City in hurry to bring in teen ’keeper

CITY have brought forward the signing of Shamrock Rovers goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu, as the 16-year-old made his debut for the club’s U18 side on Saturday.

The Blues had agreed a transfer for Bazunu in October and had agreed to let the youngster remain in Ireland to complete his studies.

But Shamrock have confirmed the clubs had come to an arrangement to accelerate the transfer.

A statement read: “Shamrock Rovers FC can confirm that young goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu has completed his transfer to City,” read a statement released by the Dublin club.

“Gavin has completed the move earlier than we originally expected and we wish Gavin all the very best in his career development at City,” said sporting director Stephen McPhail.

“While we originally planned for Gavin to stay at Rovers until July and see out his education to complete his leaving certificate at our education partner Ashfield College, arrangements have been made to accommodate Gavin doing his studies and moving to Manchester.

“Working with Gavin, his family and the other parties involved we are happy that this is the best scenario for Gavin and for the football club.”

Bazunu, who kept four clean sheets in six appearances for Shamrock, made his first appearance in a City shirt on Saturday for the U18s. CITY have come through seven fateful days with nine points – and with a new order in terms of team selection.

The moment the Everton game was re-scheduled, and plonked in the middle of a week which saw both Arsenal and Chelsea arriving at the Etihad Stadium, it was clearly going to be a huge week.

Liverpool instantly saw it as a possible banana skin for the Blues, facing two top-four contenders either side of a Goodison Park trip, which is rarely comfortable for City.

And the club were more angry about the fixture juggling than they publicly said – they, and Everton, had no objection to the game being played on another date. They could not be seen to be too upset, for fear the anxiety would transmit to their own players.

As it was, they had little to fear, as those players not only won all three, they did it with 11 goals scored and one conceded.

But what was intriguing was the identities of the seven players who started all three games – and they hint at the fact that there has been a subtle shift in Pep Guardiola’s thinking.

The magnificent seven who started all three games were Ederson, Kyle Walker, Aymeric Laporte, Bernardo Silva, Fernandinho, Ilkay Gundogan and Sergio Aguero.

Some of those were no great surprise – especially in defence where Ederson is untouchable, Walker is still rated above Danilo and Laporte is first name on the teamsheet.

But in the front six, the competition is intense, and Guardiola has made it plain that rotation is the norm.

No matter how much he dresses it up, Guardiola made it plain which players he trusts – either long-term or in terms of current form – to win him the three games.

Fernandinho was another shooin. He is indispensable when fit, whether bossing midfield or slotting in at centre-back, as he did against Arsenal last week. With no other natural holding midfielder, he has no rivals – and few peers in world football on this showing. Aguero does have competition, and pretty hot competition, with Gabriel Jesus having a recent record – nine goals in eight games – which would make him a cert almost anywhere else. But what is interesting is that Guardiola is no longer reliant on the attacking midfield pair of Kevin de Bruyne and David Silva, both of who were taken out of the team for one of the three games. Stuart Brennan