I'll admit, these are the types of signings that excite me greatly, young Balkan lads from the Serbian or Croatian leagues, among, well all others of course, but I am partial to the odd 'son of former Yugoslav' signing, particularly the defenders.
So, when Stefan Savic joined City in July 2011, I was indeed very happy. A Montenegrin international who had excelled while playing at centre-back for FK Partizan in both Serbia and in the Champions League. Little did I know what would become of Savic over the following year.
Savic made his full debut for City in the formerly named Carling Cup against Birmingham City and he actually played very well. Of course, on that night Birmingham didn't offer much of a threat, but the Montenegrin was as solid as was possible. On the night, Stefan's aggression and will to drive forward with the ball shone through. For a moment, I thought we had signed a centre-back very similar to Nemanja Vidic in style, I had been duped.
Savic's Premier League performances were far from encouraging. Kompany had been sent off the week before at home to Wolves, so Mancini faced a difficult decision going into the game against QPR last November. He could either play his signing in Savic or one of Mark Hughes', Kolo Toure who at that point had played very few minutes of Premier League football since February of that year. He opted for the latter and City won 3-2. Loftus Road is of course a difficult place to go, the pitch is only a little wider than the goalposts at either end of it, and the fans are quite literally, right on top of the players. Nevertheless, Savic struggled to cope, fortunately for the team, they didn't suffer because of this in the end, but Stefan did, his confidence took a huge knock, and he wasn't quite ready when his time came around again in January.
Yet again, Savic was charged with having to fill in alongside Lescott in Kompany's four-game absence after the Belgian's red card in the Manchester derby. The lad had four games to prove himself then; Liverpool at home, Wigan away, Spurs at home and Liverpool away. We had drawn Liverpool in the semi-finals of the League Cup. Savic found it tough. Against Liverpool, he conceded a penalty very early on for a rash and unnecessary challenge on Daniel Agger. It was mistimed and clumsy, the latter being a quality that became increasingly frequent in his actions. For example, just over a week later against Spurs, he completely misjudged a header which allowed Defoe to round Hart and score, just after City had gone two-nil up. It seemed like he had completely lost his arse, even playing alongside two other centre-backs against Liverpool a few days later couldn't absolve him from committing sins, he was a wreck.
I don't want to bust out a cliché, but Savic is very much 'a confidence player' and confidence was far from something that ninety per cent of City fans had in him, nor he himself. A factor that may have influenced Savic's mental state might have been that only months before he moved to City, his father committed suicide. Now this is not an excuse, but at the time of said event, Savic was just nineteen, can you imagine how difficult it would have been for such a young lad to not only adapt to a new life in a new country, in a new and completely different league while coming to terms with the death of his father? Personally, I can't.
We didn't see much more of Stefan but for the title celebrations at the end of the season and he was transferred at the end of August, in fact, he was involved in a part-exchange for then Fiorentina defender, Matija Nastasic.
Both Nastasic and Savic were sold by FK Partizan in the summer of 2011, Nastasic found himself playing in Serie A after the move with Fiorentina. Now, I don't watch a lot of Serie A, but I watch a bit, and from what I saw of Nasty, as he has come to be nicknamed by some City fans, last term it was far from surprising that we were being linked with him in the summer months. Often playing on the left-hand side of a back three, he played with assurance that is so rare to see in a young defender, always available for the pass and confident in his ball-playing abilities, a quality that Mancini has longed for in the defender that should partner Kompany. The real praise for the Serbian came after he put in a fantastic performance in a game against Milan. He was up against Zlatan Ibrahimovic and a penalty aside, he afforded Zlatan the bare minimum, if there were any doubts before hand, it was clear after this game that young Matija would go a very long way in the game.
Since arriving at City, Nastasic has found a place in the heart of most City fans apart from the few who, out of loyalty I suppose which may be fair, want to see Lescott alongside Kompany in the team. He is the complete antithesis to what Savic was. Confident. It's amazing how much confidence can have an impact on a player, but it does. I've never seen a nineteen-year-old centre-half want the ball as much as Nastasic does, and his quality on the ball is of a very high standard. Additionally, what you may notice about Nastasic is just how few tackles he makes, he'll make blocks and interceptions but it's rare that you'll find him in a situation in which he has to make one of those last-ditch tackles.
I said earlier that last September I had wrongly compared Savic to United defender Nemanja Vidic, well, I'm going to compare Nastasic to another United defender, Rio Ferdinand. Nasty does have many qualities that Ferdinand had, not least his 'footballing' ability as well as the incredibly cool head on his shoulders. He doesn't have the pace that Rio had but that's okay, as long as he passes on the injuries as well.
What's Savic doing now? Well, he's enjoying himself in Florence. He's only played a handful of games but he has shown his strengths nonetheless. A key difference between Serie A and the Premier League is of course the pace and the pressing, Premier League teams press much higher up the pitch, forwards give their opposition's defenders such little time and space. Like I said above, Savic's main qualities include his ability to drive his side forward from the back and at Fiorentina he can do this as their is very little pressure on the ball, and in the case that a forward does press high up the pitch, he can simply release the ball to one of La Viola's many registi. He's found the league and environment that suits him and his development, heck, I wouldn't be surprised if we see him back in England in a few years, whether it be for a Premier League team or in the Champions League, the boy has talent and at 21, he has plenty of time to learn to play the game as it suits him. He simply made the wrong move at the wrong time for him.
That said, I wouldn't swap him for Nastasic, this lad is a gem. City have conceded only a single goal when he and Kompany have started together in the league. Grande.
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