Talk of Pep Guardiola’s planned team at City has been a main feature of football transfer rumors lately, with countless players from around the world apparently part of his future preparations – the latest of them is current Barcelona and German keeper, Marc-Andre Ter Stegen.
As reported here, Ter Stegen is set to snub Liverpool for City, with Guardiola being a key figure in his choice. However, reaction to this from the City fans has somewhat surprised me; the majority have ‘stayed loyal’ to current number one, Joe Hart, and are against this transfer, but in reality you have to open your eyes a bit – suck it and see. Forget the sentiment, it’s football, and with that in mind, Ter Stegen at City makes a lot of sense and, I for one would be more than happy to see him between our sticks.
As much of an unpopular opinion as it may be, Ter Stegen actually replacing Joe Hart as City’s number one goalkeeper wouldn’t surprise me at all. The young German has it all and has already, at the age of 23, proven it on the biggest of stages; he has excellent reflexes and is comfortably confident on the ball. For £20million, Marc-Andre fits the bill, he’s Pep’s perfect sweeper-keeper and with little risk for massive reward, I would bite the hands off Barcelona should this deal come to light.
It’s for these footballing reasons as to why Pep would want to sign Ter Stegen. As reliably brilliant as he is, Joe Hart’s distribution is worrying, especially when you put that together with Pep’s typical style of play involving the keeper.
Gut feeling tells me throwing Ter Stegen in at the deep end right away would be the wrong move, and that Hart would still start a majority of league games next season whatever happens. However, with the right mentoring, the ex-Monchengladbach man has the capability to succeed Joe and become one of the league’s best – this isn’t to mention the pressure it would put on Hart for next season to perform, pressure that he would undoubtedly thrive off.
Currently out of favour at Barcelona, Ter Stegen is reportedly prepared to challenge instead at City. It’s all ifs and buts at this stage but, with these two in our ranks, it would be a win-win situation whichever shot stopper starts.
