One-upmanship

I was at Southend on Sunday; my version of the summer holiday in this trying year - a day spent watching the kids whiz and fly around various pieces of garish machinery and a few seconds of cool Thames estuary water lapping over my toes. Bad chips which tasted nice anyway. It was a pleasant enough day, weather-wise, and a decent way to spend a Sunday, even though City were on ESPN (bah!) and the Rags/Arse game up at 4 o'clock.



Hearing today the crazy rumours that we are now signing Owen Hargreaves on a pay-as-you-play basis, I have realised that just when you think that the world of football has jumped the shark, something else happens to tip the scales (or sharkskin) even further into insanity. Leaving aside the (allegedly) grubby business of the Nasri signing (FWIW, I didn't feel that we needed him) and the farcical goings-on which continue with Tevez, we are of course now a real prospect for the title. And so we should be, eh? David Platt was on the radio the other day, saying (in a fairly jocund sort of way) that he couldn't actually decide on the best starting XI for City now, being able only to whittle the vast army of talent down to 12. So I've given some thought to my starting XI (which, funnily enough, doesn't include Hargreaves). Here it is:

1. Hart
2 (r/b). Richards
3 (l/b). Zabaleta
4. (c/h) De Jong
5. (c/h) Kompany
6. Yaya
7. Milner
8. Silva (right - nominally)
9. Agüero
10. Dzeko
11. AJ (left - nominally)

You will see Milner is in italics, and I did think about swapping him with Nasri, but figured there would be too much attack in the side if we played with that line up. I'm not a huge fan of Milner, but prefer him to Barry - despite the latter's lucky strike against the Trotters the other day - and, well, when in Stoke...

From the footage on MOTD 2, I felt that Agüero's goal was the pick of the bunch on Sunday, though Dzeko's second (headed) effort was quite nice. I knew little of any of this while on the Essex shoreline and was very pleasantly surprised to hear of the final score from my Spurs mate via text as I stood - laden with bags - next to the platforms for the Rage ride at Adventure Island.

Then it was the 16.14 service to Fenchurch Street, and a need to find out how things were going at the Sty. So much for that shite.