what in god's name is going on at manchester city?

so, kaka isn't coming. after all of the headlines and speculation, the brazilian came out in opposition to the move, finally ending any chance of him swapping milan for manchester. of course, the charming garry cook claimed ac milan had "bottled it", as if there was some institutional character flaw in having second thoughts about selling someone who may be the world's best player. the full break down of the nonsensical face-saving exercise can be found at football365, but suffice to say that there will be broad smiles on the faces of a few million football fans this afternoon.

more pressing, however, is not the player they were always unlikely to sign, but the players they will be signing. a motley collection of the overpaid, undermotivated and indisciplined, the city squad is quickly becoming an absolute shambles and the once bright reputation of their manager is under serious threat.

much has been made of the squad's struggles this year, and obviously a lot is down to a lack of balance. the team is physically slight throughout midfield and lacks the genuinely hard workers you need in order to offset the laziness of someone like robinho - in the way that manchester united need wayne rooney to often do ronaldo's running for him. to accomodate such players city need to line up in a 5 man midfield, with 2 defensive players supplementing the 3 attacking ones, yet city frequently line up with just one, vincent kompany, and the raft of new signings confuses things further.

the first thing to say about the three new arrivals at eastlands is that they are patently ridiculous. wayne bridge might almost be worth £12m - although given that he played about 74 games in 6 years at stamford bridge you might say that is generous - but to make him the highest paid full-back in the world is absolutely absurd. nigel de jong is a decent player, but one patently not worth anything near the £18m city have paid, especially when the dutchman had a clause in his contract allowing him to leave at the end of the season for £1.8m. finally, and most unbelievably, the utterly mediocre craig bellamy has been purchased for £14m - that is £14m - a mere 18 months and 7 goals since joining west ham for £7.5m. a career 1-in-3 scorer, the welshman also happens to be an utter cretin, and despite the predictable "he's the type of player you love to have in your team" guff from mark hughes (forgetting the fact he faked injuries and refused to play at newcastle, assaulted teammate john arne riise with a golf club whilst at liverpool and walked at on west ham when they refused to sell him to spurs) is a dangerous addition to a volatile squad already stuffed to the brim with a motley collection of malcontents and misanthropes. furthermore, the acquisition of bellamy appears to neatly symbolise the tactical confusion of mark hughes's reign, and casts significant doubt on the manager's abilities.

mark hughes worked miracles at blackburn on a shoestring budget, delivering 3 successive top-half finishes on the back of some canny transfer deals. in came craig bellamy for just over £3m, who enjoyed perhaps the best season of his career before departing for more than double that amount; bellamy was replaced by benni mccarthy, who scored 18 premier league goals in his first season at ewood park; then the following season roque santa cruz arrived from bayern munich, and he too enjoyed a great first season under hughes. the welshman also picked up defenders ryan nelson, christopher samba and stephen warnock for relative peanuts, and helped develop david bentley, having signed the midfielder from arsenal. but in retrospect, doubts emerge about just how good hughes was - his blackburn teams were full of technically adept players but generally played quite direct football, getting the ball into the box from wide areas as much as possible. the teams were disciplined and well drilled, physically strong and positively welcomed confrontation. but how much of that adds up to become an indicator of a manager with a future at the highest level? for the type of approach you can get away with at a small club, managing players who are generally looking to either build or rebuild reputations, is not necessarily identical to the type of approach needed to get the best out of a collection of highly-paid egotists best suited to a quick passing approach.

it is here that the signing of craig bellamy becomes a warning sign. bellamy may be many things - i'm sure you can think of a few choice words of your own - but a lone striker he is not. too short, movement too limited, not rounded enough. this suggests that hughes is intending to play with two up-front, but that would presumably leave him playing robinho and shaun wright-phillips on the flanks, with de jong and ireland (also assuming kompany moves into the back four) in the middle. not only does this exacerbate the existing problems - robinho's lack of diligence in defence leaves whichever flank he is stationed on completely exposed - it also doesn't suit the strengths of city's squad, which potentially could be playing very effective passing football, if their game is suddenly transformed into "pinging balls over the top for craig to run onto". also, and perhaps most worrying, is that hughes, with essentially limitless reaches with which to purchase, has chosen as his spearhead an overhill player he has coached before, presumably because of his familiarity with him; this does not bode well for the man's knowledge of world football, or city's scouting department.

essentially, hughes has demonstrated very little so far at manchester city to suggest he is the man for the job. tactically confused, failing to gain the trust of his squad thus far (he is facing outright mutiny from a cadre of players), and most crucially overseeing a truly appalling league record this season, he is undoubtedly facing the biggest test of his managerial career thus far. and he is relying on craig bellamy to save his reputation. what odds a new manager in place at eastlands come august?