Following my last piece, here’s the continuation looking at both attacking flanks, the defensive midfield position, attacking / creative midfield and the striker department.
Do we need a new left winger adding to our 1st team next season?
No. Even if a decision is made that it’s best for Manchester City & Raheem Sterling to part company before September 3rd I’d say, once again, no.
We have so many options otherwise, which makes it clear that Raheem isn’t one of those players who ‘steps up his game’ when he has other players snapping at his heels to take his place. Phil Foden & Gabriel Jesus are the two prime candidates to take on that role, I would say, if Raheem departs this summer. But under the category of, “can do a job there” but, in most cases I would suggest, a flippin’ decent one; I’d include:
- Oleksandr Zinchenko
- Ferran Torres
- Kevin De Bruyne
- Riyad Mahrez
In addition to those 6, we also have youngsters Adrian Bernabe & Filip Stevanovic.
Would I like to see us sign a left winger for the 1st team? No.
Chances of signing a new left winger for the 1st team: 0/10
Any names? Not necessary.
Right wing?
For this one, I’m just gonna say, “Read left wing write-up”…but swap the name Raheem Sterling for Riyad Mahrez.
There’s a small chance, I would say, that Manchester City & Riyad Mahrez could part company in the coming months but still, should that happen, we have so many options; most of which are players I’ve just mentioned but include also Bernardo Silva.
Would I like to see us sign a right winger for the 1st team? No.
Chances of signing a new right winger for the 1st team: 0/10
Any names? Not necessary.
Central, defensive midfield.
Now, here’s a little bit of a minefield.
Does Fernandinho stay on? If he does, does Pep and his backroom team use the opportunity of the Brazilian staying on another season to cash in on Rodri and bring in better to rotate with / learn off our skipper?
Does Fernandinho leave and Rodri stay and, if so, do we then bring in a new defensive midfielder as competition for Rodders or do we promote from within our youth ranks?
Whatever the scenario – and even if both players stay – I think this is an area that needs closely monitoring at the very least and, I would suggest, improving.
Would I like to see us sign a defensive midfielder for the 1st team? Yes, I would actually.
Chances of signing a new defensive midfielder for the 1st team: 7/10
Any names?
No links to us – certainly not recently – but Yves Bissouma certainly ticks a lot of boxes. Highly rated by many; lots of Premier League experience, only 25-years of age in August and has only 2 years remaining on his Brighton contract. I’m gonna suggest the word…“ideal”? Arsenal & Liverpool are apparently very keen on the Ivorian.
Denis Zakaria is a name that pops up from time to time in the same sentence as Manchester City and has even less time remaining on his Borussia Monchengladbach contract, which expires in June 2022. He too turns 25 later this year, in November.
I suspect that neither player will be at their respective clubs after the September transfer deadline but whether either of them will be wearing a Manchester City shirt next season I just don’t know, of course. There’s a decent chance I would say.
Then there’s ex-City player – who never played for us due to permit issues – Douglas Luiz. It’s well known to fans of both clubs that we have a buy-back clause for the Aston Villa defensive midfielder but we’d have to make a decision soon if we want to reclaim the Brazilian, as it expires at the end of this month!
Should we engage that clause for the just-turned 23-year-old, he would apparently cost us a pre-agreed £27.5M. I think this is largely up to how Pep feels after listening to our scouts who, I presume, have been monitoring his progress at the midlands club.
There have been recent reports suggesting that we’re no longer interested in activating the clause and bringing the Brazilian back to Manchester (not that he was ever really here) but those could be stories stoked up at ‘that end’ in the hope of keeping the player for themselves.
Attacking / creative midfielder?
Right…this one gets tied up with another position in the side, for me at least anyway.
IF we sign a flippin’ good striker in the summer then I’m going to say, no; we don’t need a goal-scoring, attacking / creative midfielder to add to our ranks just yet.
However, if the intension is to go with “just” Gabriel Jesus & 18-year-old Liam Delap for the entire 2021-22 campaign – possibly bringing Lukas Nmecha into the frame also - then I think despite the talent we have across the middle in the creative / attacking department; we need to seriously consider bringing in an additional, quality, central midfielder with goals in him.
Why? Two reasons:
1. For all our attacking qualities, any Manchester City fan ‘worth their salt’ will tell you that we can, all too often, waste so many created chances. So, IF we don’t bring in quality firepower ‘up top’ then I think we need goals to come, even more so, from midfield.
2. I look at our current crop of attacking / creative central midfielders this way:
- Bernardo Silva: A very good player indeed. I like him – good work rate, skilful and a great age at 27 in August. Prone to playing, sometimes, ‘within himself’ a little I think but that might be down to being in & out of the team fairly often, which is largely down to his manager.
- Ilkay Gundogan: Good midfielder and had his best season for us last season, I think all would agree. But he’s 31 in October and sometimes still has to be ‘game managed’ so that injury niggles don’t come to haunt him; especially wanting to avoid a reoccurrence of a major setback he suffered a few seasons back; something that he admitted still had to be monitored & managed. It’s a long hard season for a player in that situation, I would suggest.
- Kevin De Bruyne: Star player – world class. But believe it or not, the still-fresh-faced Belgium international turns 30 in a few weeks and I’m sure I don’t need to tell any Manchester City just how often Kevin breaks down most seasons. We seem to lose the player for at least 2 months per season through various issues and although his biggest injury last season seemed to spark the rest of the team into life; it’s an anxious time to see Kevin depart the field in pain and not to return for weeks at a time. He’s not getting any younger, is the obvious statement from me.
- And lastly, Phil Foden. Wow! What a young talent we have. And yes, he’s an attacking, creative, central midfielder that could probably run & run most games and every game until you told him to stop. But he’s also proven that he can, more often than not, be more effective on the left-flank and if that’s to be considered more the case; then that puts him out of the central midfield frame, in a way.
Hugely talented department but when you ‘drill down’, one that’s a little aging and injury prone too. I think it needs freshening up and I’ll mention some names soon.
But…does it need freshening up with a new signing? There are quite a few EDS attacking midfielders who continue to get ‘rave reviews’ in Premier League 2 and so if one or two of them are, like Liam Delap, deemed ready to make the ‘step up’ this season, then I’d say we don’t need to go looking outside of the club to add to this department of the 1st team. Adrian Bernabe, Ben Knight, Cole Palmer, Felix Nmecha, James McAtee & Tommy Doyle are the ones I’m largely thinking of here. It’s all up to Pep and his advisers, of course.
Would I like to see us sign an attacking / creative, central midfielder for the 1st team? ‘All depends’…and I’ve said all on that.
Chances of signing a new attacking / creative, central midfielder for the 1st team: 5/10
Any names, should we decide to bring someone in from outside the club?
One fairly recent link really did excite me and came a little ‘out of the blue’, really. Could be just ‘utter tosh’-talk but Jude Bellingham’s name cropped up as a possible Pep signing. What a young, hard-working, talented player the ex-Birmingham City lad is and I was surprised to see that he “only” has 2 years left on his Borussia Dortmund contract. He’d still cost a bit, I’m sure, but this one is definitely worth considering.
Jack Grealish’s name is put into the same sentence as Manchester City SO many times I sometimes think he’s one of our players!
It’s been debated whether the fledgling England international is better as a left-winger than a central player but I’ve stuck him in this section regardless. I think Pep is a big admirer and that’s why we’re linked so often. However, surely…surely, we’re not going to attempt to prize this lad away from Villa having 4 years left on his current deal – he’d cost a fortune! For me, it’s money best spent elsewhere for now and I agree with a LOT of City fans who say we just don’t need him; not at £100M+ anyway. I’ve also got serious concerns about his ‘head issues’ – at 25 I still think he displays a lot of signs of immaturity both on & off the pitch. Bit of a diver to say the very least too. Personally? Don’t need him; don’t want him.
Fabian Ruiz is a 25-year-old who sort of falls in between a defensive & attacking midfield – an intelligent player with good vision, passing and ball control who sounds like the kind of player that links the defence & attack up well. There’s almost a David Silva-sounding quality about him…just a 6’ 2” version.
Not only linked with us but, according to recent reports, the player’s representatives are already in talks with City about a possible, summer move. A Spanish international with 12 caps; he’s entering the last 2 years of his contract at Napoli and I think this link could have some legs in it, which might also ease the need for a new defensive midfielder depending on how he’d fit into the team set up.
And finally…a striker?
Thankfully, I’ve already covered some on this and I suppose the reverse applies.
If we are to run with Gabriel, Liam and possibly Lukas too as strikers but also add to our central midfield a player who can score aplenty as well as create then, no. If not, then abso-flippin’-lutely we do!
Would I like to see us sign a striker for the 1st team? As I say, all depends.
Chances of signing a new striker for the 1st team: 9/10
Any names?
Huh…off course.
Clearly a talented, top-class goal-scorer and would cost an absolutely packet to sign him out of his 3-year-remaining contract; especially with Daniel Levy to deal with.
I have got big concerns about this one despite the goals he should bring to the club – we’ve just lost a 33-year-old, injury prone legend so do we really want to sign a 28-year-old (in July) striker with glass ankles? There’s a reason I’ve largely stopped putting him in my Fantasy Football team…
Now, like Harry, he’d cost £100M+ and although I think he’s a red-hot striker and a young one at that (just 21 in July), I’ve just got some little doubt now about whether it makes good business sense just right now in uncertain market times during a fluctuating Covid situation; where income may become, once again and at any given time, limited.
And, in fact, myself and a fellow football fan were discussing just the other day, whilst talking about the disappointing season Timo Werner has had for Chelsea, whether the Bundesliga is ‘all that’. Better informed fans of German football could tell me how they rate that league against the Premier League (and perhaps Championship?) but we were wondering whether impressive-looking stats of players in the Bundesliga COULD be misleading to those on the outside. Food for thought at least…
A very strongly-linked player is one I hadn’t heard of before; I have to admit. It’s come a bit ‘left field’ has this one, since it was first muted a couple of months ago.
Andre Silva is his name and it’s another Bundesliga-based player, so this comes with a bit of what I’ve already said in mind. But he seems to have ‘the lot’ – looks equally comfortable scoring with both feet, scores with his head (he’s around 6’ 1”); has nice control, alert in the box as well as about those around him with nice-little-lay-offs AND…he can score penalties!
Suggestions are that we’re already in talks with his club, Eintracht Frankfurt, and I reckon that if we’re going to bring in a striker, this 25-year-old fella looks ideal for us and the situation likewise with regards to possible cost when compared with both Harry & Erling.
If Manchester City fans are yearning for a Sergio Aguero-style replacement then Lautaro Martinez could be that man. Standing about an inch taller than Sergio, this Argentine has a similar style to our departed hero in that he has that ‘low centre of gravity’ about his game. A very good goal-scoring ratio at a very good level of football too; both for his club, Inter Milan, and country.
Apparently both he and his club were up for parting company at the end of last season, for whatever reason, and that’s seemingly the case once again a full year on; with other top European clubs wanting his signature. His wages will, no doubt, be very high but with just 2 years left on his contract, I think transfer-fee-wise he’d be somewhere between Andre Silva and both the Harry Kane & Erling Haaland estimates.
All things considered regarding these 4 at least, I think it’s Silva for me (leaving decent money still to spend elsewhere on the team) and Lautaro second if not.
Phew…that’s all on the player speculation front, I’d say, and thank you for your time once again!
I’d like a bit of a break from footy so that I’m fresh for next season, if I’m honest, but there’s the Euros that start this-coming Friday!
Bog-wise, I’ll probably only post something on, say, an opinion on any new kits (fingers crossed for some good ones, especially away kits) and maybe something as the transfer machine starts churning out results.
Have a great but safe summer…
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