Guardiola Granted Funds for 2020 Signings

According to local sources, Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola will have cash to spend this coming January after his board chose to allocate funds for new signings. Manchester City, the British Premier League champs, made a tepid start to their title defence recently, and trail leaders opposition team Liverpool by 8 points after a total of 8 matches.

Much of this has been attributed to the club’s defensive problems, which were triggered by a long term injury sustained by player Aymeric Laporte. The injury will reportedly keep the French footballer off the pitch until some time in 2020. Another injury, this time to John Stones, has only intensified Manchester City’s frail defence. The team has resorted to using Fernandingo as an emergency centre-back along with Nicolas Otamendi over the past few weeks.

Guardiola was reportedly interested in signing Harry Maguire to his team last summer after Vincent Kompany announced his retirement. Unfortunately, the team’s board refused to meet the requirements laid out by Leicester City, which included a hefty £80 million asking price for the English international athlete. For now, it seems as though Kompany will enjoy relaxing and playing Spin Casino Canada games in his retirement while Man. City hunts for a replacement.

Football Club Eyes Ruben Dias

The club still remained eager to strengthen its defence, however, and sought new ways to do so in the face of the deal for Maguire falling through. Reportedly, ‘significant’ funds have now been made available for Guardiola to use in the January signing window to do exactly that.

Manchester City have been linked with a possible move to sign Benfica defender Ruben Dias, although it will not consider the Portuguese football club’s valuation of £79 million for the centre-back. At the same time, Kalidou Koulibaly of Napoli is not a viable option either, given that Manchester City would have to break their running transfer record to sign the 28 year old player.

Another possible option for the club is Caglar Soyuncu. The Leicester City player has impressed Guardiola with his performance this season, but the Foxes will not be entertaining bids in January and are well known to be challenging to negotiate with.

Man. City Reaches Foreigner Limit

Another issue worth considering is that Manchester City has now reached its 17-man limit on foreign footballers in their Premier League squad. This means that should the club wish to sign another non-British athlete over the age of 21 this coming year, they will have to offload a foreign player in order to find room for the new addition.

Rodri was quick to fill the position left by Kompany, but that only brought City to the top of its limit. It also partly explains Guardiola’s interest in signing English international Harry Maguire. Regardless, despite there being a good few obstacles to tackle over the coming months, Guardiola remains open to adding new faces to his squad and will be looking for a long-term player, should they become available for such a contract.

Manchester City FC is an English football club that is based in the city of Manchester. The club competes in the Premier League – the top tier of British football. City was founded back in 1880 under the name St. Mark’s (West Gorton). It later became known as Ardwick Association Football Club in 1887, and was later renamed to Manchester City in 1894. The home ground of this club is the City of Manchester Stadium in the city’s east region. It moved to its current stadium in 2003 after playing at Maine Road since 1923.