Gaël Clichy completes transfer from Arsenal to Manchester City

• City believed to have paid £7m for Arsenal full-back
• 'Anything is possible with this team,' says Clichy

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Press Association
guardian.co.uk, Monday 4 July 2011 18.42 BST
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Gaël Clichy has completed his move to Manchester City after undergoing a successful medical. Photograph: Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images


Gaël Clichy has completed his move to Manchester City. Clichy completed his medical on Monday and spent this afternoon meeting club officials to seal his move from Arsenal.

It has been suggested City would pay £7m for the full-back, who is Roberto Mancini's first summer signing. Although Arsène Wenger was keen to keep his fellow Frenchman, Clichy was set to enter the final year of his contract and, having indicated he was not willing to agree an extension, left Arsenal with little option but to cash in.

Clichy has signed a four-year contract and becomes the latest in a succession of former Arsenal players to join City. Not all have been an unqualified success, however, with Emmanuel Adebayor loaned out to Real Madrid last season after falling out of favour at Eastlands.

"I am really happy to be joining such a great club," Clichy told the City website. "I hope I can add to the quality we already have here because we have a fantastic squad who I believe will continue to get better. I can't wait to get started and I think anything is possible with this team."

Attention will immediately turn to the possibility of Clichy being followed north by Samir Nasri, who has been attracting interest from both Manchester clubs. City appear to be the favourites but Mancini has been forced to accept bringing new players to the club is not going to be as easy as he wished due to Uefa's new financial fair play rules.

Although that in itself will not curtail City's spending power, there is a problem with the number of highly paid players on their books that Mancini has no obvious use for. Wayne Bridge, for instance, spent the second half of last season on loan at West Ham and, once Clichy arrives, will be shunted even further down the pecking order.

Craig Bellamy is another, while Shay Given and Shaun Wright-Phillips have been attracting attention from Aston Villa and Bolton respectively, even though both clubs may be reluctant to match their present terms. Jô and Felipe Caicedo do not have a role to play either, while Nedum Onuoha is waiting to discover whether he impressed enough on loan at Sunderland last year to attract attention from elsewhere.

Adebayor has already declared his intention to remain at City until the last day of the transfer window in August if necessary as he tries to secure a "dream" move to Real Madrid.

The first real indication of Mancini's thinking may come on Friday when his squad head to the US for a training camp ahead of a three-match tour. It is hard to see any senior player left behind forcing his way into the Italian's plans, which next term will surely involve a concerted tilt at the Premier League title.