Nuno Mendes is on City's radar in the summer transfer window. (imago Images)
According to transfer expert Fabrizio Romano (h/t Mirror), Manchester City and Sporting CP have different valuations for left-back Nuno Mendes. City want the 19-year-old and are willing to pay as much as £25.9m for him, but the Portuguese side wants a transfer fee of around £43m for the highly-rated defender.
Mendes has spent his entire professional career on Sporting CP’s books and has already transformed into a vital first-team player for manager Ruben Amorim. The report mentions that while there is an impasse between City and Sporting, ‘one of them might buckle’ before deadline day. So, should that team be Man City?
Manchester City already have a quality squad that boasts of top players in each area of the pitch. One such area brimming with talent is the left-back position. The Citizens have Frenchman Benjamin Mendy and Ukraine international, Oleksandr Zinchenko, in their ranks. The two make for a potent duo and are also not getting old anytime soon, with Mendy 27 years old and Zinhencko just 24.
Thus, the area does not really require future-proofing already. Moreover, they have the versatile Joao Cancelo as well. The Portuguese international, who was signed in 2019 from Juventus for a mammoth £60m fee, can play on the right as well as the left flank. In fact, the 27-year-old has already played that position under Pep Guardiola a fair number of times.
Thus, City seemingly have three left-backs they can play and rotate as they wish throughout the course of this season. And neither of them are running out of their contract anytime soon as well. Mendy’s contract expires in 2023; Zinechenko’s deal runs out in 2024 while Cancelo is tied down at the Etihad until the summer of 2025 (h/t ESPN).
The overload of full-backs down that side is probably the reason why City loaned, and then permanently sold, Angelino to RB Leipzig when the German side activated the £16m buy-out clause earlier this year. So, where does Nuno Mendes fit in all of this? Do City have the luxury of keeping so many left-backs in their team and dividing enough game-time between them to keep them all content?
That is something which only time will tell. If they do sign Mendes, however, it would be difficult for the 19-year-old Portuguese talent to get regular first-team football. Aymeric Laporte, the highly-rated centre-back brought in from Athletic Bilbao, is already struggling for starts at City since Guardiola started trusting Ruben Dias and John Stones in his defence.
Laporte featured in more league games in the 2018/19 season (35) than he did in the last two seasons combined (31). He is known for his ability to play as a makeshift left-back if and when his team wants him in that position. So, instead of splashing out big money on Mendes, Guardiola has the option of distributing game-time to the Frenchman if City are ever without a natural starting left-back.
Hence, City are well stocked when it comes to the left-hand side of their defence. They have three capable left-backs and a 27-year-old Laporte who is tied to the club until 2025. Instead of splashing the cash on Mendes, it would be wise from City to look for a replacement for Sergio Aguero, who departed this summer, and perhaps even a central midfielder for the future.
