MANCHESTER CITY have been accused of “destroying football” by the coach of tomorrow night’s Uefa Cup opponents FC Copenhagen.
City tackle the Danish outfit in the first leg of their last-32 clash having been bolstered by the transfer window additions of Shay Given, Wayne Bridge and Craig Bellamy.
Having almost come a cropper in Denmark once earlier in the competition, when it required a last-minute own-goal to beat Midtjylland, City manager Mark Hughes will be eager to ensure there are no slip ups.
But Hughes’ opposite number, former Wimbledon player Stale Solbakken, is not impressed by the Eastlands revolution.
“The amounts of money that have been mentioned are incredible,” Solbakken told a local paper. “I think that such incredible sums will take part in destroying football. They are creating too big a mental distance between what we call reality and then Manchester City.”
Although he did not mention the failed attempt to sign Brazilian superstar Kaka, Solbakken could have been referring to it with a stinging attack on how much difference the money being invested in City will actually make.
“The hardest part for City is that they, by tradition, are not a big football club and therefore all the money in the world does not make a difference for them,” Solbakken said.
Meanwhile, it might have raised eyebrows at Tottenham Hotspur that Shakhtar Donetsk, their opponents in their Uefa Cup tie tomorrow night, chose to publish the details of the hotel the visitors will stay at on their website. Any late-night fire alarms or prank calls to rooms at the Donbass Palace will now be treated by Tottenham with the utmost suspicion.
It came as no surprise to anyone, however, to hear Shakhtar’s players identify Tottenham’s defence as their Achilles’ heel. The clean sheet in a goalless north London derby against Arsenal a week ago last Sunday was their first in 10 games and they have regularly looked vulnerable on set-pieces and crosses.
Ledley King, the club captain, is not expected to travel to Donetsk as he battles a hamstring problem and, with Alan Hutton a long-term injury absentee and Vedran Corluka cup-tied, the manager Harry Redknapp has few options at the back.
The right back Pascal Chimbonda, who rejoined the club from Sunderland last month, will make his second full debut while Redknapp must decide whether to persist with another January signing, Carlo Cudicini, in goal or recall the fit-again Heurelho Gomes.
The midfielders Jamie O’Hara and Luka Modric, meanwhile, are carrying minor injuries and considered unlikely to make the trip.
Redknapp is expected to include several youngsters in his party to a sub-zero and snowy Donetsk, including John Bostock and Dean Parrett. With the strikers Robbie Keane, Roman Pavlyuchenko and Jermain Defoe cup-tied (Defoe is injured as well), Darren Bent will lead the attack.
“We will pin our hopes on our technical players,” said the Shakhtar defender Volodymyr Yezerskiy. “Quick combinations and penetrating passes will help us achieve a result. We have watched some of Tottenham’s games and they definitely have problems in their defence.”
