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Nedum Onuoha caught in Manchester City crossfire
Nedum Onuoha had the world or at least, the Manchester City portion of it at his feet just two years ago.
Young, talented, bright, and with a spanking new five-year contract tucked into his back pocket, he had established himself as one of Citys first-choice centre backs, alongside Richard Dunne.
Two summers on, and his football career appears to be in limbo, while his mum is locked in an unseemly row with his club over a sick email she claims was sent by chief executive Garry Cook.
Manager Roberto Mancini now appears to be prepared to allow Onuoha back into first team training after the 24-year-old Nigerian-born, Miles Platting-raised defender had a miserable summer.
At the end of last season, when he returned to the club from a successful season-long loan at Sunderland, he made it plain to Mancini that he wanted to have one last bash at making a go of his City career.
Onuoha used to be a ball boy at Maine Road, and as a dyed-in-the-wool Blue has only ever wanted to play for one club.
He told Mancini as much in May, and the manager said he would think it over.
But the economic realities of the UEFAS financial fair play rules, and the fact that Mancini has never been a big fan of Onuoha in footballing terms, came into play.
Mancini was told that, to finance his summer spending plans, several players had to be sold, and Onuoha who the club hoped might raise a fee of £7m or more was designated as being surplus to requirements.
Any lingering hopes Onuoha might have harboured were dashed when the first transfer activity of the summer saw the arrival of a centre half, Stefan Savic from Partizan Belgrade.
Then, the day before he was due to return to training in July, he and five others Craig Bellamy, Emmanuel Adebayor, Wayne Bridge, Jo and Michael Johnson were told not to report with the rest of the first team.
Instead, they were asked to report the following Saturday, the day after Mancinis first-team squad had flown out to Los Angeles for their summer training camp and tour.
It was a transparent message that their services were not required, and they should seek employment elsewhere.
The situation continued when the main squad returned from the States, with the outcasts training at 3pm, after the rest of the squad had gone home.
By transfer deadline day, the scramble was on. Jo had already departed, and Adebayor and Michael Johnson left on loans the previous week.
Bellamy fixed up a move to Liverpool, and Shaun Wright-Phillips who had been exempted from the isolation tactic as Mancini still felt he may have use of him also departed in a late, late move to QPR.
Onuoha is believed to have been lined up by Bolton as a replacement for Gary Cahill, should the England defender go to Spurs.
When that deal fell through, late attempts to fix up a loan deal for Onuoha at Everton fell down when City refused to countenance paying part of the players £38,000-a-week wages.
Onuohas agent is his mum, Dr Anthonia Onuoha, who has always been his biggest fan. Academy staff at City remember her as a vocal supporter of her son, on the field and off it.
But FA and City sources have confirmed to MEN Sport that the Blues reported Dr Onuoha to the FA regarding her behaviour.
Since then, the email which was sent from Cooks account last October has been reported to the FA and Premier League, and to City themselves, resulting in a high-level inquiry.
All of which has left Onuoha in a difficult position, faced with at least three more months at the club, with little prospect of playing.
He was included in the Champions League and Premier League squads, but it would take a serious injury crisis for him to be considered.
With the window closed, and just Bridge and Onuoha left from the summer outcasts, Mancini is expected to drop the purge tactics and allow them to train with the first team when most return from international duty today.
Onuoha still does not figure in Mancinis plans, however, and that is unrelated to the conflict between his mother and Cook.
The manager decided early in his reign that Onuoha was not for him, but the powerhouse defender who could have been an Olympic sprinter had his sporting career taken another path had already begun to fall out of the picture at City.
Former manager Kevin Keegan had extolled his virtues, and handed him his debut, but had shifted him to right-back to improve his passing and decision-making.
Subsequent managers also recognised his potential, and it was not long before Onuoha was playing for, and then skippering, England Under-21s at two European Championships.
After getting three grade As at A level, Onuoha could have chosen a professional career outside football. But he wanted to play and play for City.
Stuart Pearce was well aware of Onuohas academic brilliance. Asked by a journalist where he could find Nedum, the then City boss replied in his best Cockney: Hes rahnd the back, splittin the atom or sumfink.
By the end of the 2008-09 season, under Mark Hughes, he was first-choice centre-back alongside Richard Dunne, and City had won 10 of their last 11 home league games.
Onuoha was awarded a five-year contract, but the dream began to unfold as soon as it had come to fruition.
Hughes went out and bought Kolo Toure and Joleon Lescott for a combined £38m, and Onuoha was on the bench as the season opened.
By the time that the fateful trip to Spurs came round on December 16, Onuoha had made just two substitute appearances for the Blues. His first start came at White Hart Lane, in a 3-0 panning which signed Hughes execution warrant.
Watching from the stands that night was Mancini, and he saw Onuoha and ten others, to be honest have a stinker.
By the end of the season, Mancini felt Onuoha was not for him, and the player, unwisely, said so on Sky Sports Soccer AM show.
He also claimed that Mancini had thwarted Lescotts chances of playing for England at the World Cup and defended out-of-favour Stevie Ireland.
Some see that as the moment Onuohas City career was doomed, but the truth is that it happened long before that.
Now it is to be hoped that Onuoha is at least afforded the dignity of being given a fair chance and, if Mancini is resolute in his verdict, a swift exit from the club in January.
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9 ก.ย. 54 03:50:27
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