With the January transfer window on the near horizon, I suppose it’s no surprise that talk has increased in the last week or so; linking players with many clubs, ours included of course. Some of it sounds complete hogwash but, actually, a lot of it does seem to have some ‘sticking value’.
· First of all, I want to mention some…NON-transfer talk. What I mean by that, is that it appears to have ‘gone all quiet’ on the David Alaba front. In fact – and to add to that – Pep Guardiola, when asked around a week ago, said that he is not planning on any new arrivals in the January window, which makes me wonder why I’m even bothering with this piece!
But, back to David Alaba, the only recent talk of him moving from Bayern Munich is in connection to Chelsea, who have apparently claimed that they are already working on the Austrian international moving to them for free in the summer.
I’m gonna be blunt here: If we don’t ‘go all out’ to get this much-respected, versatile, 28-year old left-wing back who is almost out of contract then I, for one, will be very, very disappointed; especially considering the long-running difficulties we’ve had with this position.
This fella can also play on the left-side of central defence and even defensive midfielder and has experience aplenty at the very top level. Sort it out City…
· One already ‘in the bag’ and set to arrive in January, so it would seem, is just-turned 18-year old, Serbian winger, Filip Stevanovic.
Predominantly a left winger; I think we’ve scooped this lad up for the future and, perhaps after a brief assessment at the Academy; I think we’ll see Filip loaned out for the rest of the season…and quite-possibly next season too.
· Want another winger? Well, if we are to believe the stories then there are fairly strong rumours that we’re about to ‘open the purse strings’ to get Argentine, 17-year old, Dario Sarmiento.
Despite his young age, this lad has had a few first team appearances for his club, Estudiantes, and is predominantly a right winger.
· Continuing the theme of ‘job done’; the most recent news is that we’ve agreed to sign defensive midfielder Diego Rosa from Brazilian side Gremio B. That’s right…B. He’s not actually played for his club’s first team and although it’s reported that he may eventually cost us £21M; those payments would be strung out over a very long time and is hugely dependent on a lot of factors.
This sounds like a Bruno Zuculini or a Marlos Moreno-type signing to me in some ways and, apparently, plans are already in place to send him out to one of our sister clubs. We may not ever get to see this-also-just-turned 18-year old play in the sky blue of City…
· Staying with central midfield and the first of two more names comes in the form of Valencia’s, South Korean international, Kang-in Lee. Although just 19, he has seen a lot of first-team action and I have seen one comment on-line saying that he has been a stand-out performer for the Spanish side; adding that he deserves a lot of credit for…‘carrying the side’.
Seems to be an all-action, close-skill / tricky player that, like many, I’d never heard of until the rumours started to circulate.
· Another rumour that popped up very recently was a 24-year old, Swiss international who plays for German outfit, Borussia Monchengladbach. Yep, I did the YouTube thing on Denis Zakaria, and I really liked what I saw (I have been fooled by video footage before but, equally, I find that the right clips can be quite accurate too; so I take them with a balanced view alongside other information available). Apparently, Manyoo are very interested in him with Chelsea glancing over too.
Just 2 things, though, with this player-link. 1. He has, apparently, only just returned from a serious knee injury and if we’re talking about the possibility of a January transfer signing, then I’d feel inclined to wait ‘n’ see how his season goes and if we are indeed interested; if his knee doesn’t break down and he is still available in the summer, then perhaps go for him then. 2. He’s a defensive midfielder. Now I know Fernandinho is HIGHLY likely to be leaving us in the summer after great service to our club; I know Ilkay Gundogan isn’t really a defensive midfielder but has covered there many times and that we shouldn’t really be-then-running-with just Rodri - a player who some City fans have questioned in recent weeks – BUT…don’t we supposedly have promising players already ‘on the books’ who could be Rodders’ back-up / competition? I’m talking about the likes of Ante Palaversa, Claudio Gomes, Ko Itakura & Yangel Herrera, all of which we signed as defensive midfielders in recent years and have been loaned out; presumably for development purposes.
And…aren’t we also-apparently interested in bringing back to the club, Douglas Luiz, from Aston Villa? A player we signed in July 2017 but had to keep out on loan overseas before finally selling to Aston Villa because the authorities in the UK wouldn’t grant the player a work permit to be at Manchester City directly because of a determination that he wouldn’t get enough game time at MCFC? I think what I’m alluding to here is that I don’t feel THIS particular transfer rumour has any legs.
Others, briefly:
- Lautaro Martinez - who many see as a like-for-like, natural fit, eventual replacement for Sergio Aguero - has been mentioned, once again, in the same sentence as us in recent days.
Apparently, he is far from happy being on a wage that is far less than a lot of his teammates and unless Inter Milan sort that out fairly soon, then we could see the player making waves for a move away.
He’s definitely a Pep-like striker with a ‘low centre of gravity’ an’ all that jazz and, with him being contracted to June 2023, is likely to cost in the region of £100M+.
- A player many City fans would LOVE to see at Manchester City – and I’m one of them – still gets mentioned with our name never far away and that’s Borussia Dortmund’s, Erling Haaland.
Sadly, I think a lot of City fans are going to be left disappointed because if the 6’ 4” striker is gonna move at all in the next 2 windows; I’m not sure that we’re going to be one of the clubs making a bid. Why? Well, if we ARE and Pep IS-indeed interested in such a tall, robust forward, then I’m going to be left even more bewildered & frustrated as to why we didn’t put a bid in when Dortmund snapped him up from RB Salzburg LESS THAN A YEAR AGO for a mere E20M! Apparently, bids would now have to start at around £68M; a clause in his contract that comes into effect at some point soon, I’m guessing. Manyoo are, of course, also interested in, ‘son of Alfie’.
- And, of course, Lionel Messi.
- Other than that - and certainly not for the January transfer window but the summer, apparently - we are [still] interested in signing Dayot Upamecano from RB Leipzig; that’s despite having John Stones, Aymeric Laporte, Taylor Harwood-Bellis and having just signed Ruben Dias & Nathan Ake…
Love ‘em or hate ‘em, those are the recent rumours; firm, possible & wild alike.
Just to end on this…
…I think one thing that’s very clear is that if you look at two or three of those names above that look certain / quite certain to join us and add them to some recent / fairly recent signings…
- Filip Stevanovic (18)
- Diego Rosa (18)
- Dario Sarmiento (17)
- Gavin Bazunu (18 but signed when 16)
- Yan Couto (18)
- Alpha Dionkou (19 now but under 18 when signed)
- Kluiverth Aguilar (deal agree when he was 16 for him to arrive in July 2021)
- Juan Larios (16)
- Adrian Bernabe (19 now but signed when he was under 18)
- Oscar Tarensi (17)
- Jayden Braaf (18 but signed when he was 16)
- Ivan Ilik (19 but signed when he was 16)
- Romeo Lavia (16)
- Nabil Touaizi (19 but signed when he was 16)
…along with a whole host of young, British talent we’ve acquired; you can see, quite clearly, the immense preparation the club have made to secure good, young talent from across the world before the post-Brexit transfer rules come into play very soon.
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