What the hell is going on at the Eastlands? Who is making these transfer decisions? Is there an actual game plan for their purchases?

I like to think Mark Hughes doesn’t have complete control over Manchester City’s transfers, because I don’t think he’s this stupid. Are the Arab owners pulling an Abramovich, and mandating that Cit-eh purchase their favorite players? There has to be some logical explanation for these signings.

Anyone with half of a football brain knows that what City lacked last season was a solid defensive system. They didn’t have any trouble putting the ball in net: their 58 goals was 5th most in the top flight last season. But they conceded 50 goals, tenth most in the Premier League.

The Gareth Barry signing was a step in the right direction, helping to sure up a midfield that my grandmother could have waltzed through last year. And in case you hadn’t gathered, she sucks at soccer. Rumors of offers for Evereton’s Lescott and Arsenal’s Touré seem to fall into line with improving their defense. But the rest of their signings and speculated signings this summer have been well off the path.

Like I said earlier, scoring goals doesn’t seem to be the blue’s problem. But apparently the club disagrees with me. Currently, they already have a dearth of forwards on the club roster:

• Robinho (Greedy little bastard, but a quality player none the less).
• Jô (back from his loan to Eeverton, who I wish could have afforded to keep him. It was a good fit for both of them).
• Craig Bellamy (This move puzzles me a little bit. Not that I don’t think he’s good enough to play there, but it just didn’t seem like a right fit).
• Benjani (I’m sure they’ll axe him… probably back to Portsmouth, right?).
• Youngster Daniel Sturridge (Who i really like, and think will turn into something special if nurtured).
• And I’m sure there are more that I don’t have opinions about (Vassell, Bojinov, etc.)

So they have a few forwards. And they can score goals. But what better way to score more goals than to drop a bunch of mone on more forwards:

• £18 million is already spent on the oft-injured Roque Santa Cruz. He’ll do a great job of scoring goals from the training room.
• At least £25 million will be needed to buy Tevez from the devil — I mean Kia Joorabchian. And City looks to be the “shocking” favorites.
• And now there’s the ”stratospheric” offer for Samuel Eto’o, where they are apparently going to make him the highest paid player in the world. Barcelona have been looking to offload him for a whil now, as he is some sort of cancer in their team. So this is pretty probable.

Why all the forwards!?! Are they trying to trot out the first 2-3-5 line-up in Premier League since the inverting of the pyramid? Are they trying to do their best Real Madrid impression? (Yes, I hated writing that.)

I’m confused. And unless some defenders show up in the near future, City’s aspirations will continue to not be met.