All rumour no substance at the moment which is true for most teams. City just happened to get things off with a bang with Barry, but the lack of announced deals feels unusual even if I don't have specific data to back up said observation. The general consensus seems to be that Joe Hart is off to Birmingham on a year loan.

United did this with Ben Foster a couple of years ago to Watford and it really helped his development; probably making him the top young keeper in the country. A full year of Premier League play should bring Hart up to Foster's level. I hear folks complain about the quality of English goalkeeping at the moment pointing out that Robert Green isn't good enough. First I disagree, I've always thought Green was a quality keeper and second this next wave of Englsh keepers in Foster and Hart should keep the position in good hands for at least ten years.

My one concern is that some of the reports indicate that a loan deal with Birmingham would also include a possible purchase at the end of the loan. Joe Hart is far too good a keeper for City to off load at this point in his career. Sure, with the money that the club has we can always go out and buy an established international, but having the club's youngsters excel is much better for the long term.

Elsewhere we are being connected with at least a half a dozen different players and other than Tevez, I don't have a high degree of confidence in the reliability of any of these rumours.

The Premier League the manager merry go round has continued with the old news that Steve Bruce ended up at Sunderland and the much more current news that Swansea City's Roberto Martinez has taken the Bruce's vacated Wigan hot seat. A lot of unhappy Swansea fans after Martinez has preached loyalty during his time at the club. Bruce did a competent job especially in finding obscure talent that blossomed under his direction. Whether he can repeat that process when given money at Sunderland will be one of the more interesting stories of the coming season. Martinez has the issues of little money, in comparison to other Premier League clubs, yet heightened expectations. Tough job.

This leaves at the moment only the Portsmouth job as one that we can expect to change before the start of the season. Doesn't look like Sven will be in the running which is a shame. Sven with money and time in the Premier League would be interesting to watch. And Elano would be on the south coast within a week of such an appointment I'm sure.

England play again tonight. Suspect that once that is over the logjam will start to free itself and more moves will be announced.