Marcus Braddock previews the pre-season game
As the season draws ever closer, Shrewsbury Town face their last home pre-season game this weekend against the Manchester City development squad. This game will be a great chance to have a look at players that could well be stars of the future and although none of them are house-hold names yet, it should be an interesting game.
The Manager
The most recognisable face we will see with our visitors this weekend is Patrick Viera, manager of the development squad. Most of us will be familiar with his history in England with Arsenal and Manchester City. Viera is a player who has won pretty much everything the world of football has to offer, including 3 Premiership titles and 4 F.A. Cups with Arsenal, 4 Seire A titles with Inter Milan, a 5th with Juventus and a 6th with AC Milan. He was also a member of Frances golden generation who won both the world cup and the European championship in 1998 and 2000 respectively. He joined City in 2010 and was a winner again as City won the F.A. Cup that season. After his retirement, Viera stayed with the Manchester club in a development role and was appointed manager of the elite development team earlier this year.
Ones to watch
Ian Lawlor
Irish youth international goalkeeper joined the club as a 16-year old and has trained alongside Joe Hart with the City first-team over the past season. A regular for the club’s under-18 and EDS selections over the past year.
George Evans
Manchester lad and City supporter, George has been at the club since the very youngest age group. The talented defensive midfielder was named in City first-team’s UEFA Champions League squad in 2012/13 and was on the bench for the game against Ajax.
Jordi Hiwula
A predatory striker who counts intelligent running and excellent special awareness among his best qualities. A Local Manchester lad, Jordi has scored plenty of goals at every level so far and was a regular for England under-19s before injury hampered his career.
Prediction
I've absolutely no idea how this one will go but that's no surprise as I never do. I'm sure it will be another decent game, as our last 3 pre-season games have been. The weather tomorrow forecasts a chance of rain, but that will hold off until the game has finished so no need to bring a brolly. That said, the weather men are as good at predicting weather as I am at predicting football results! I'm hoping to see some more goals; our last 2 games have seen 12 goals so the chances are good. Off the top of my head, I'll go for a 3-0 win for Shrewsbury Town.
COYB
Marcus Braddock
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Graham Turner's thoughts ahead of the game
On Manchester City....
I think everyone knows that they have been big spenders on first team players. They've also been big spenders on their academy, the facilities there are unbelievable. So what we're watching is the cream of a big clubs crop of players. I saw them play a couple of times last season and you read through some of the names and many of them are non English and non British, so they have a right mix of European and British players in their makeup. You expect them to be very good players with a club the size of Manchester City and their pick of youngsters throughout Europe.
On Patrick Viera....
He's been very influential in the Premiership over a number of years, as was Didier Drogba, so we've had some big names here. I don’t think we will see him don a Manchester City shirt and play, but it will be interesting to see how his team shape up and organise themselves and how they play. So it's nice to see some of the big names coming to the Meadow.