Sanchez to Sneijder: Are Manchester City Set for a Summer of Frustration?

Manchester City's journey from mediocrity to the European Champions League has been one of the headline stories of recent seasons. Backed by cash-rich owners from Abu Dhabi, the "Blues" have spent the last two summers adding a host of high profile names to their burgeoning ranks, including—amongst others—former Manchester United idol Carlos Tevez, Spanish star David Silva and Italian wonderkid Mario Balotelli. These signings have helped to propel City into the limelight, with the 2010-11 season heralding the club's first silverware in over 30 years and their qualification for club football's holy grail: the UEFA Champions League.

It was widely anticipated that the momentum would continue to build this summer, with the club being linked with the kind of players who could make a real difference in the push for Champions League glory. However, manager Roberto Mancini now faces the possibility that, for the first time in three transfer windows, his prime targets could be about to slip into the clutches of rival clubs.

So, who are City's targets and which ones are realistic? Common consent points towards the player's being linked with all of Europe's elite clubs this summer, namely Udinese's Chilean sensation Alexis Sanchez, Tottenham Hotspurs' Croatian maestro Luka Modric, Inter Milan's Dutch ace Wesley Sneijder, and Napoli's talented trio of Edinson Cavani, Marek Hamsik and Ezequiel Lavezzi. Despite City's vast spending power, all of these targets are fraught with difficulties.

Alexis Sanchez is football's most wanted man and reputedly has Barcelona, Manchester United, Inter Milan, Juventus and City scrapping it out for his signature. He is on record as preferring a move to the sunny climes of Barcelona, making the current European champions his most likely destination. Although it will be of little consolation to the ambitious blues, City are not alone in being unable to compete with the Catalan club's irresistible cocktail of pure attacking football, success, prestige and history.

Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Luka Modric has lit up the Premier League in recent seasons with his sublime skills. However, the London club would be reluctant to lose their talisman to a rival club, and Spurs manager Harry Redknapp's position at the club would become uncertain if his board sanctioned the sale against his will. Redknapp will recall that the Spurs board made similar assurances over the future of Dimitar Berbatov shortly before the Bulgarian's transfer to Manchester United. Should Tottenham's determination to hold onto the Croat waver, City would face stiff competition for his services from both United and Chelsea.

Wesley Sneijder has long been linked with a move to City's crosstown rivals United, who are scouring the globe in search of "The New Paul Scholes." United remain favourites for the Dutchman's signature, although Chelsea are waiting in the wings should a prospective transfer fall through and may be able to offer the player a tempting link up with compatriot Guus Hiddink. Sneijder himself has distanced himself from a move in recent weeks, suggesting United's interest has cooled and has indicated that he would like to spend another season in Milan.

Finally, several sources have reported that Roberto Mancini is eager to bring Cavani, Hamsik and Lavezzi from Napoli this summer. It is unlikely that the ambitious Italians would be prepared to gut a side which has just qualified for the Champions League, and the players themselves seem set to stay for another season, despite the riches on offer from the English outfit. It is possible that one of the three could be tempted to make the switch, but the chances of all three jumping ship for a club of similar stature before such a promising season seem minimal.

Essentially, football is a hierarchy based on intangible, unquantifiable factors like prestige, history and success, along with the more obvious necessity of considerable wealth. The two clubs at the top, Barcelona and Real Madrid, dominate the transfer market. It is left for the next "tier" of clubs—Manchester United, Inter Milan, AC Milan, Bayern Munich, Chelsea, Juventus, et al.—to fight it out over the scraps.

Driven by the wealth and ambition of their owners, City are now creeping into this second group. Rather than engaging in protracted entanglements with football's big guns over transfer targets, City's genuine agenda is to convince the inspirational Carlos Tevez to remain in Manchester beyond the summer. With their disparate group of individuals excelling as a powerful unit over the final weeks of the last campaign, the presence of their tireless captain would prove to be their standout capture of the summer.