Man City sign Jack Rodwell

No sooner was Roberto Mancini bleating to the press that he has not been able to sign a single player this summer, than Manchester City announced publicly that they had agreed a deal to sign Jack Rodwell from Everton.

It’s tempting to picture a staring contest between Sheik Mansour and Mancini over transfers, with Mancini flicking his hair in ever more extravagantly sulky fashion, before one particularly exuberant flick caught Mansour in the eye, causing a spot of blinking and eye-watering – and losing him the contest; but apparently this deal has been in the works for around two weeks.

Clearly Everton have no money whatsoever, so it’s not surprising that they have opted to cash in on one of their more saleable assets – with most Evertonians basically relieved that it is not the John Lennon circa-1965 lookalike Leighton Baines who has made the supreme sacrifice – but it does make you wonder exactly what Mancini was doing complaining about a lack of signings, when he was in the middle of negotiating a transfer at the time. Possibly this is the latest foray into the battle of wills and minds between the Italian with the flyaway hair and his deadly rival – Sir Alex Ferguson: the Scot with the flyaway spittle.

If so, the whole thing is in danger of becoming so oblique that absolutely no one understands it apart from the two of them. So what does Rodwell actually offer to City? Well, in the short term probably not very much, because the City squad is pretty well covered in most areas; being so big that they are currently applying to build an extension to Manchester to house them (possibly). There is little doubt of Rodwell’s talent as a midfielder, but few of those placing a bet at an online casino and sports betting site would wager much on him making many appearances in City’s first team this coming season. Mancini has already more or less indicated as such although, on the plus side for Rodwell, his role on the bench may see him make it through the season without injury for once.

The downside for rodwell however, could be the amount of time spent travelling between matches without getting game time. Atleast for a spectator they could spend their time on a mobile casino such as online slots. Sadly for Rodwell he is unable to do that, as we all remember Balloteli's incident with his iPad on the bench.