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The Big Summer Refresh – A Week in the City

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If you believed most rival fans and various media pundits, you’d think that Manchester City have got the deepest squad in the world. Jamie Redknapp and Gary Neville will look at the title race and marvel at how Arsenal can possibly compete with City’s embarrassment of riches and unrivalled squad depth.

The reality, however, is quite different.

We’re all aware of it as City fans – a couple of injuries and the substitutes bench is suddenly being supplemented by kids who have about as much chance of stepping onto the pitch in a serious Premier League game as I do.

So it’s probably not ideal, then, that it’s starting to look like a significant chunk of the squad doesn’t really fancy being here anymore. I personally don’t understand how that can be the case when you’ve got Pep Guardiola managing you, trophies almost guaranteed every single season, and Wakey Wines a short drive away – but what do I know?

Manchester City’s defence has obviously not been doing too great this season, having conceded (at the time of writing) 25 league goals so far this season, which is one goal less than the entirety of last season. It’s been another year of rotating injuries, with John Stones, Aymeric Laporte and Ruben Dias rarely all fit at the same time. It’s also been the year of Manuel Akanji, a maths nerd who happens to be a pretty decent footballer.

When Akanji was signed for £15 million in the summer, it felt like a savvy piece of business. Aymeric Laporte’s injury at the time was obviously looking like it was more serious than anticipated and Nathan Aké had found his calling at left-back, so cover at centre-back was needed.

However, none of us really anticipated the Swiss international regularly making the Premier League starting XI ahead of John Stones or Laporte when both are fit. Since he signed for the club, he has only failed to feature in two games – one was the weekend that he signed, and the other was the recent 1-1 draw with Nottingham Forest, where he sat on the bench. Every other league game he’s featured in at least half an hour of action.

This isn’t to say Manuel Akanji is a bad player. He’d walk into the starting XI of most of the league, including the current leaders in my opinion. However, he was clearly signed to be the fourth choice (if we’re now acknowledging that Nathan Aké is no longer considered a centre-back option in important games). We’ve obviously had injuries which have sometimes forced Pep Guardiola’s hand but, for me, if any two of Stones, Laporte and Dias are fit, it should be some combination of those three that are starting.

Only once in the whole season (just looking at the league) have we played the same back four in back-to-back games. I haven’t looked into the surrounding cup/Champions League games but I’d be shocked if I was to find another instance of the same defence playing in consecutive games. Every fan, and seemingly most managers, know that titles are typically built on a solid defence, and a solid defence is typically built on stability, and stability is typically built on knowing who’s going to be playing every week.

I understand that, with the embarrassment of riches we have at centre-back, there’s a need for Guardiola to keep everybody happy, though it’s strange that Akanji – the newest recruit who will no doubt have been semi-aware of his role at the club as he joined – is the one who’s been afforded the most game time in the back four since his arrival.

He’s also not been flawless during this time, yet his mistakes have not been punished in the way that we have seen with Laporte or Stones in the past, where a big error can often lead to somebody else getting a chance to step up to the plate in your absence.

It’s probably this exact game time issue which is causing reports to emerge of Laporte being on his way out of the club in summer. In quite a funny update from Fabrizio Romano, it emerged that there is a “concrete possibility” that Laporte is on his way out this summer. What on earth a concrete possibility means is beyond me, but let’s just say a move is on the cards.

It was very apparent that this kind of move was on the horizon the moment I saw him pictured with the infamous Jose Alvarez of the absolute meme factory that is Chiringuito. It feels like every City player is given a little black book during their induction which just has Alvarez’s phone number in it, with simply the words, “You’ll know when you’ll need this,” written alongside it. We thought the Sergio Aguero heel turn of 2016/17 was over but, just like the Undertaker (I think, I don’t watch wrestling because I don’t still live with my parents), Jose Alvarez has risen again to torment us.

If I’m being perfectly honest, I’m getting a bit bored of, “I’m Eric Waporte”.

He needs to go just for his terrible social media team alone. If I’m being completely fair, I think this season he probably has more cause for concern as far as on the pitch matters are concerned than he has in previous seasons. With the exception of the absolutely shambolic, borderline disgraceful, defending against Nottingham Forest a few weeks ago, he’s not been personally any more culpable for much of our defensive frailties this season than anybody else. If anything I’d say he’s been less so than some others.

As mentioned earlier, Laporte has been on the receiving end of the punishments which Pep Guardiola can dish out to centre-backs who make a big error in games in the past. A good spell in the side has been dashed by a high-profile mistake, forcing him to sit it out and wait for somebody else to slip up. So maybe watching the likes of Manuel Akanji be seemingly immune to this treatment has been the final straw for him.

But if we have to sit through rumours of his departure and reports of his unhappiness at the club every time he’s given a spell out of the team, because let’s not forget that this is definitely not the first time we’ve heard this from Laporte’s camp, then quite frankly we can show him the Joao Cancelo shaped door out of the club.

Speaking of which, Cancelo left the club in the January window on loan in a move which felt like it was a practical joke until he was suddenly in the Allianz Arena holding up a Bayern Munich shirt. The Portugal international hadn’t really been in the best of form throughout the season anyway, so it’s not like him packing his bags and leaving was going to be an immediate devastating loss, however it’s still ultimately reducing the numbers of what is already a paper thin squad in certain areas of the pitch, namely full-back.

If the reports about Cancelo are true, and that he had an attitude problem and his relationship with Pep was beyond repair, then the decision to give him the steel toe cap boot up the arse and onto a private jet to Munich was probably the right one. Cancelo himself denies this and keeps talking about Manchester City as if a return to the club is very likely, though given the latest reports coming out of Bayern Munich, I think a return to the club is almost guaranteed…

Cancelo is, in my opinion, the most complete full-back in world football. He can play as an orthodox wide full-back, he can play inverted in the centre of the pitch, he can attack, he can defend, he’s got more technical ability than anybody else in his position. Yet he’s constantly being held back by his own inability to use his brain.

Take a look at his Wikipedia page.

The guy’s not stayed at a club for longer than three years until making it to three-and-a-half at Manchester City, and he’s got quite the list of clubs that he’s played for – Benfica, Valencia, Inter, Juventus. There are obviously other factors behind each sale; Benfica’s entire business model relies on them selling their biggest stars. However his time at Valencia was marred by gestures made towards the fans after he received criticism. Inter opted against signing him permanently after his loan with an option to buy, despite him putting in performances that earned him a place in the Serie A Team of the Year.

Perhaps some introspection is needed.

The fact Julian Nagelsmann is already coming out in the media to criticise Joao Cancelo’s attitude, despite the fact he’s only been at the club for about seven weeks, is quite remarkable. Evidently, Cancelo has learned nothing from the reasons which saw City gladly move him out of the club for the rest of the season and it’ll almost certainly cost him any hope of a permanent move to the Bavarian club. It also lends some weight to the initial reports which he has since denied about his attitude around the City training ground and the eventual falling out with Pep Guardiola.

When he inevitably finds his way back to Manchester in July, he should be moved on as soon as possible. Unless he’s willing to seriously readjust his attitude, we need to be shipping out players who are so prone to throwing their toys out of the pram when they’re not getting the level of football which they personally deem themselves worthy of. City’s squad in particular, whilst not so high on numbers, is extremely high in quality. Hard work and determination to get your place back in the squad is what’ll get you a run in the side, not sulking and telling any journalists that’ll listen that you’re being hard done by.

Therefore we need to replace him in the summer. Deciding to make do at left-back and find ourselves back on the never-ending wild ride that is, “Who is Pep Guardiola going to turn into a left-back,” is not an acceptable place to find ourselves when the season kicks off in August.

My guess, based on the tactical evolution of the team this season and Pep’s doubling down on the inverted full-back (if only there was a certain Ukrainian national team captain who was skilled at that…), would be that Josko Gvardiol is the ideal candidate.

He’s played left-back enough throughout his career that he’s generally competent in the position but his trade is ultimately a centre-back for Leipzig. He’d suit the wide centre-back role that Aké seems to be playing pretty perfectly. Pep seems to value that flexibility in the back four in the same way he values it in the front line, so he covers a couple of bases.

Then we move into the midfield and Rodri is playing every minute god can send because Kalvin Phillips is on a constant rotation between injured and overweight. He’s finally able to play football now, though he’s being tasked with being able to adapt into a Pep Guardiola ‘six’ role with minimal game time. Rodri took a full season of unwavering commitment from Pep to get the role nailed down to the extent which he has done, I don’t know how Phillips is supposed to be able to do that when his arse is constantly being caressed by the luxuriously padded leather seats of the dugout every week.

Bernardo Silva goes into every transfer window reminding the world that he definitely doesn’t want to be in Manchester and, despite his commitment levels on the pitch never really wavering, he’s still not had a stellar season by his standards. For the last couple of years, it’s been impossible to see where he goes, as he seems to have his heart set on a Barcelona side that, according to Javier Tebas, is going to struggle to afford to do anything next summer, let alone spend £75 million on a midfielder.

However, let me just state that I absolutely respect Barcelona and believe them to be a fine footballing institution and definitely do not see them as the Arsenal of Spain. I wonder how Ferran Torres is getting on…

I love Bernardo and, due to his unwavering commitment on the pitch and no issues around the training ground that we’ve been made aware of, I feel very differently about his eagerness to get out of the club compared to anybody else.

However, it’s time for him to go. If we have to let him go for £50-60 million instead of the much more valid £70-80 million, so be it. Pep Guardiola has spoken in the past about how a team that’s so used to winning can often take it for granted and so the performance/motivation levels dip a bit. And that’s with players who are actually fully committed to staying at the club, let alone those who have been pining for Iberia for the last two years. It’ll catch up with him soon enough.

PSG are rumoured to be circling for his signature, though whether the political nature of the relationship between the Qatari and Abu Dhabi ownerships will make that impossible remains to be seen. It would be a remarkable step down for Bernardo in his career, in my opinion, though it would be testament to just how much he is desperate to get closer to home.

Ilkay Gundogan may well be getting the move that Bernardo is begging for – with that man again, Jose Alvarez, reporting that the German is on his way to Catalonia on a free transfer this summer when his Manchester City contract expires.

City journalists are reporting that nothing’s agreed and that conversations between the club and player are still ongoing, which Fabrizio Romano backs up with his latest reports that no decision has yet been made on his future.

‘Silky Ilkay’ was the club’s first signing under Pep Guardiola, joining for less than £20 million in his first summer. Pep Guardiola loved him so much that they signed him while he was still recovering from an injury – which even for the relatively low fee felt like a risk at the time. However, it’s a risk which has absolutely paid off. He’s a club legend in his own right for being the spark which ignited the comeback against Aston Villa on the final day of last season before scoring that goal to win it for us.

As the current club captain, I’d personally prefer he stayed, though it’s unlikely that Manchester City are going to be offering him financial terms, or playing time, that Barcelona will be throwing at him. If he’s looking at a two or three year deal at Barcelona, then it’s understandable that City won’t be matching that, especially with Barca no doubt offering wages of £200,000-a-week in classic Barcelona fashion, seeing as there’ll be no transfer fee involved.

If we sit back and look at the club’s situation as a whole, it’s four players who many would have considered crucial to the club’s success and absolutely unsellable 18 months ago, maybe even three or four months ago, that are going to be probably walking out the door in the summer. But ultimately, I’m a bit sick of players who want to go when I can’t understand their reasoning. Cancelo had accumulated two less City appearances before he left on loan than he’d managed in his entire loan season at Inter Milan, yet somehow this was not enough for him.

Two huge holes in midfield are going to need to be filled. The club is going to have to actually sign a proper left-back of some description. Maybe a new centre-back is needed but, let’s be honest, Nathan Ake is actually god so maybe we don’t need a new one after all.

The dream scenario is Jude Bellingham in the midfield role, and whilst everybody within the media has convinced themselves since the summer that Liverpool is absolutely nailed on for him, the move doesn’t make sense for multiple financial reasons and the Merseyside club’s squad is in such a state right now that it can’t be solved by splurging the entire budget on one (albeit very good) 19 year-old.

John Henry is already planting the seeds for “sensible investment” across the media, which doesn’t really tally with spending in excess of £100 million on a single player when you’ve got four or five positions which need reinforcement. Especially when we’re talking about the same Liverpool team which signed the most expensive goalkeeper and centre-back in history, they can’t be expected to compete with Manchester City and Real Madrid on a financial level.

Mason Mount is being thrown around as a potential name to leave Chelsea at the end of the season. How much of that is just agent talk to pressure Stamford Bridge officials into meeting his contract demands and how much of that is legitimate remains to be seen, however if he’s seriously considering his future at another club then it’s a name I’d definitely be interested in. I think he’s be great as one of the eight’s at the club and it’d be another English name to add to the ever-growing list at the club. Long gone are the days of signing Jack Rodwell to meet homegrown quotas.

The centre-back/left-back role conversation comes back to the name I threw out earlier in Josko Gvardiol.

Pep Guardiola loves his players to have versatility and Gvardiol has definitely got it. Himself and Nathan Ake occupying that wide-centre-back role just feels very Guardiola, though I’d personally prefer we signed an out-and-out left-back who can do what Kyle Walker or Joao Cancelo were able to do on the right hand side.

In the top tier bracket that only really leaves Theo Hernandez, who signed a new contract with AC Milan not long ago and would command a silly fee, or somebody who I have absolutely zero personal interest in like Antonee Robinson from Fulham, who we were briefly linked with in the days following Cancelo’s departure.

All of this is ignoring the fact that we’re probably going to sign some players to actually bolster the squad numbers, as well as replacing the people we’re letting go. There’s still a wide player to add to the squad in the forward area, somebody like a Rafael Leao (although probably not him, as he loves living in Italy because Italy is unreal).

It’s going to be an interesting summer, possibly one of the biggest since the mad influx of players we had in the summer of 2017. We have the crown jewel now in Erling Haaland and he’s a big massive blood diamond – we’ve now got to build a crown that can support it so that it shines properly.

Blood diamonds are fine, right?

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