Rumor Mill: Manchester City Shows Interest In Defender Raul Albiol

This is another story of a surplus player, who unfortunately is down on the pecking order as far as central defense goes. While he may pick up some minutes because of Sergio Ramos being out, and Ricardo Carvalho returning from injury, as soon as both are back strong Raul Albiol will be back to watching from the sidelines. He made his debut in 2009 and became a regular of the first team until Jose Mourinho took over as manager of the legendary club -- where he was relegated to being a part time player/spare part.

Albiol, like Granero, is hoping to get on Vincente del Bosque's radar ahead of the 2012 Euros. He needs regular time with the first team, not as a random sub, and Manchester City might be the answer. City boss Roberto Manchini is looking to fortify his team for a second half run, and could be losing a player or two to the Africa Cup Of Nations. He also hopes to deepen the squad for a Europa League run.

Albiol would slot in to Manchester City's central defense well, and the team would get him the playing time he needs for a possible call up. He's young and it would stunt his development if he's left on the bench for too much longer.

I'm hoping that if this goes through it's just a loan. But it's also been said that Albiol isn't the happiest right now and wouldn't mind restarting his career somewhere else -- and doing it in England's Top flight would be a great way to go about it.

As always we will keep you up to date as this story develops or goes away. Ahh, transfer windows are fun right?

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