Jovetic decision was the least worst option

There was no easy decision really. No one player stood out as being the obvious candidate to be the one who would need to be omitted from City's Champions League squad.

Sure, we knew it boiled down to no more than a handful: Willy Caballero, Bacary Sagna, Aleks Kolarov, Edin Dzeko or Stevan Jovetic, but realistically once Wilfried Bony was signed it was always likely to be Jovetic. Sagna or Kolarov had been floated previously but Manuel Pellegrini appears to like the versatility of Kolarov whilst no Sagna would leave a big gap behind Pablo Zabaleta.

Likewise with Willy Caballero; could you have seen Pellegrini opting for Richard Wright and Academy options as the back up to Joe Hart. The Dzeko report I thought strange, even allowing for his injuries, which mean that poor Jovetic was the fall guy; in effect the least worst option.

I'm sure it was a difficult decision for Pellegrini, especially knowing what the long term implications could be of making this move. Not to mention too that Jovetic does offer that deeper lying option and traits that the trio of strikers selected do not. Yet, and this has been consistent throughout his City career so far, there just doesn't appear an easy fit for him in the side.

With the options of David Silva and Samir Nasri as attacking midfielders this restricts Jovetic's options of selection even further and realistically he is a clear fourth behind Sergio Aguero, Edin Dzeko and Wilfried Bony. Can they afford such a luxury given that it may well be likely that Aguero could be the only striker selected?

Sagna was thought at one point to be the most likely to make way and it would have been a 'safe' pick you'd think but the prospect of having no cover behind Zabaleta would not have been an appealing one for Pellegrini.

Someone had to miss out. As I said, Pellegrini ultimately opted for the least worst option.