While our experience with high-profile Brazilian signings here at Manchester City has been at best a mixed bag, we have had better luck with the Argentines Carlos Tevez and Pablo Zabaleta. Given that foreign players can find it hard to adapt to Premiership football and life in England, it is tempting to look at other Argentines as transfer targets with Tevez and Zabaleta available to help them settle.

Additionally, there would be the benefit of players playing together both in our squad and during the international breaks for the Argentina national team, as currently happens with our England internationals (assuming Argentina fires Maradona after an early World Cup exit and brings in a competent coach).

According to Marca, we are currently trying to sign the Argentine defensive midfielder Fernando Gago from Real Madrid. Gago, 23, wants out as he has lost regular playing time under new manager Manuel Pelligrini, who has preferred Xabi Alonso, Lass Diarra, and Esteban Granero at center/defensive midfield. Real also has Mahamadou Diarra at defensive mid, so Gago`s lack of playing time is not necessarily an indictment of his abilities.

However, it remains unclear where he would fit in the Manchester City setup. We already have Gareth Barry, Nigel de Jong, and Vincent Kompany to play where Gago would, and we just brought in Patrick Vieira. Gago is a good player and impressed at times for Real, but I would not want his addition to be at the expense of playing time for de Jong. Nevertheless Mancini was able to get the best out of defensive-minded midfielders Esteban Cambiasso and Vieira when at Inter, so maybe we should defer to his judgement on Gago.