ความคิดเห็นที่ 19
Hughes has City fit for purpose ahead of Faroes opener
While Mark Hughes has spent the past few weeks taking his initial steps in developing the latest incarnation of brave and new Manchester City, the manager of the first side he will face has had pressing concerns of his own.
'I've been repairing my roof. It was a hard winter,' explains Sigfridur Clementsen, coach of EB/Streymur of the Faroe Islands, whose side will host City in the first qualifying round of the Uefa Cup on Thursday night.
Six weeks have passed since Hughes and his well established backroom team of Mark Bowen, Eddie Niedzwiecki and Kevin Hitchcock took on a slightly different challenge and, just over a month before they start the Premier League season against Aston Villa on 16 August, his new team are in competitive action.
Yet the Welshman is not unhappy about starting the season on the first day of golf's Open Championship. Having taken part in the Intertoto Cup with Blackburn at a similar time last season, Hughes feels that a dose of meaningful action in July helped his former team to a fine start to the campaign.
Hughes replacing Sven-Goran Eriksson is only part of the upheaval that has taken place at Eastlands this summer, with deputy chairman John Wardle departing last week, chief executive Alistair Mackintosh joining Fulham, while executive chairman Garry Cook has arrived from Nike and former West Ham managing director Paul Aldridge is the new chief operating officer.
Although only the Brazilian striker Jô, a club-record £18m signing from CSKA Moscow, has arrived so far during the summer and a move for Ronaldinho appears doomed, captain Richard Dunne has signed a contract extension and Hughes is hopeful of several more additions before the league campaign kicks off.
Pre-season training began 12 days ago and the following day City set off for the Rottach-Egern training camp in Germany, an old haunt from his days at Bayern Munich, from which City return tonight. Hughes had no hesitation in pulling out of the Uhren Cup, which would have involved two friendlies in Switzerland last week, to allow for the trip to Germany.
Hughes took his full staff of sports-science people, the masseurs, fitness coaches and physiotherapists away with him. He has used the spell in Germany to make his mark on a squad full of flair players but lacking the solidity that has been a hallmark of his teams.
His assistant Bowen has little doubt that City will be a tougher proposition than the team that managed only five league victories in the second half of last season. 'The manager's philosophy is that you have to be able to run in order to win football matches in the Premier League,' Bowen says.
'We took great pride in the fact that the statistics showed that there was no fitter team in the Premier League than Blackburn and we aim to make sure that is the case with City. The knowledge that they had that edge over the opposition gave our lads great confidence to go on and win tight games.'
If you believe Clementsen, that is not what City will face on Thursday evening, even though his collection of policemen, accountants and carpenters are close to the halfway stage of their season and are seven points clear at the top of the Faroese League.
'If we are two or three down then maybe we can play a bit,' Clementsen says. 'There is a possibility for a big loss because they will create a lot of chances and we'll be fighting for our lives. They've got a new coach so I'm afraid that they'll all be at 100 per cent.'
EB's ground holds only 1,000 fans, a third of the Streymnes population, so the match has been switched to the 6,000-capacity Torsvollur Stadium in the capital, Torshavn. A band of 250 City supporters will be there, with the majority setting out tomorrow. The second leg will also be played at an unfamiliar venue: a Bon Jovi concert being staged at Eastlands, which could just about contain the entire 47,000 population of the Faroe Islands, means the game will be played across the Pennines at Barnsley's Oakwell.
Attempting to keep Martin Petrov quiet will be a right-back with arguably the most cosmopolitan football history on the pitch. The son of two missionaries and born in New Zealand, Levi Hanssen received his football education in Romania, the United States and Zambia before moving to the Faroes five years ago at the age of 15.
'No, I'm not a Bon Jovi fan,' Hanssen jokes. 'When we heard we wouldn't be playing there, it was a little bit of a bummer but we're certainly not upset about it. It's very exciting and this is the biggest club team that's ever been in the Faroe Islands.'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2008/jul/13/manchestercity.uefa
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