to sign Toure's brother Yaya from Barcelona but that transfer may prove beyond him. Liverpool's Xabi Alonso, meanwhile, will go to Real Madrid if he is allowed to leave Anfield.
For the time being, City are left to continue their team building without Terry, and there certainly will be disappointment at the nature of his statement on Sunday.
Despite telling Chelsea's official website that he never had any intention of leaving, Terry's prolonged silence encouraged the belief that he might be open to a move to City.
Even at the end of last week, City believed the move was very much on and to hear him suggest he had never considered leaving Stamford Bridge will have disappointed those who had hoped to build a team around him.
Now Hughes must look elsewhere for a talisman. There are not many about. Certainly he has been left to wonder if a player he had wanted above all others was merely using City's interest to negotiate a pay rise all along.
