City’s €90m transfer seems crazy. actually makes sense
Grigory Telingater August 4, 2023, 10:26 am Moscow time Audio version: Your browser does not support the audio element.
Yoshko Guardiol, perhaps, is more necessary not for the team, but for the club.
Manchester City have signed defender Yoshko Guardiola. The clubs are already discussing the last details to make the transfer official. Leipzig will receive 90 million euros for the 21-year-old Croatian (according to Fabrizio Romano). The deal is reported to be in excess of €100 million, in which case the player will become the most expensive defender in the world. For now, it’s still Harry Maguire (£80 million, or about €93 million).
How does UEFA allow that expense?
City have no problem with financial fair play. They are not even mentioned. Attempts to deprive the team of the European Cups failed three years ago. And now it looks like an even more fantastic scenario. The thing is, City make a lot of money. UEFA has not yet announced how much it will pay the winner of the Champions League, but more than 100 million euros are expected and almost double what the club will receive as English champions. This is only prize money and broadcast revenue, excluding match days. And there are other sponsors: only Puma transfers about 75 million euros a year.
There really is a lot of money in England:
The Premier League earned 6.4 billion euros, La Liga – 3.3 billion euros, but super-profits are “eaten up”
Among other things, City have recently behaved modestly in the transfer market. Last summer, the team even fell into the black after the sale of Alexander Zinchenko and Gabriel Jesus to Arsenal, as well as Raheem Sterling to Chelsea. And this summer, City was left in the dark: the purchase of Mateo Kovacic (29 million euros) compared to the sale of Riyad Mahrez (35 million euros).
Yoshko Guardiol
Photo: Stefan Matzke/Getty Images
Why is Yoshko Guardiol so great?
The Croatian defender is good, but City clearly overpaid. Although for English clubs this has become the norm. This can be seen not only in the transfers from Chelsea, but also in the purchases of Anthony from Manchester United (95 million euros), Darwin Núñez from Liverpool (80 million euros), Declan Rice from Arsenal (117 million euros). , Sandro Tonali -to Newcastle (70 million euros).
By the way, about one of these transfers:
Why did Arsenal pay €110m for the England star? Rice Transfer – Therapeutic
If you ignore the money paid for a second, you can see why the top European clubs have been chasing this footballer so much. Young players are always more expensive because they can still be resold. And also because young people have more growth potential. Josep Guardiola is a very suitable coach for the Croatian to progress.
The statistics from the last Bundesliga season look misleading. Guardiol is the leader of the German championship in terms of successful dribbling percentage (88.9%)! Although it is clear that dribbling is definitely not the defender’s main characteristic. In 30 matches in the Bundesliga, he only 18 times he went to the blow, and 16 times he did it successfully. More importantly, Guardiol is generally good in terms of control: he is the best in Leipzig both in touches in 90 minutes and in moving the ball through possession. It seems that the experience of playing in the youth midfield is taking its toll on him. City was able to get to know the Croatian’s qualities better personally: in the Champions League round of 16, when Guardiol scored right past Ederson’s goal.
Why does Guardiol need City?
At first glance, buying a new center seems crazy. The team already has five great central defenders: Ruben Dias, John Stones, Nathan Ake, Aymeric Laporte and Manuel Akanji. It cannot be said that one of these five failed. They regularly replace each other without loss of quality.
Much becomes clearer when you consider Guardiola’s attitude towards the full-backs. Zinchenko was sold a year ago, and now Kyle Walker and Joao Cancelo are close to leaving. Manchester City wouldn’t surprise anyone if they came out with four nominal centre-backs again. Ake is used for the left flank, and the Stones are used for the right. The three remaining centre-backs are right-footed Akanji and Dias, plus left-footed Laporte, who enters the field much less frequently than the others.
Manchester City with the Champions League
Photo: Dmitry Golubovich, Championship
And another moment. City won the treble last season. The team finally won the Champions League, which they have been fighting for for so many years. It is unknown how this will affect player motivation. In this sense, the club is interested in new players who are still hungry for big wins.
What about the other City transfers?
This summer it was not possible to keep Ilkay Gundogan. He left for free, even because City and the midfielder did not agree on the term of the new contract. Instead of a German, Kovacic appeared in midfield (even Mateo, as a compatriot, should help Yoshko with adaptation in England).
Details of one of the main signings of the summer:
Guardiola could not keep the City captain. How did Barca get Gundogan in the first place?
City will obviously leave one of the right-backs: Cansela or Walker, or even both. The Portuguese is likely to end up in Barcelona, and Bayern are interested in the Englishman. As for Mahrez’s departure to Al-Ahli, it must be borne in mind that the right-back has been appearing less and less at the base lately. For example, in the last five Champions League games (1/4, 1/2 and the final), he played only 11 minutes. Bernardo Silva appeared more and more in his position. And even with Kevin De Bruyne’s injury, it wasn’t Mahrez who came out in the Champions League final, but Phil Foden.
Crystal Palace’s Michael Olise is being considered as a replacement for the Algerian. Although there are two buts at once. First of all, Chelsea are also very interested in this right winger (it seems they even agreed to the terms of the contract). And both clubs are embarrassed that Olise is injured, and it’s unclear when he’ll return to duty. But the sale price of 40 million euros in the contract is unlikely to scare anyone. Although City without this transfer looks quite complete.
