Following his side’s thrashing of Arsenal FC 5-0 today, Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola was asked about his team’s plans in what remains of the summer transfer window. The squad still does not have a true centre forward beyond Gabriel Jesus, as Tottenham talisman Harry Kane elected to stay put.
While they did break the British transfer fee record in signing Aston Villa captain Jack Grealish, they haven’t made a major signing beyond him, electing to opt out of their Cristiano Ronaldo pursuit at the end of this week. Ronaldo went back to his roots, returning to City’s cross-town rival, Manchester United.
Right now, it doesn’t look like they will either.
“I don’t think so,” Guardiola responded when asked if another player will arrive between now and the summer transfer window coming to an end on Tuesday at 11pm BST.
“We don’t need a striker because we scored five goals. You will see during the season how many people say we do [need one] when we don’t win.
“It is a fantastic squad. All I can say is thank you to Txiki [Begiristain] and Ferran [Soriano]. They know I never ask for one player. We try. Sometimes we can do it, and sometimes we don’t.”
He certainly has a point, as City are tied for the Premier League lead, with table toppers West Ham (ahead of Sunday’s matches of course), in goals scored with 10. They are first in the PL in goal differential at +9.
However, one must remember that managers play it close to the vest when it comes to transfers, as they should, because it’s in their best interests to do so. Some gaffers even throw up smoke screens, and we’ve seen Guardiola say one thing, and then his club does something entirely different.
He said in April that the club wouldn’t pursue a striker this summer, and they went hard after Harry Kane. In other words, you just don’t know what is going to happen between now and deadline day.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank, partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” has regularly appeared in WGN, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune.
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