Lescott's fall from grace; wher should he go?

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Lescott's fall from grace; where should he go?

Manchester City to loan out England defender Joleon Lescott in January transfer window

Roberto Mancini is prepared to listen to loan offers for the out-of-favour Manchester City defender Joleon Lescott in January.

By Mark Ogden
29 Nov 2012

Lescott has made only one substitute appearance – lasting just one minute – for Manchester City since the England centre-half was criticised by Mancini for his performance in the Champions League defeat against Ajax in Amsterdam five weeks ago.

Although the £22 million signing from Everton had already seen his first-team opportunities diminish with the arrival in August of Serbian teenager Matija Nastasic, Mancini’s decision to select Kolo Touré ahead of Lescott for a place on the bench recently has placed the 30 year-old’s situation into sharp focus.

The Premier League fixture at Wigan Athletic on Wednesday was the fifth time in the past seven games that Lescott, who has overcome a recent back strain, has failed to earn a place on the City bench, while he was an unused substitute in the matches against Aston Villa and Real Madrid.

No talks are planned to discuss extending Lescott’s City contract, which expires in June 2014, and it is understood that Mancini is ready to allow the defender to pursue a loan move when the transfer window opens on Jan 1.

While Lescott has become increasingly frustrated by his fall from grace, which he fears will affect his international prospects, Mancini has made it clear that he regards Nastasic as the first-choice defensive partner for City captain Vincent Kompany.

Micah Richards, when fit following knee surgery in the new year, will also be considered at centre-half by the City manager, with Touré also in contention, despite his likely month-long absence with Ivory Coast at the Africa Cup of Nations in January. Jack *Rodwell and Javi Garcia are also able to play in central defence.

With Touré ineligible for Champions League fixtures after being omitted from City’s 25-man squad by Mancini, Lescott is likely to make a rare appearance against Borussia Dortmund next Tuesday with Kompany and Nastasic expected to be rested ahead of the derby clash with Manchester United five days later.

However, the trip to Germany is unlikely to prompt a return to favour for Lescott, with Mancini seemingly having made his mind up about the England international.

“Nastasic is still young at the moment, but he is playing in front of Joleon,” Mancini said. “He [Lescott] is back from injury now but Matija is playing very well. We spotted him last year and we think that in two years he will be one of the top defenders in Europe.”

Meanwhile, City midfielder Gareth Barry has insisted that Mario Balotelli is happy at the club, despite the striker being dropped recently by Mancini for unimpressive performances in training.

Balotelli returned to the starting line-up at Wigan on Wednesday, scoring his first league goal of the season in City’s 2-0 victory, and Barry believes that the goal can be a platform for the Italian forward to build upon.

“Anyone who knows Mario knows he’s not going to lack confidence.” Barry said. “But hopefully that goal will give him that extra bit of confidence in his play and he can improve from that.

“If you saw him day-to-day, you’d see no reason to think he isn’t happy. He’s probably not played as much as he would have liked, but he’s kept his head as well as anybody else who isn’t getting chances.

"He scored some massive goals last season and, if he can repeat that again this season, it will be good for us.”
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/fo...oleon-Lescott-in-January-transfer-window.html
 
Wasn't he one of their first choice CB last season. What has changed since then?

Either way hope they do loan him out as it will be amusing listening to City moan they don't have enough depth at the back when they end up with an injury there
 
It is a bit odd.

Last season Hart, Kompany and Lescott represented such reliability and stability in their defence, a key base of the team.

Lescott performed better than expected for England at the Euros too.
 
Mancini seems to believe a lot in young Nastasic and Lescott being dropped could also be to do with Mancini wanting to play 3 at the back quite often. Its funny though as Savic has performed better for Fiorentina
 
Dargonk said:
Wasn't he one of their first choice CB last season. What has changed since then?

Either way hope they do loan him out as it will be amusing listening to City moan they don't have enough depth at the back when they end up with an injury there
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Well he was first choice by default more than anything. Toure was banned for the start of last season, had the ACON in Janurary and he has been awful for a long while anyway. The only other choice was Savic, who was, erm, pretty poison.

Nastasic has done really well so far and deserves to be starting. I'm actually surprised at how he has settled in so well already.

In saying that, letting Lescott go will leave them pretty short at the back, unless they plan on bringing someone in.
 
wonnie said:
Who is this Nastasic? And how has he played so far?
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A nineteen year old Serbian international CB whom City signed from Fiorentina for £12m+Savic in the summer. He's been incredible at the back for them this season, virtually faultless with City conceding only one goal during the six Premier League games in which Nastasic has played the ninety minutes. Last season he played in twenty-four Serie A matches at CB for Fiorentina, starting twenty of those; not bad for a then eighteen year old. He's certainly some player.
 
He should consider returning to the enterprise
 
They only have Toure as the other defender in reserve. Don't see Lescott going anywhere. If Kompany gets injured they would be in trouble
 
Fulham would be a good move for him, if they can afford it. Jol has them playing some great stuff, but their style leaves them vulnerable, so they need to quality defenders. He'd play regularly, in a team that plays good football, has some real quality in it and actually really needs him.
 
Can't say I'm surprised. Mancini never saw Lescott as a long term first team option. He's a good player but not the standard they will want.
 
Bizzare move, for the new formation they have been playing Clichy as centre back before Lescott which makes no sense. I get that they want to ideally have some form of ballplayer there due to playing an extra defender, but Lescott can play left back and did at Everton IIRC, so if would be comfortable in that system.
 
Twenty two million. Seriously. Joleon Lescott, for over £20m. How did Mark Hughes get another job after sanctioning that move?
 
Depends how cheap he came, i cant imagine hes on low wages. Either he takes the wayne bridge role and sits out his contract and rakes in the cash, or he moves on and plays.

Last year he was a key city player, its funny how Mancini seems to phase out important players like De Jong straight after they make an important contribution.
 
Steven Seagull said:
Lescott is slow and absolutely terrible on the ball, so Mancini would presumably rather take a chance with a smaller player with pace and ability
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You're making out he's far worse than he is, he was actually good last year and had his best season but was outshone by Kompany. He's an infinitely better centre half than Clichy.

As I said he has played left back as well so would be comfortable closing down wide when the wingbacks push up.
 
He was a rubbish left back in fairness. Looked completely incompetent there for England even when given the most limited role a left back can have. And he never looked a great defender no matter where he played for Everton. He was just quite good in the air and scored some goals.
 
Isn't the subject of CBs also one of how you compliment the other players in the defence? The Kompany/Lescott partnership were hardly a weakness for City last season.

Having said that i just looked at the league table and the goals against tally for City is better than i expected. Tottenham's looks appalling on the other hand bearing in mind their aspirations,
 
Did Lescott ever have "grace" that he fell from?

Never rated him even with his decent season last year.

24 fecking million. Hughes really is a retard at spending money.
 
20 appearances and three goals after an outlay of 17m? And then there's the wages.

When the billionaires first arrive at clubs they leave reason at the door.

Admittedly Santa Cruz had that stand-out season in 07/08 but he didn't leave for City till a year after that on the back of a less flattering year at Blackburn.
 
Lescott's fall from space

Was it this fall that caused hiis....ahem....'disfigurement'?
 
They're only going to loan him because it'll be impossible for all PL teams to buy him because of the wages. That puts most of mid-table PL sides on the list for him - Everton, West Ham, Fulham and Villa will all be circling around, perhaps even Tottenham and Liverpool.
 
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