What the hell, Rodwell?

Manchester City’s new number 17, Jack Rodwell.

While India was busy celebrating Sushil Kumar‘s historic second individual medal at the Olympics on Sunday, and Manchester City winning their third piece of silverware in recent times, 21 year-old Jack Rodwell was busy undergoing a medical. A medical which gave him a clean bill of health, and made him Roberto Mancini’s first signing of the summer. Mancini had been fuming in recent times, quite frustrated with the lack of transfer activity, in spite of seemingly endless world-class options at his disposal. While he might view this £12 million (rising to £15 million on appearances) signing as a start, he will no doubt be looking to make more additions to the squad before the transfer window ends.

While for Rodwell this is a “dream come true”, to Mancini he is just another (moderately) expensive toy to play with. Mancini believes Rodwell will not play much of a role this season at the Etihad, saying “Jack Rodwell is a young player who needs to improve to play at this level. But he’s young and he’s a good player for our future. It’s the first time he will be in a club that plays to win, and it will be different for him, but I’m sure that, in a couple of years, he will be a top, strong midfielder.” Such snobbery.

With two statements, Mancini has not only declared that Everton do not play to win, but also that he believes Rodwell, who has served Everton in the Premier League quite admirably for a couple of seasons, is not at “this level”. In return, Rodwell, in his interview, seems like a blue-eyed boy, full of hope, having finally made it to the big stage, leaving the Merseyside club he’s been a part of since he was 7. Having played with Lescott before, as well as having fellow English midfielders Milner, Barry, and Johnson all at the club, Rodwell believes he can wedge his way into the manager’s plans for the team.

But, seriously, can he? Let us look into the recent past, with a view on similar players who thought they could “wedge” their way into the first team. Roque Santa Cruz is a prime example. A former Bayern Munich man, Santa Cruz was enjoying regular first team football at Blackburn, enjoying moderate success. Along came newly rich Man City, waving their wads of money at cash-strapped Blackburn and Santa Cruz. The temptation was hard to resist, a deal was struck, and the striker moved to the stadium then called the Eastlands.

What followed was a miserable on-again, off-again run for the Paraguayan, blowing his good form to pieces, and leaving him a shell of his former confident self. All that’s followed after twenty appearances for City has been loan spell after loan spell for Santa Cruz, while Mancini has no plans of ‘wedging’ him in.

Another great example would be Adam Johnson. The winger, quite the budding star at Middlesbrough, was signed up by City at the end of the winter transfer window in 2010. Since then, he’s made 73 appearances for the club. Quite remarkable, one would think. However, if you factor in the statistic that out of his 25 appearances last season, he made 15 as a substitute in the final third of the game, you see that he faces a serious lack of playing time at City. This, perhaps, is one of the reasons there is heightened speculation of him moving to Anfield.

Forget Santa Cruz, even Emmanuel Adebayor, who had a stunning first season for City, scoring 15 goals in 34 appearances for them, has not been able to get a regular place at the club. Loans to Madrid, and Spurs have followed, but his huge salary has been getting in the way of any permanent move. One might point towards his problems off the pitch as a possible reason, but if Tevez can continue to play for City, so can anyone else. The aforementioned players are not the only ones. Kolo Toure, who was a regular starter for Arsenal, has not been able to reclaim his spot after losing it under unfortunate circumstances at City. German international, Jerome Boateng, quite smartly, moved to Bayern Munich after a season of irregular appearances for City. Even World Young Player of the year, Mario Balotelli has only started a handful of games for City, not to mention Mancini being indirectly scorned by Edin Dzeko for restricting his involvement on the pitch.

All these are a plain indication that Mancini is spoilt for choice, yet will insist on purchasing stars, and will not hesitate in the least to sidetrack their careers in order to play his best team. So is Jack Rodwell moving to City a wise move? Does he honestly believe that he will get to play more than the odd game for them?

The talent is there, no doubt. But, in a central mid-field where a maximum of 2 players can be selected from Yaya Toure, Nigel De Jong, Gareth Barry, David Silva (when playing two strikers), and himself, even Rodwell would not be foolish enough to consider himself a strong contender. Yaya Toure is vital to the team’s success. Period. That leaves one spot open. One spot which full-time English international Gareth Barry will keep quite comfortably for the next few years. One spot which, when an enforcer is required, Nigel De Jong will take. One spot, which when playing two strikers, Yaya Toure himself will take, while David Silva takes up his role of attacking midfielder.

In spite of the number of fronts City may challenge on, Rodwell’s only realistic chance of playing in the City squad for a full ninety minutes might be during the African Cup of Nations. If you believe that will help you construct your England career, or your league career any better, then you, Mr. Rodwell, are quite incredible.