Shakhtar Donetsk's Brazilian midfielder Fernandinho

Reports that Man City are closing in on the signing.

Cant say that i have heard to much of the guy...just wondering how he will fit in and if it is a good signing or not?

Thanks GL

c'mon guys dont be shy, dont be bashful

The few CL games we played against them I didn't see anything too crazy but it was too little to opine. But of all those Brazilians on Shakhtar, I notice they never get call-ups. Are any of them actually good enough to walk into the NT?

Good midfielder, they should have gone for him last year instead of Javier Garcia

£42m?

Speaking of present and future man city flops what happened to Scott Sinclair?

Great energy and dynamism.

Reportedly £30m for the 28-year-old. Sounds expensive. And can't help thinking that Rodwell did very well for City when he got his few opportunities. If City sign Fernandinho that'll be another player that Rodwell will be behind.

Moyes to save Rodwell?

Fernandinho: The Textbook Central Midfielder

I good write up about him Grooverider.

Also Most of the media outlet are saying 22-25m pounds but Sky stating 34m pounds.

Sky may be adding in potential bonuses for appearances or other such clauses to their valuation while other sources are using the initial base-payment.

City getting their primary targets early. They didn't do that last year.

40million? lol

90% of man city's transfers news let me feel vicarious embarrassment and make me close the browser window..

REWB wrote:40million? lol

Damn

No way, transfers fee are going to get ridiculously bigger and bigger like that. this has to stop at some point lol .

40 millions ? i'm pretty sure that Man city didn't even make 40m profit over the last 3-4years

It's £30m

RealGunner wrote:It's £30m

i meant 40millions euros

City will be hoping that he does not turn out to be another Elano/Nasri

i just hope Man C dont buy another flop....

We're all surprised by the fee, but it's City ffs. Money isn't really an issue for them.

Tbh, I was a little surprised by the transfer too. Granted, I don't know all that much about Fernandinho apart from the few CL games I've seen him play. However, from the descriptions, he sounds like a higher-quality Ramires, very active going forward and tracking players. A modern B2B midfielder, if you will. So, I'm having a little trouble figuring out how he fits in the tactics for Man City.

Pellegrini is likely to play a base 4-2-3-1 formation, not dissimilar from Mancini's. Given that framework, he's obviously intended to play next to Yaya Toure in the middle two. However, this seems awfully ambitious, considering that both tend to venture forward. It would seem that Man City will eschew including a true destroyer in the midfield in order to play their £30m-man. Does anyone else see this as a potential stumbling block for City? While their defense is rather steady, I would still be somewhat concerned about cover for the back line.

Perhaps I have a completely misguided image of what Fernandinho can do. If so, I hope someone can enlighten me. However, at the moment, I would say he's a better replacement for Yaya Toure than partner for him.

I think you're trying to conclude a little too much about Yaya's and Fernandinho's partnership based on what they look on paper, DontTreddyReddy. I think we need to see them play together and how they adapt to their possible partnership.

I'm guessing that Fernandinho's signing simply means that Barry drops to the bench.

I tend to disagree with the poster saying that he would not make a good partner for Yaya.

Fernandinho is tough tackling and better defensively than Yaya. This is for certain, you can look at Ferna's tackling and interception stats....I'm too lazy to go fetch them.

Since he's also athletic and runs a lot, he will essentially be an upgrade on Barry. Both have a lot of energy but Ferna is indubitably technical.

Now I don't watch Ukrainian league but when Ferna was begging on twitter to come to us I downloaded many league and cl matches and was highly impressed.

Also just because Fernaninho and Yaya will go forward occasionally doesn't mean anything.

In fact one of our problems is that Yaya Can't get forward!!!! Since he doesn't have an adequate passing partner he has to stay deep to help the ball get forward.

Both good passers and dribblers, Fernandinho and Yaya will unleash the best out each others abilities.

Or so I predict ;o)

I believe Yaya won't get forward as much as he used to since he's getting older by the day. Fernandinho will take up the Yaya role and Yaya will go deeper.

Don't we all get older by the day?

Fernandinho and Toure have the potential to be immense as a partnership. They're both box-to-box players, but I agree with what EE has said, I don't think Toure will go forward as much as he has. Don't get me wrong, he'll get forward, but he won't play as the "AM" role anymore. I feel he'll play deeper to prolong his career just as Liverpool has done with Gerrard.

Fernandinho is also a box-to-box type player from what I've seen in the CL. He can do what Yaya can albeit with more skill rather than physicality. Will definitely keep an eye on City. It's them or Chelsea for the league imo. (With United the underdogs.)