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

[LongsightM13]

tbf when we were signing dias there was some on here saying he was error prone etc.i dont watch any european footy so tend to trust the club.they tend to make decent decisions

Yep, Dias joined us on the back of an extremely underwhelming season personally, though that may have been as much to do with the utter disarray Benfica found themselves in that year

 

[SWP's back]

For everyone questioning the signing of a 5th centre back, how many times in the last two years have we had 4 fit CB’s to choose from? Genuinely only a handful of occasions and there’s now 5 subs and he can cover other positions.

If Pep likes the look of him and thinks he can improve him then it’s a no brainer.

 

[andyhinch]

For everyone questioning the signing of a 5th centre back, how many times in the last two years have we had 4 fit CB’s to choose from? Genuinely only a handful of occasions and there’s now 5 subs and he can cover other positions.

If Pep likes the look of him and thinks he can improve him then it’s a no brainer.

He’s not 5’ 9” though which is a worry ;-)

 

[bobbyowenquiff]

If I had to guess we're gonna start playing 3 at the back

I think this is a good shout. Foden and Cancelo looked devastating for that little spell v Palace. Haaland was unleashed. It solves our left back issue. We certainly have the option now.

 

[Blue Smarties]

For everyone questioning the signing of a 5th centre back, how many times in the last two years have we had 4 fit CB’s to choose from? Genuinely only a handful of occasions and there’s now 5 subs and he can cover other positions.

If Pep likes the look of him and thinks he can improve him then it’s a no brainer.

Stop talking sense in the transfer forum mate.

 

[Dribble]

I guess it's sort of necessary because of how many injuries our CBs pick up. Ake and Stones are pretty injury prone and Laporte is no stranger to a lengthy layoff either.

Then you've got to factor in that Ake would have been off to Chelsea this summer if they didn't pull the plug on the deal. I think it's fair enough for us to start planning without him or anyone else who might want to leave.

And I agree about having an academy player as fifth choice but, in all likelihood, in the event of an injury crisis Pep would just play a senior player out of position to cover there like he has done in the past.

This deal makes sense purely because of the low fee. As much as I love out of the blue signings, I'm not particularly excited about Akanji. He's got speed and a decent passing range but he's not got the aerial presence of Stones and he's about as far from Dias and Kompany in terms of last ditch, putting your body on the line defending as is possible.

If he develops under Pep to what he could have been a few seasons ago, we've got one of the bargains of the summer and even if he stays at the level he's at then we've got a decent squad option at a more than reasonable price.

Didn't Pep once say that he doesn't teach tackling because if you have to go to the floor, it shows you were positionally wrong in the first instance?

Could it be Akanji's quick thinking (mental arithmetic genius), brilliant passing stats & his electric pace that negates the need for him to be involved in last ditched, body on the line tackling?

For me this sounds more like a plus than a negative.

 

[Manchester_City_Blue]

After ending last season with Laporte having to constantly agitate his injury to give us a CB to play with I'm thrilled we're getting back up

 

[TonyM]

As in ‘has an actual respected football reporter written on the topic with a named source’ or as in ‘has someone on the forum tried to embellish their reputation by posting an obscure pop video that could be construed to suggest absolutely anything after the fact?’
;-)

My distrust of sports journalism is that strong. :-)

 

[SleepingBlueTiger]

Hardly a world beater but it's unrealistic to expect this late and already having 4 CBs.

Our club is in the business of winning trophies and sometimes short term needs are just as important than signing a perfect long term option. We are short in that department currently with Ake constantly out, Laporte injury and Stones and Dias also not exactly most reliably injury free players when thinking of next few months.

Overall I think it's a necessary deal given our situation. Hopefully the new challenge can reignite his game. The downside of the deal is if he can't reverse his recent form then we will have a player on 150k+ p/w with a long contract who we can't shift.

 

[bluetonium]

I trust the club above all else, if he's got the stats and qualities then seems a good deal.
Slight worry about where that leaves us with THB and Mbete as always like to see a youngster come through, and something tells me there is another factor at play here.

Maybe we know one of our centre back is off or crocked for longer, maybe there is a plan to use him to rotate Rodri and we think Phillips has issues,maybe we're just bulking up the numbers ahead of an unprecedented season with a Christmas world cup smack in the middle. Five years is no stop gap though.

In fact, January could be crazy. Following a world cup and potentially injuries from the demands of this unique season, we could well see a few panic buys and over inflated fees even more come January. Maybe we expect Chelsea to come back with £70m for Ake by then, or Barca propose FDJ plus cash for Laporte, who knows.