Angelino must spread wings to make it third time lucky at Etihad
WHEN Angelino left City in the summer of 2018, he did so having made just three appearances for the club.
There had been a series of loans, none of which were overly successful, yet City never lost faith in his potential. Which is why when the club agreed to sell Angelino to PSV Eindhoven, they included a buyback clause in the deal.
It was a safety net for the Premier League side. If Angelino started to realise his potential in Holland, he could be brought back to the Etihad for a cut-price fee.
And last summer after reported interest from Paris Saint-Germain, that’s exactly what happened. The full-back returned to Manchester for the modest price of £5.3m.
“I am thrilled to have rejoined City, a side playing incredible football under Pep Guardiola,” said Angelino. “Watching them while playing in Holland has been a pleasure.”
Left-back had been something of a problem position for City the previous season. Benjamin Mendy’s injury issues restricted his game time and while Oleksandr Zinchenko had impressed in the role, he only ever appeared to be a stop-gap.
So would Angelino be given an opportunity to impress? Not exactly. The Spaniard played just 62 minutes of the club’s opening 10 Premier League games.
He was then thrust into the starting 11 against Southampton and retained his spot when City faced Liverpool at Anfield – a game which ended in a 3-1 defeat for the Premier League champions.
Angelino would feature only twice more and disappeared from the matchday squad entirely from the start of January. It came as little surprise that he joined RB Leipzig on loan at the end of the winter transfer window.
The Bundesliga side negotiated an option to make the fullback’s move permanent at the end of the campaign for £25.2m. His performances would be the deciding factor.
Deployed as a wing-back, Angelino quickly impressed in Germany. The Spaniard’s tireless running enabled him to patrol the left flank single-handedly; he often would offer a decoy overlap which would enable Timo Werner to cut infield and fire towards goal. “Intuitively he does a lot of things right,” Leipzig boss Julian Nagelsmann told Kicker in February. “He obviously thinks a lot before the games and thinks about what he needs to do to satisfy the coach.” Football’s suspension halted Angelino’s momentum but he has started three of Leipzig’s five Bundesliga games since the campaign’s resumption last month. However, the financial fallout of the coronavirus pandemic may rule out a permanent switch to the Red Bull Arena. “I think we’ll manage to get into the top four this season and gain
Intuitively he does a lot of things right, he obviously thinks a lot before the games
Julian Nagelsmann
Champions League qualification,” Nagelsmann told Bild this week.
“Even if that does happen, I don’t think we purchase [Patrik] Schick and Angelino. We can’t waste resources, even if we do qualify for the Champions League.”
So it appears Angelino will return to City once again this summer. Could it be a case of third time lucky for the 23-year-old? In terms of making it at City, Guardiola’s side is not a finishing school – the stakes are often too high for players to be learning on the job.
Angelino has an abundance of talent and the potential to become one of Europe’s finest full-backs.
The problem is City can’t wait and hope for that to happen, they need the final product if they’re to reclaim the title from Liverpool next season.