In theory, this ought to be one of the biggest weeks of City's summer.
And without wishing to demean in any way, shape or form tomorrow's night's Carling Cup trip to Rochdale, it has nothing to do with a trip to the northern suburbs of Manchester.
It has everything, however, to do with the date on the calendar. The 28th of August. And then the 29th, the 30th and the 31st. Four days in which Canary boss Peter Grant has the simple task of slamming in the last piece of his 2007-2008 jigsaw before the summer transfer window bangs shut.
Listen to the City manager up at Colney this lunchtime and what has, by anyone's standards, been something of a frantic summer transfer-wise is likely to end with more of a whimper than a bang.
Was he confident that, going into Friday, there would be another body or two?
“No, you never are…” was his simple response; the reasons those that he cited at the time of Ian Murray's arrival last Friday – value for money. Or rather the lack of it.
“I think there's a situation now where there's a lot of clubs – as I said to you last week – that are not going to make their minds up until the 31st. I believe that'll be the case.”
Why?
“Because they can't sell them. Or I'll not offer them the kind of money they want for the player because they'll try and get as much money as they possibly can.
“But once the window is out of the road they'll maybe say: 'Right, because we didn't get anything for them financially, we'll maybe look at the loan system…
“And I think that'll probably end up happening with us. Because some of the boys that are available, we won't be able to get price-wise – the wages and salaries, especially in the Premiership, are phenomenal.”
In the short term, that would appear to be code for no No5 come Friday – even if, in every likelihood, we will all be up burning the midnight oil and seeing if any last transfer trick will fall from Grant's sleeve.
His tone suggested not; if he was looking to manage expectations by today's transfer discussions, then it was a case of dampening down and lowering – brutal realism triumphing over unbounded optimism.
In that, he is not alone. Grant cited Arsene Wenger as being one who now looks almost solely abroad for his talent – in large part due to the over-inflated prices demanded by home-bred players. Or rather home-bred players and their agents.
For every David Cotterill, there is a Jonathan Barnett in the wings.
You can make the same case for Sven Goran Eriksson and Manchester City. That as the agent Jerome Anderson hit the phones and thumbed his little black book on the club's behalf, it was not to the Football League and the Premiership that he was turning – it was to abroad.
Managers are drawing lines in the sand. Enough. No more. We'll borrow in mid-September; not buy at the end of August.
Those that don't invariably have boards and owners in the background who have greater and more pressing prizes in mind – finishing fourth and in the Champions League in the case of Spurs and the ?17.5 million they'll pay for Darren Bent; staying way, way out of relegation trouble in the case of West Ham United and their willingness to bust every wage ceiling going for the likes of a Neill and a Bellamy, a Parker and a Dyer; getting back up into the Premiership first time, no questions asked, in the case of Charlton and Luke Varney's ?17,000 per week deal – all on the basis of one, decent season in League One.
For the majority of clubs, however, without those kind of boardroom imperatives in play, this summer's transfer market is defying all reasonable, financial logic and Grant is far from alone in refusing to play ball.
Which is to his credit, to be fair.
Because the one thing that has stood out this summer is the ordered logic to his purchases. Irrespective of whether they actually work or not – and that judgement will still have to wait a fair while – you can see the intention behind each and every one of this summer's arrivals.
You can see the theory; spot the thinking. He goes there, which will enable him to go there; he comes in, when he gets injured; he offers balance there, a different option here.
Indeed, the theory and the logic are so stark, so obvious that it only serves to highlight the one place in the team where he hasn't got the kind of competition for places that every other department now strains under.
It would defy reason if he had decided that between the 38-year-old Dion Dublin and the teenage Michael Spillane there is the kind of cover and competition necessary to keep Jason Shackell and Gary Doherty on their toes between now and the end of the season.
It is also why the manner of Saturday's defeat at the KC Stadium will be weighing even more heavily on his mind; wondering what his luck was like to have Ryan Shawcross' parents living just outside Stoke.
Somewhere out there is another answer; somewhere out there, there needs to be an answer – the left-hand part of it may have already arrived in the shape of Murray, though with his skipper's armband freshly tied to his sleeve, it will have to take a lot more Windass-moments and an awful lot more soul-searching for Grant to take that step and dig Shackell out.
He will be keeping every finger crossed that the gauntlet he laid at his feet in the shape of that armband will, indeed, be the making, not the breaking of the City Academy product.
To the right and the gig still belongs to The Doc who, to my mind, hasn't done that much wrong thus far – albeit still not enough for Grant to call off the search.
That No5 shirt remains the last, big piece in the jigsaw; the one upon which so many hopes and fears still depend.
And if words and managerial look are any kind of guide, don't expect a minor miracle between now and midnight on Friday. Right now, Grant isn't.
Leave a Reply