Manchester Cities Eyes are on Pep Guardiola
Pep Guardiola is ready to sanction a £50m deal for Matthijs de Ligt from the Netherlands. The Dutch prodigy is perceived as the long-term successor of Man-City’s captain Vincent Kompany. The Premier League Trophy will be held by the Belgian teenager for the third time across seven seasons on Sunday after City’s match against Huddersfield. When asked about Kompany’s future Guardiola spoke, hailing him as of the best central defenders has ever seen.”We will see. We miss him when he is not fit. When he is fit, he is one of the best central defenders I have seen in my life, from his personality to covering in the box. But his problems are a bit similar to Fabian Delph in maintaining fitness.”
Pep is just 18 years old. However, at this age, he is already playing for Holland against the likes of the one and only Cristiano Ronaldo. Ronaldo has only one year left on his contract but City’s eyes are on a younger player who has been capped by Holland at the tender age of 18.
“Now we have the same feeling as we had last season, when we finished with seven wins in a row. Pep continued.
“Hopefully, next season, that won’t happen. But it is the same case with Yaya Toure as it is with Vinny. They have already won three Premier Leagues. When you win three Premier Leagues, you have to start to talk about something serious because it is not easy to win one.
“That is why we are so happy and why, on Sunday, I will have a picture with him of a guy who won three Premier League. Then, we will see.
“I think with Vincent it depends on him and his physical condition. I think he will be honest with himself to say if he is ready to play regularly.
“Manchester City is not going to drop him, but it depends when you are playing eight, 10 or 12 games in a season.”
But City are confident that the chance to work with Guardiola will prove decisive when he makes his choice.
City has John Stones, Nicolas Otomendi and Aymeric Laporte in central defence, but De Ligt is regarded as such a huge talent they can’t afford to let another club take him. Arsenal, Barcelona and Bayern Munich are all opponents of Manchester City in the auction-war for Guardiola, who is set to become Vargil van Dijk’s first Choice centre-back partner for Holland.