Hart tops 2007-08 player ratings

A run of form that earned him eight Man of the Match awards in his last ten games has resulted in Hart leapfrogging Micah Richards at the top of the 2007-08 player ratings (below).

Hopefully the reports that Spurs are interested in our new No.1 is nothing more than space filler, but if it's true that that we're only offering him £10,000-a-week then that is slightly concerning. Although Hart's contract doesn't expire until 2010, it's pretty clear his market value has increased dramatically this season and perfectly understandable that he'd want a much better deal than that.

Below are the final player ratings for the 2007-08 season. The scores are complied from the average of the ratings taken from talkboards and the media after each game. The ratings for individual games can be found in the Stats & Squad section over at the main site.

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And here's how much each player cost and who brought them to the club. As well as showing that Pearce wasn't quite as bad a judge of players as many of us thought, it's worth noting that if Sun Jihai doesn't get a new contract this summer it will mean that none of Keegan's signings will be at the club next season.



And finally, here's a comparison with last season's ratings. I'm curious about the dramatic fall in Sun Jihai's rating as I wouldn't say he is that much worse a player than last season. I'm guessing that with City now playing a passing game the limitations of players such as Jihai, as well as Vassell, are clearer to see and those players have been marked down accordingly.



~ Other season stats can be found at Daily Telegraph and Statbunker.

~ I came across this interesting snippet about Sun Jihai recently. Apparently he is a third child - a very rare thing in China which currently has a one-child policy. The story claims that after his older brother was born handicapped, Sun's mother was given a special dispensation to try for a third baby.


So... anything been happening?

Apologies for the lack of activity in the last few weeks. I traveled to the US towards the end of the season and a planned short break from the site turned into a much longer one.

But now that the whirlwind of speculative media stories is petering out (at least until the next one) I'm going to be adding my thoughts on recent events later in the week.

I'll also be running some extracts from the upcoming book, Purely Man City: Writings, Reference & Miscellany over the next few weeks, starting with some tales of scandal from the club's early years.