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Persistent rumours surrounding Barcelona and Robinho have led to speculation among City fans who are very clear about his impact here.

"Robinho is worth the admittance money on his own"

"He's a fans player capable of doing things that stay in the memory"

"Robinho wont be sold ...period"

The discussion took an interesting turn when a member highlighted a number of games where Rob contributed little;

"Stephen Ireland wasnt player of the year without reason. He won it because his contribution week in week out far outweighed the likes of Robinho"

He went on to say;

"I dont think he's on his way at all. As for being the best player City have ever had - Who knows? Some day he may be - but to receive that accolade he will need to at least turn up away from home every now and then"

Then Hughes inevitably enters the picture!

"He (Rob) did turn up. He tied up TWO defenders every game but no other f***er managed to exploit the space which that generated and in addition we failed to get the ball anywhere near him when he was in a dangerous position. Sure he had one or two chances a game that maybe he should have put away but the best strikers in the world only score 1 in 2 games.
The fact is that we lost those games, not because Robinho didn't turn up, but because we failed to get the ball to any of our forwards or AMs in a dangerous postion. We played far too deep away and wasted two players at fullback or DM. If you play one or more DMs your fullbacks have to push forward and overlap. For most of the season away from home they didn't.
Add to that Hughes tactic of taking off one of the only players who remotely looked like unlocking the opposition defence (Elano) and bringing on a headless chicken in his place (Fernandez) and it's no f****ng wonder we were so sh*t away from home.
Personally I call it incompetant management - and I was banging on about it from mid October but Hughes DID nothing about it till near the end of the season. Far too little far too late in my opinion. Oh it makes me so....

Blue Anorak and Stockport blue then took the discussion to new ground, with a detailed analysis of Hughes' impact on the team so far;

"Robinho tied two players up by standing still away from home and watching players run past him?
How anybody can defend Elanos performances away from home is beyond me.The only time he turned up was at Everton when he was hoping to get a few more quid for himself with a new contract.
Elano & Robinho didn't play great - for sure - but were they playing better than over half the rest of the team? I know for sure they were, because;
a) Why did we always get worse (and we did) when Hughes took Elano off?
b) Why did we always get worse when "headless Chicken" Gelson was brought on?(and we did).
c) Why was there a 50% chance of the opposition scoring when Hughes subbed Robinho for not putting a shift in?
Could it be that Hughes picked on Elano and subbed him just because Hughes wanted to prove a point and shot himself in the foot by doing so? Why did he not try players other than those he generally brought on? As for subbing Robinho, by November you could write the f****ng script ahead of the substitution it was so obvious"

"The need for greater defensive midfield strength was obvious because of the lack of application of the likes of Robinho and Elano when the ball was lost"

"For sure we needed greater DM strength in the centre - but if every one of your DM and fulbacks are defending then thats 6 defenders covering 2 opposition strikers so the oposition can put 2 players on the rest of our team or swamp the centre of midfield. THAT is the reason we lost the ball. And Elano and Robinho didn't lose the ball it was intercepted before the ball got to them due to crap passes and the opposition being able to pack the centre of midfield"

"Stevie Wonder could work out that if Bridge and Richards bombed on too much we would be vulnerable to counter attacks as defensively City would be badly outnumbered. How many goals did city concede from crosses that came from the flanks-on more than a few occasions it was because Richards was caught upfield"

"Thats because the defensive rope was broken. If a full back goes forward the centre half or DM should fill in behind. They didn't - not until March anyhow and even then it wasn't great"

The lack of possession away from home was certainly due in part to the lack of a decent target man to hold the ball up

"Sure - if you're playing hoof ball and with our team we should never have been playing hoof ball in a million years"

"There was one game a home game last season where MH did get it badly tactically wrong-funny thing was the people who bang on about the Managers tactics didnt seem to understand exactly why he had made such a cock up. His selection may have been due in part to uefa cup commitments but it was still a cock up"

"Hughes cocked it up continually. For breakfeast for dinner and for tea. Especially away from home where we played far too deep and as a result never got the ball to forwards and AM in dangerous positions. The Guardian chalk boards stats say it all; misplaced passes from RB, LB, (Dunne and DeJong for the the most part). Look where Robinho, Ireland and Elano recieved the balls - never in a dangerous position. Look where all the succesfull passes are made by our Midfield and Full backs are (sideways and backwards)"

Finally Sir Kenneth - "So long as we bring in at least a couple of biggish names and show some ambition I'm pretty confident Robinho will still be a City player come the start of the season. However, if we struggle for the first third / half of the next campaign I suspect he'll be making big noises to be off come the January window"

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