Speaking on The Athletic’s ‘Deadline Day’ live stream, David Ornstein has claimed that Manchester City do not seem bothered about not signing a new striker.
It had been well-documented that Man City wanted to sign a striker this summer, with heavy interest in Tottenham Hotspur’s Harry Kane, but that move never materialised, with their highest offer reportedly being £100 million, while more recently they were thought to have attempted to bring Cristiano Ronaldo to the club, only to be edged out by city rivals Manchester United.
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The Premier League champions may not be too fussed about not having an out-and-out striker to replace Sergio Aguero, who departed for Barcelona, as Ferran Torres has been in top form this season since being deployed as a striker, scoring two goals and registering one assist in three league games.
Ornstein was speaking about how City are feeling, having not signed a striker as the deadline nears.
“If they’re panicked and stressed, they’re doing a good job of hiding it. Because everybody I speak to at and around Manchester City is very calm about the situation.
“They wanted to bolster and strengthen at the number nine position. Sergio Aguero leaving, despite the fact that he hadn’t played much last season, if at all and barely scored, meant that they weren’t losing out on a great deal from the season where they won the Premier League title and got to the Champions League final.
“However, they did see it as an area that could be addressed.”
TIF Thoughts on Man City’s striker situation…
Last year, Man City won the Premier League and Carabao Cup while reaching the Champions League final without having a natural striker playing for the majority of the season, as Aguero was injured for large parts of last campaign and Gabriel Jesus only started 22 games in the league, so Pep Guardiola may not have thought it was an absolute necessity to bring in a striker this summer.
Man City have splashed £100 million on Jack Grealish this summer, so it may have been even beyond them to then spend another £150 million on Kane, which is reportedly the fee that Daniel Levy wanted to initiate negotiations.
Ornstein went on to claim that the club would not exceed their own valuations of their targets in the transfer market, and it seems that they have evidently carried out their business with this approach in mind.
And having added Grealish for big money anyway, there is every chance City could yet improve on what was another pretty successful campaign last time out.