The Manchester City fans in the Transfer Tavern are delighted to hear the news from Martin Blackburn in The Sun that their deal for Leicester’s Riyad Mahrez is almost complete. The deal is set to be around the £60 million mark, with a further £15 million in performance-related add-ons, a sum that means Mahrez will usurp Aymeric Laporte as City’s record signing.
https://twitter.com/City_Watch/status/1001580914495934466
Mahrez could well have been a Manchester City player five months ago, although the fee that Leicester were demanding spiralled to a ludicrous £95 million, something Pep Guardiola wasn’t prepared to pay. However, Guardiola didn’t give on his man and now looks to secure the Algerian services for a much more reasonable price in today’s market, giving both Leroy Sane and Raheem Sterling some respite as they played 95 games between them last season.
What Sane and Sterling offered last season was superb, and the pair are undoubtedly two of the world’s best wingers. Now though, the Citizens have Mahrez and Bernardo Silva as inside forward options from out wide as opposed to the out-and-out wing play of last season’s superstars. Guardiola has not been taking the summer as a holiday and he’ll continue to recruit players right up until the deadline as he chases yet another Premier League win, to add to his League and League Cup double from last season.
You can read our local Sky Blues’ thoughts on the Mahrez deal here:
https://twitter.com/jackofa11sports/status/1001727851249401856
https://twitter.com/anthonybuckley/status/1001622066884472833
https://twitter.com/SagnaBoy/status/1001671027204788224
Only if we could get these two lads and stop this ‘closing in’ thing. We could stand to defend our title
— Charles Rodriguez (@CharlesAtlanta) 30 May 2018
https://twitter.com/Thoiser19/status/1001584508724916224
Club record fee for marhez……….. we had got Aguero de Bruyne Silva Sané Jesus Yaya Sterling. So he’ll be better ?
— Alexis Marchal (@AlexisMarchal93) 30 May 2018
Why can’t we do business faster like Liverpool?smh
— (@Hfz6_) 29 May 2018
