Pep Guardiola’s first choice centre-back John Stones recent injury, that ruled him out for weeks, had Manchester City worried and City acted promptly by bringing in further additions at the back in January to provide insurance for the latter part of the season. Pep believed the squad was too thin to challenge for all four trophies and bringing in more talent is necessary to keep City competitive.
Such a situation had led to reports believing that Manchester City were chasing Inter Milan defender Milan Skriniar. The player has been in excellent form for the Nerazzurri this season. He has played every single minute of league action under Luciano Spalletti featuring in all 26 games.
He has a towering presence because of his structure and height and has been their mainstay in defence. The 23-year-old has scored 3 goals this season and is a key member of the Inter side.
He arrived back last summer for €23million and according to his agent, he is already more than double the price right now. Moreover, sporting director Piero Ausilio described the player as “unsellable”.
It appears that Inter now has put his price tag at a mammoth £70 million Having a player of his calibre and a top league experience could be an ideal deal for a Pep Guardiola team.
The footballing climate at City is now booming. Pep has formed a team that is well on its way to conquer Europe should they keep up their current form. The Manchester City team is heavily loaded with attacking talents from all across the globe and under Pep’s careful tutelage the players have gelled well together to form a team that is producing nothing but swashbuckling score lines in their favour.
City have scored over a 100 goals this season in a space of just eight months and are hungry for more. However, upon close inspection, it can be seen that there are still a few cracks in that City team Pep would like to identify.
With an ageing Kompany becoming more and more injury prone and Otamendi not really Pep’s favoured choice, the defence will need some work. As of now, he is stuck with the error-prone Argentine for now but knowing Pep’s pursuit of perfection and City’s healthy wallet, they would like to diagnose and treat the illness before it spreads. Laporte will also need his time to settle at the Etihad
Given City’s approach to problem-solving is to open their deep wallet, it won’t be surprising to see City go out for a new centre-back, a ball playing player who can partner Stones or Laporte for years to come. It is in this light, that the report of City chasing the Slovakian could well prove to be the final piece of Pep’s Etihad jigsaw.
