Ben Haim makes City switch
30 Jul 2008 - 16:25:06
Manchester City manager Mark Hughes has completed the signing of Chelsea's Israel international defender Tal Ben Haim for an undisclosed transfer fee, subject to a work permit being granted.
The 26-year-old has penned a four-year contract at Eastlands after enduring a difficult season with Chelsea.
Ben Haim was only a peripheral figure at Stamford Bridge, starting 17 games for the Blues following last summer's transfer from Bolton Wanderers.
He can operate as a right-back or in the centre of defence and could feature in Saturday's pre-season friendly at Stockport County.
Hughes had said earlier in the week: "Ben Haim is one player that we've enquired about.
"Last year the team was weakened when the likes of Micah Richards and Richard Dunne went out of it. We're trying to address that.
"Discussions are taking place and we're hopeful that a number of deals will be concluded soon.
"We have to have the means to do the job over a long season which means we need good players with good Premier League experience to enable us to compete.
"We're looking at what is realistic in terms of deals. We want to strengthen in areas that we feel we have to but I stress we do have players that will be given an opportunity to claim a shirt of their own.
"It's a case of me looking at what we've got and what options I have. We're talking to players and have not quite concluded a couple of deals but they may well be concluded in the next few days.
"This time of the year there's a lot of business done and it isn't always as quick as people would like. They have to be patient. It's always better to wait for the right players to come rather than jump into the market with two feet and pick the wrong players.
"I don't think the balance of the squad is quite right - it's going to be a long hard season and hopefully, with games in the latter stages of a number of competitions, so we need a strong squad and one that has depth.
"We need to strengthen in some key positions."