Former Premier League player Carlton Palmer doesn’t believe there is a cat in hell’s chance that Manchester City would let Aymeric Laporte leave even if they got a king’s ransom for him.
During the summer the Daily Mail reported that Juventus and Real Madrid had shown an interest in Laporte and that City had agreed that if a £60m bid comes in for the defender, they wouldn’t stand in his way.
Are you happy that Laporte stayed at Manchester City?
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Fast forward to now and he has once again been linked with Real Madrid. Palmer, though, can’t see the Premier League champions being open to a sale and doesn’t think they ever were despite the reports.
“He’s an absolute rarity,” he told This is Futbol. “There’s not a cat in hell’s chance Man City would have let him out even if they got a king’s ransom for him.
“To have a left-footed centre-half of his quality, there’s just not a cat in hell’s chance he’ll be going anywhere for years to come.”
Laporte saw his game time limited last season with John Stones and Ruben Dias the preferred centre-back pairing. The Spanish international featured 27 times for the Cityzens in all competitions but started just 14 Premier League matches and three UEFA Champions League games but did start in all of City’s FA Cup and Carabao Cup fixtures.
After doing the double last term, winning both the Premier League and Carabao Cup, Pep Guardiola is going to need to use all of his squad this season again as City compete in four competitions.