With the Mario Balotelli circus having left town to entertain and flabbergast onlookers at the San Siro, ManchesterCity can now concentrate on finding a striker who occupies the back pages for all the right reasons. With the January transfer window slammed shut for another year, the Sky Blues will have to bide their time until the summer. And with money to burn, two names will be at the forefront of the club’s thoughts…
Edinson Cavani (€50 million)
The Napoli goal machine is a cult hero in Naples – for completely different reasons to Balotelli. A Neapolitan friend recently mentioned that you can even get special Cavani firecrackers for a reasonable price in the city as the Uruguayan’s status skyrockets in Naples - something not seen since the Maradona’s time at the club.
And unlike Super Mario, Cavani consistently sets off his fireworks on the pitch, having scored over 100 goals for Napoli in three years.
This season alone, the Napoli number 7 has scored 26 goals in 22 games, including 18 in Serie A.
His hat-trick against Roma in early January encapsulated his talents in a nutshell. In that crucial Serie A match, he scored with his left foot, right foot and from a header to lead his adopted city to victory.
If there is one weakness, it is the fact that Cavani does not get involved effectively in build-up play but as a pure centre-forward there is only one striker that could better him…
Radamel Falcao (release clause of €60 million)
‘The Tiger’ is the most dangerous predator in European football. The Atletico Madrid striker’s scoring rate is just as impressive as Cavani’s with 22 goals in 21, with the same number of league goals as the Uruguayan.
And he scores goals of exquisite quality as Athletic Bilbao found out in last season’s Europa League final and Chelsea discovered in the Super Cup.
In La Liga, dominated by Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, it is an incredible achievement to even be mentioned in the same breath as those two. But the Colombian has managed to do that, helping Atletico Madrid into second place in the league and the Copa del Rey semi-finals.
Falcao missed Atletico’s last league match through injury, a 3 – 0 defeat in Bilbao – not much of a coincidence as the Madrid side missed their spearhead.
Atletico know they will lose him at some point in the very near future but financially at least, Man City will be at the front of a queue that stretches from Real Madrid to PSG and onwards to Chelsea.
It is the type of signing that Roberto Mancini will have been longing for after missing out on Robin Van Persie last summer.
Tune in from 4pm for live coverage of City's match with Liverpool on Newstalk 106 - 108 FM. Commentary comes from Dave McIntyre and Kevin Kilbane.
