Manchester City required all 38 games to secure their place in next season’s Champions League, which was the absolute minimum. However, many will look back at Pep Guardiola’s debut season in charge as one which failed to live up to its lofty expectations.
A rare season for Guardiola without silverware was confirmed when they were defeated by Arsenal in the FA Cup semi-final. Much is to be done to assure that he and his team are back in the mix for trophies next season.
Undoubtedly, City need to strengthen their squad in the summer and with both Pablo Zabaleta and Gael Clichy confirmed to be leaving the club in the summer, fullback is a real area of concern for Guardiola.
Manchester City are presently one of the leading candidates to sign Tottenham’s Kyle Walker according to CrownBet’s online betting odds, and bringing the England international in would be a sensational piece of recruitment.
For a few years now, Walker has been one of the league’s best right-backs, a true modern-day fullback who can track up and down the flank and is a threat in the attacking third as well as being a resolute defender.
It’s claimed that Spurs would be open to offloading the £40m-rated defender and with the wages that City can offer, he won’t hesitate jumping ship.
That still means the left side of the defence has a huge question mark, and Monaco’s Benjamin Mendy is reportedly one of Guardiola’s top targets to replace Clichy.
Much like Walker, Mendy is everything you want from a fullback in today’s football and has formed one of Europe’s best tandems along with Djibril Sidibe, who is also on Guardiola’s radar.
City have simply just been too leaky in defence and much of that has been down to how poor their keepers have been.
Claudio Bravo, championed by Guardiola in the summer, has been a complete failure and really shouldn’t be their number one entering next season, while Willy Caballero’s contract is due to expire and Joe Hart doesn’t feature in his plans going forward.
Sunderland’s Jordan Pickford, probably England’s brightest young goalkeeper, is wanted by City to come and solve their ‘keeper issues but will likely cost in the region of £20m.
Solidifying a terrible back four is what Guardiola needs to do to not only make City a force in the league again but also in Europe and he must go out and acknowledge these issues he’s turned a blind eye to all season long.
