Manchester City aren’t exactly the most conservative club when it comes to splashing the cash, with their business back in January showing off a club that’s still unafraid to flex their muscles in the transfer market.
Omar Marmoush would join the elite Premier League side’s ranks for a whopping £59m from Eintracht Frankfurt, with his unbelievable goal return of six strikes from 13 league outings already justifying the excessive spending.
Moreover, both Nico Gonzalez and Abdukodir Khusanov would relocate to Manchester for a combined £83.6m, with City’s notable transfer activity showing no signs of slowing down as we head towards the dramatic summer window reopening.
Manchester City's pursuit of Florian Wirtz
Already, Pep Guardiola’s men have been linked with a barrage of exciting names to improve their midfield options, with Nottingham Forest star Morgan Gibbs-White reportedly attracting the attention of those at the Etihad.
Other midfield targets on City’s radar include ex-Norwich City ace Gabriel Sara and Newcastle United fan’s favourite Sandro Tonali, but the main superstar that is dominating most of the conversation in this regard is Bayer Leverkusen hero Florian Wirtz.
The FA Cup finalists have been linked frequently with the electric German, with a wild price-tag of £101m allegedly above the 21-year-old’s head amidst growing interest.
The latest on any such deal is that Man City are still in the conversation for his signing, but according to Sky Germany’s Florian Plettenberg, Bayern Munich are ‘continuing to work on a deal behind the scenes.’
City will still hope they can power ahead to the front of the queue to land the much-talked-about Leverkusen number ten, but they could have avoided another splurge in the transfer department…
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Your star player or biggest flop has left the club but what are they doing in the present day? This article is part of Football FanCast’s Where Are They Now series.
Man City sold their own Florian Wirtz
City have dropped the ball a few times in recent years when letting some top talents depart the Etihad, with the example of Cole Palmer no doubt stinging to this very day.
Julian Alvarez is another sale that will hurt Guardiola and Co.
Across 103 games donning City sky blue, the explosive Argentinian would notch up a sturdy 36 strikes and 19 assists, with Alvarez adept at either leading the line for his ex-employers or slotting in as an option just behind the lone striker.
As it happens, his form since leaving Manchester behind has seen him compared to Wirtz, with data-led website FBref determining that the German is the third most similar player in this season’s edition of the Champions League.
Why? Well, Wirtz also boasts similarly devastating numbers for Leverkusen – seen in his ever-growing count of 56 goals and 63 assists from 194 clashes.
But, sticking with Alvarez, not allowing him to leave for pastures new at Atletico Madrid would have saved Guardiola’s men a lot of hassle and cash in their ongoing pursuit of a new classy performer in attack.
La Liga
33
15
2
Copa Del Rey
7
5
2
Champions League
10
7
1
After all, the 25-year-old is now tearing it up in his new Spanish location as a force to be reckoned with, seen in his mightily impressive tally of 27 goals and five assists from 50 appearances at Atletico.
This amazingly betters Wirtz’s own total for the season under the tutelage of Xabi Alonso who has 28 goal contributions next to his name, culminating in Alvarez being heralded as the “best forward in the world” at the moment by journalist Roy Nemer.
City won’t be plagued with regret for too long if they do end up winning the services of their £101m-rated target, but in an alternate reality, Guardiola’s men wouldn’t need to flex their muscles again, knowing they had a Wirtz-like talent already at their disposal.
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