Cole, who had his best years playing for United but whose son plays at City’s Academy, is sure that Mark Hughes’ team will gel and be a match for the best.
Writing in the National Newspaper here in Abu Dhabi, Cole also warned about letting expectations get too carried away.
“The step up from where City have been placed in recent years is massive,” declared Cole
“The top four is such a hard group of teams to break into yet they have already beaten Arsenal, the team playing the best football in England at the moment. And while City have dropped points by drawing, they have only lost one of their 11 league games this season
“City are sixth in the table, with a game in hand on most of the teams above them. They were 13th this time last season. The club have undergone a big change and there have been a lot of player movements, but City are moving forward in the right direction.
“I see that every week when I watch my son play for City’s Under 15s. The club’s new resources are not just being lavished on first-team players, but on the infrastructure. There were bound to be some growing pains, because City have gone from a club who went for the second tier of players and now they go for the first.
“When I played there, the big signing was the Greek striker Georgios Samaras for £6million (Dh30m). With respect to him, now City sign world-class players.
Those murmuring about the form of the team in general should be far more patient – for me it is only a matter of time before City start to gel.
...Andrew Cole
And Cole, statistically one of the leading Premier League marksmen of all time, finished with praise for the current hitmen at the City of Manchester Stadium.
“Adebayor is one of the best centre forwards in the world when he’s on form, he just has to reach that form more consistently,” he concluded.
“I think Robinho can make the same impact that he made last season. People say that he hasn’t settled in England but he looked very settled in his first season for City and scored lots of goals.
“Given that he had never played in England before, that was some quick adaption after playing in Spain, where the football is completely different.”
