Manchester City are currently in a strange predicament, lying in fourth position in the Premier League with a genuine chance of not getting Champions League next season.
For a club of City’s stature and where the club wants to, that is quite frankly not good enough – especially with Pep Guardiola coming in the summer.
But we’ll brush that aside for the time being and propose a hypothetical question.
The teams around City are full of players of a good quality – and many could actually add something to a City side that has become stale and far too predictable for the opposition to suss out.
So we’ve opted to pick a player from each of the top six sides (bar City) who we think would be of use to Manchester City.
There’s a few candidates but we think we’ve just about nailed it.
As always, we welcome your thoughts so please provide your opinions by tweeting us @ReadManCity.
Leicester City: Riyad Mahrez
A fairly obvious choice. The Algerian has been utterly sublime for the league leaders, hitting 16 goals and notching 11 assists. City could have done with someone like him this season.
Tottenham Hotspur: Harry Kane
The current top scorer with 21 goals, Harry Kane has been in blistering form after seemingly being written off following a slow start. He would be a near-perfect foil for someone of Sergio Aguero’s ilk.
Arsenal: Nacho Monreal
There’s a case for leaning towards the mercurial talents of Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez, but I’ve gone for Nacho Monreal. He’s been a steady, reliable performer for the Gunners at left-back; one City’s weakest areas on the pitch.
Manchester United: Chris Smalling
Naturally, City fans wouldn’t take many United players at the Etihad but Chris Smalling would be my pick. He’s improved dramatically while City have been plagued by defensive howlers and mishaps.
West Ham United: Dimitri Payet
Last but certainly not least is West Ham’s MVP Dimitri Payet. He’s been an integral part of West Ham’s success under Slaven Bilic and it’s genuinely a pleasure to watch him play football.
He’s also pretty handy at free-kicks which is always a bonus.