MONEYBAGS MAN CITY BANK ON EXPENSIVE WIDE BOYS
NOTHING reflects the evolution of football’s modern fullback more than Manchester City’s decision to spend over £120 million on buying three in 10 days – with a fourth possibly on the way.
Benjamin Mendy became the latest to arrive at the Etihad Stadium on Monday for a reported £49 m joining Danilo, signed from Real Madrid for £26 m on Sunday, and Kyle Walker, a £45 m buy from Tottenham Hotspur earlier this month.
In making these signings, City’s manager, Pep Guardiola, has both reshaped his defence and provided an exciting new range of options out wide.
Where once the full back’s job was to nullify the opposition winger, now he is a focal point of attack, too, with Guardiola banking on this trio’s ability to deliver chances for his equally expensive strikers.
For Monaco, French international Mendy completed five assists in Ligue 1 and three in the Champions League last season, figures that suggest more goals should now flow from Guardiola’s problem left side.
Perhaps only City would pay such a fee – four times the amount Monaco paid Marseille for the 23-year-old just 12 months ago – but Mendy’s pace, technique and intelligence were major factors in the French side’s success last season.
Guardiola, who witnessed Mendy’s worth close up in Monaco’s Champions League knockout win over City last season, has persuaded his paymasters to fork out serious money for a player who could make his debut against Real Madrid in Los Angeles on Wednesday.
“I am absolutely delighted to be joining Manchester City,” Mendy said. “They are one of Europe’s leading clubs and in Pep Guardiola they have a manager committed to playing attacking football.
“I am sure that over the next few years we will be successful.”
Mendy began his career with Le Havre, who play in France’s second tier. He moved to Marseille in 2013, where he made 101 appearances in three seasons and established himself as one of the best fullbacks in France.
He joined Monaco on a five-year deal last season, winning the Ligue 1 title in his sole season at the club, which also reached the Champions League semi-finals.
“Benjamin has all the qualities we are looking for in a full-back,” City’s director of football Txiki Begiristain said.
“For such a young player, he has a wealth of top-level experience. He is undoubtedly one of the world’s best full-backs, our number one target in this position.”
City are almost certain to rotate their full backs, with Danilo, who can play on both sides, acting as a cover for Mendy and Walker. Guardiola is also reported to be in the market for another right back to complete a very expensive set.
Danilo leaves Madrid two years after joining from Porto, having won back-to-back Champions League titles and the Spanish title once.
Last season City’s fullback problems frustrated Guardiola, who cited his lack of options as the excuse for City’s inability to break down neighbours United in April’s goalless Manchester derby.
On that occasion Guardiola named 32-year-old Pablo Zabaleta and Aleksandar Kolarov, 31, with Bacary Sagna, 34, and Gael Clichy, 31, on the bench – a quartet with a combined age of 128.
“We don’t have full backs to go up and down, up and down, because all of them are 33, 34 years old, so I adapt with the quality of players,” said Guardiola, who became so exasperated that he even experimented with midfielder Fernandinho there.
All four of City’s recognised full backs from last season have now departed with Guardiola’s class of 2017-18 primed to form a dazzling wide link with Leroy Sane, Raheem Sterling and Bernardo Silva, another new signing from Monaco.
With Sergio Aguero, Gabriel Jesus, Kevin De Bruyne and David Silva in the middle, City threaten goals all over the pitch, assuming Guardiola can knit his talents together.
If he can’t, City may have just made the most expensive mistake in football history.
Brazilian right back Danilo has claimed it has always been his ambition to work under Guardiola.
Danilo said: “I am very, very happy to be joining Manchester City.
“There has been strong interest from other clubs, but it has always been my ambition to play for Pep Guardiola.
“As soon as I heard of his interest, I knew immediately I wanted to be a City player.
“I would love to win the Champions League with Manchester City.”
Meanwhile, Samir Nasri has become a virtual outcast at Manchester City with his own teammates questioning why he is on the club’s tour of America.
City are seeking a buyer for Nasri, who is the subject of a Uefa investigation into an alleged breach of doping rules while on loan at Sevilla last season.
The 30-year-old Frenchman was surprisingly added to the tour party and came on as a secondhalf substitute in the Manchester derby in Houston last week.
But it is understood that Nasri’s mood in camp has left some City players wondering why he was not left at home to train.
One insider said: “The squad don’t understand why Nasri is even here. He is very unpopular due to his arrogant attitude. Some of the squad even want him to go back to Manchester.”
Nasri, a £24m signing from Arsenal in 2011, has two years left on his £120 000-a-week deal at the Etihad but does not figure in Guardiola’s plans.
However, City’s attempts to sell him have been complicated by the Uefa probe after it emerged that he visited the Drip Doctors clinic in Los Angeles in December and may have received intravenous treatment that could breach doping rules.
He faces a ban of up to four years if found guilty. – Daily Mail & Reuters