Manuel Akanji | City close to £15m agreement, 5 year contract

[maurizio]

Checked out that YouTube clip (I know..) seems fast and strong and good at interceptions. Could be cover for Walker, for when we face pace on the counterattack. Also we have had a lot of injuries at centre half. Laporte, Ake and Stones out for weeks at a time. We need to add to the options, we have a lot of games coming in a short time.

 

[RobinHood]

I know its only Fuckyoutube but not bad at all.

Doesn't look like a 'Rough Diamond'!!

 

[Woody135]

Players about to play every 3 days for 3 months until the world cup. Triggered by Ake injury probably but not in my opinion because its worse than feared.

Just in the 3 weeks hes out we play 6 games including 2 tough CL games and then allows us not to rush Ake or Laporte back early and risk their seasons.

Suspect he was lined up as an Ake replacement earlier in the window. Now for a different reason.

 

[schfc6]

End of last season was a freak occurrence. As I say, if we've had some worrying news regarding injuries it makes total sense, if we're expecting to have 5 fit cbs available fairly soon it makes less sense.

As for it freeing up players to play elsewhere, a fullback would eliminate the need for others to play out of position in the first place.

For the record I'm not against this at all. Im very much on board with it, simply saying with the information we currently have regarding our squad, an actual fullback would have made more sense in my eyes. Either way, it's an extra body in and we can all be relieved at that.

Not really. We have Ake & Laporte out for the foreseeable, so an injury to Stones or Dias has us playing players out of position.

 

[DMA's]

Reckon he will be used as an emergency rb as well as cover for cbs. Seems a very sensible signing and I’m happy the squad is getting more depth

 

[Harlaching Sky Blue]

If he’s landing at Manchester airport hope hes only got hand luggage, don’t want him missing deadline day stood like a tit waiting at baggage carousel for 3 days

 

[Alan Harper's Tash]

 

[yeah whatever !!]

Don't know much about him but welcome to Manchester Manuel

Que ?

 

[Octavian]

Makes sense, we’ve got squad places, are in a net spend below 0, and our centre halves are always injured.

No idea if he’s good but he seems experienced enough to cover.

 

[Delphinho]

Will support him if he signs for us, but a pretty meh signing to me. Watched loads of Dortmund and he’s never really impressed me much. He’s quick, I’ll give him that, and he’s hardly playing with world beaters around him, and their midfield is a joke defensively, so he might be better than he looks. He has experience, not too expensive and will add some much needed cover to the defense. Hope this doesn’t mean any long term injuries to Laporte or Ake

 

[alexmcity]

So, we sold Zinch for 30m and bought Akanji and Gomes for, what, 27m...Good business, imo.

 

[schfc6]

Will support him if he signs for us, but a pretty meh signing to me. Watched loads of Dortmund and he’s never really impressed me much. He’s quick, I’ll give him that, and he’s hardly playing with world beaters around him, and their midfield is a joke defensively, so he might be better than he looks. He has experience, not too expensive and will add some much needed cover to the defense. Hope this doesn’t mean any long term injuries to Laporte or Ake

I actually thought he was very good in one of the games against us.

I doubt he’s much more than cover. If he plays 20 games for us, looks solid then we can easily shift at profit. Or he’s great she we keep him.

 

[Chi-town blues]

Maybe Laporte is out for a while and clearly Dias is not 100% fit. Hope this is not a panic buy and turns out like Dias dealing.

 

[Xhavenjoe]

. Watched loads of Dortmund and he’s never really impressed me much.

Thanks for that, Shania

 

[blueparrot]

Didnt think we”d add to the squad, if we did it wouldn’t be a cb. Never heard of him know nothing about him. I know nothing. Great signing well done Txiki.

 

[Fordyboy46]

Leftfield signing this one, and if we're keeping to our one in one out policy then I think Ake might well be on his way. Know nothing about Akanji but if he's played that many games for Dortmund he can't be that bad

 

[rice10]

I hope Akanji is Jude Bellinghams best mate, as that might come in handy in the future.

 

[Blue and true]

Interesting one. Can only assume he is versatile and adept at both CB and fullback, no?

Or maybe Pep is mulling over a more frequent back 3 this season, thus necessitating another CB?

 

[CWMCFC]

Very left field, but a smart move given how light we have looked defensively at times.

We were playing with fire with our CB situation given how injury prone they've been over the course of the last year. Through in a world cup year and it could have been a disaster.

Bit of a kick in the teeth for Mbete though - links on loan to Huddersfield make sense. Hopefully there is still a pathway for him in the future as I do rate him. I suppose we would plan Akanji on the right in any event, so perhaps not direct competition in the future like Laporte/Ake (who I don't see staying with us long term anyway).

 

[alexmcity]

Gives us more options on the FB positions and, strangely, in midfield. Because we could play with 3 CBs and wing backs (Cancelo and Gomes), which would allow Pep to rotate in midfield if needed.