mancityblues.com

And it is a cock-up, unless Vieira is able to step in and save our bacon, we are light in midfield still with no way of improving that until the summer.

Kenya PM Minister Raila Odinga had tried to secure his country's star McDonald Mariga a £7million move to Manchester City by phoning Gordon Brown.
Midfielder Mariga, 20, was refused a work permit by a panel that included David Pleat and Dave Bassett and Inter Milan stepped in with a four-year deal.
Jose Mourinho said: 'He's a purchase for today and tomorrow but he can also fill the hole left by Patrick Vieira.'Mailonline

From the noises Madrid and Gago are making, it sounds as though City were caught napping by the FA's decision to refuse a work permit for Mariga, and a last-ditch effort to sign Gago ran out of time, leaving the want-away player dangling in mid-air. Gago's agent believes City were unprepared, having not a single document in place with just hours to go to the deadline

"City believe they were only held up because they respected Fifa rules on transfers which state that a player should not be approached by a club until they have agreed a transfer fee."
express.co.uk

That's fair enough, but it sounds to me like we were caught napping, everything else could be prepared ready for signing and wasn't, our legal team had spent three days concentrating on our bid to arrange a work permit for Mariga, two of them could have been taken off to look at a plan b, surely?

I thought our new City regime were astute businessmen, yet it seems we are regularly getting caught with our pants down. The football business is like no other, and our bosses are amateurs in it, we were taken for a ride over Kaka, and will be again. This latest mess could cost us, unless Vieira sheds five years and does the business on the pitch that Marwood and Cooke appear incapable of in the boardroom.
CLEVBLUE