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The all-new City

Much has been written about the way in which Mark Hughes has overhauled the side over the past twelve months, with the deadline day sale of Richard Dunne a symbolic move given his links to the past.

Not only was Dunne the longest serving player, but he was clearly the most experienced City player with his 290 league starts.

His departure leaves only two current squad players with a hundred or more league starts to their name.

Even moreso, take the Academy-bred trio of Wright-Phillips, Ireland and Richards aside and there is not a whole lot of players who have much experience at the club - with the vast majority having less than a seasons worth of games to their name:

Player Debut League starts
Shay Given 2009 18
Joe Hart 2006 50
Micah Richards 2005 100
Pablo Zabaleta 2008 26
Nedum Onouha 2004 67
Joleon Lescott 2009 1
Kolo Toure 2009 3
Wayne Bridge 2009 19
Javier Garrido 2007 32
Vincent Kompany 2008 34
Shaun Wright-Phillips 1999 160
Nigel de Jong 2009 16
Stephen Ireland 2005 96
Gareth Barry 2009 3
Michael Johnson 2006 36
Martin Petrov 2007 38
Kelvin Etuhu 2007 4
Craig Bellamy 2009 9
Robinho 2008 32
Carlos Tevez 2009 2
Emmanuel Adebayor 2009 3
Valeri Bojinov 2007 3
Felipe Caiceido 2008 10
Benjani 2008 20
Jo 2008 6

Hughes has already stated that there will not be another transfer window like the one we have just witnessed, meaning that the core or nucleus of the side is now in place. New signings will of course be made, but these will not be in the same number and will serve to substantially improve on what is currently in place.

This current side is the one built for the future, and one that should have develop the sort of team unity and consistency that his a hallmark feature of teams which have been developed and become succesful.

Something that will bode well given our now raised ambitions.