Mark Hughes is soon to be the proud owner of the most
expensive forward line in football - but Manchester City's boss has
also been handed the biggest dilemma in the game. Just WHO starts
in this array of Galacticos? And how do you keep so many big egos
happy in the crammed dressing room at Eastlands?
This week alone Hughes could see Samuel Eto'o arrive on £200,000
a week and Carlos Tevez for another £150,000 a week. They will join
Robinho, who suddenly seems decent value at just £130,000 per week.
And the weekly wage bill for the likely bench for strikers is also
staggering with Craig Bellamy and newly-signed Roque Santa Cruz
both on £80,000, and Brazilian Elano at £30,000.
The Beswick Billionaires are now on the global market like their
Arab owners hoped they would be when they bailed out Thaksin
Shinawatra ten months ago. But back in the real world Hughes is
facing the largest selection dilemma ever known - with an
embarassment of riches every time he tries to pick one to
eleven.
Eto'o HAS to play from the off, but his style suggests that City
may play him on his own up front with two buzzing assistants on
either side in a system Hughes tried to perfect last season.
Robinho, their enigmatic Brazilian, should get his chance as the
left-hand side-kick. However he will have to deliver on a regular
basis because there is a queue forming behind him - and his status
as biggest buy and best-paid star is history.
Tevez is coming from Manchester United because he wants to play
every week - his biggest moan at Sir Alex Ferguson - so he had
better get a jersey or else.
Between them that is a whole lot of skill and unpredictability
not to mention a combined wage of close to £500,000-a-week. But it
does leave new boy Santa Cruz and Hughes-signing Bellamy.
Roque Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz has just joined from Blackburn Rovers for over £15
million and is picking up £80,000-a-week but unless Hughes changes
his tactics he could be giving his knees a rest on the bench.
Bellamy was an over-the-top £12 million buy from West Ham just a
window ago but could also be like last year's fashion with this
array of talent ahead of him. And he is not one of the world's
happiest squad men.
Valeri Bjoinov and Felipe Caicedo should either be onto their
agents and keeping an eye on the draw for the Carling Cup - because
they are going to be well down the list.
Hughes has already signed Gareth Barry to bring poise and
presence to his midfield and he should get a game in a midfield
three beside Nigel De Jong, whose £15 million arrival seems like
small change.
That leaves crowd favourites like Stephen Ireland - their Player
of the Year - Shaun Wright-Phillips and Martin Petrov squabbling
for one place in the all-star line-up.
Elano was a bit up-and-down last season and was not a Hughes
signing. Vincent Kompany was and may be wondering where he stands
in the new big picture.
Hughes has not even signed a defender yet this summer, taking
the Real Madrid Galacticos theme to its ludicrous extreme. Everton
will make them pay through the nose for Joleon Lescott while a
right back could still be signed if one can be found.
City stalwarts like Richard Dunne and Micah Richards could
return to pre-season training and find someone else's gear is in
their lockers.
It is quite possible that City will start the new season against
Blackburn Rovers with a side costing more than £160 million in the
past calendar year - and with a further £20 million or so on the
bench.
In English football's history even the great movers and shakers
like Jack Walker and Roman Abramovich didn't go anywhere near those
levels of spending in such a short space of time.
Walker inherited Donald Mackay at Blackburn Rovers and
Abramovich had the pleasure of the tinkering Claudio Ranieri.
Hughes will be hoping it's not third time lucky in that
sequence.
The Welshman did brilliantly to dodge the bullet at the end of
the season and win the right to be the manager who spends the
millions.
Now it is time to produce.
Hughes asked to be judged on this season when he aimed for the
top six. Thanks to the current spending spree it's a title
challenge and a trophy or someone else gets the combination to the
safe.
