If the latest reports from Calciomercato are to be believed, then Juventus are interested in signing Manchester City winger Leroy Sane. However, the City club officials said that their PFA young player of the year would only leave Etihad if they are handed Argentine forward Paulo Dybala in exchange.
Sane was astonishingly not picked for the World Cup, and rumours were doing the round that it was his attitude that has halted his progress. Pep Guardiola recently didn’t include him even in the matchday squad against Newcastle United, and that allowed more fire to the rumours.
On the other hand, Dybala has had a slow start to the season as he is yet to get off the mark in the goals column this season after making four appearances. However, given the quality he possesses, the forward would soon be expected to pick up his game and come out all guns blazing. Last season, he managed 22 goals and five assists in 33 Serie A appearances and another season like that could fire the Old Lady to a Champions League triumph now that they also have Cristiano Ronaldo at their disposal.
Guardiola though rubbished claims that he had any issues with Sane’s attitude when he dropped him. He had said, “Last game Phil Foden was not in the squad. I was so sad with Phil as I am with Leroy now. We have six strikers, and I decided to play with two strikers, we have two wingers plus another one on the bench. That’s why we decided this game he wouldn’t be there. In the next games, he will be ready to play.”
Now coming to the question of whether City should go ahead with this deal, we believe the answer to that is no. Sane is one of those rare talents who has almost everything a top winger needs. The 22-year-old is strong and direct, his dribbling skills are second to none, and his pace would trouble any defender in the world. Where Dybala might edge out Sane is intelligence in the final third and finishing skills, but City don’t need an outright goal scorer as they have the likes of Sergio Aguero and Gabriel Jesus.
Until and unless there is some real feud between the manager and the German that we do not know about, we don’t see this move panning out even though we have seen the Italian giants pull off some massive coups in the last few years in the transfer market.
Probably a money plus Dybala move could be tempting for the Citizens as they would have a proper goal scoring option but the fact that Sane has already done so well in the Guardiola system means he would be pretty tough to replace. We don’t see the Spanish manager as someone who would chuck out an essential player of the team to land another player who might take time to settle at the new club and in the new system.
