Manchester City have boasted many a Brazilian down the years – but none have been quite like Elano.
Elano Blumer, to give him his full name, arrived from Shakhtar Donetsk in August 2007 for a reported £8 million. His time in Ukraine was the perfect preparation for the inclement weather and rough-and-tumble of the British game. What it didn’t prepare him for, however, was the chaos that awaited at City.
These were heady days for the blue half of Manchester. Sven-Goran Eriksson was manager while the club was owned by an ex-Thai prime minister and convicted criminal Thaksin Shinawatra. Thank goodness for the FA’s fit-and-proper-person test.
Given cash to spend, the newly-appointed Eriksson had embarked on the kind of shopping spree associated with someone starting out on a new game of Football Manager.
In the case of Elano, that was apt.
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