In quite a shocking emergence, Manchester City are now looking to land Swansea City’s centre-forward Fernando Llorente in the coming transfer window. According to reports, the Spanish international has a long-term admirer in Manchester City boss, Pep Guardiola, who wants to bring him to the Etihad as soon as possible.
The 32-year-old moved to the midtable England club last summer on a two-year deal from La Liga side Sevilla, hoping for quiet and uneventful few years of football before he hung up his boots. But, his stint at the South Wales club has been anything but quiet with some of the top clubs linked with him, who are of the opinion that he still has a lot to give to the game.
A towering forward, who relies mostly on brilliant positioning, movement and ice-cool finishing, Llorente hasn’t had a very prolific opening in England with him scoring 11 goals in 25 league appearances. However, it looks enough to have impressed Antonio Conte and Guardiola, two of the highly-rated tacticians across the world.
According to Spanish news outlet Don Balon, Guardiola wants the player to play a huge role in his transformation of the Manchester club, who are planning to go all guns blazing the next season. And the news has surprised many, given Llorente’s style of play. Guardiola had dropped Sergio Aguero a few weeks back opting for the youthful and energetic Gabriel Jesus with complaints that the Argentine had lower work rate.
And if work rate is one of the key requirements for Guardiola’s gameplay, then Llorente could be of very little use, given his age. Llorente could be effective only with the ball at his feet, which requires all the others to work hard and provide him with the ball in the D-box. It could also work like magic at City, though, as they have some of the best playmakers in England. Although whether Guardiola will work that way is a doubt.
Landing him will be difficult as Chelsea are also expected to bid for the 6ft 5in striker, whose boss, Conte, has previously managed him in Juventus and therefore enjoys a good relationship. The Europa League winner with Sevilla is a product of Spanish club Athletic Bilbao and has experience at the highest level as he has won the World Cup with the national team and everything in Italy during his two-year stint with Juventus.
City are expected to bring a number of talents coming summer and Llorente could have another feather to add to his hat; which could be a fairy tale ending to an illustrious career.
