At Manchester City this summer, Pep Guardiola has the chance to repeat one of his past transfer masterclasses.
The Citizens paid £65 million to sign 23-year-old Ruben Dias from Benfica back in the 2020 summer transfer window.
Since then, the center-back has established himself as a key member of the Manchester club, recording 133 appearances in all leagues.
The treble winners now have the possibility to make a similar type of acquisition this time around, three years after the Portuguese international arrived at the Etihad Stadium.
With Gvardiol, Guardiola could recreate Dias’ masterclass.
Fabrizio Romano stated earlier this month that City and RB Leipzig have arranged discussions to discuss a potential trade for Josko Gvardiol, with whom they had already reached a personal agreement.
This put the Croatian in the same situation that Dias was when City signed him: a young center-back creating a reputation for himself at a major European club who would cost the Manchester club a sizeable sum of money to buy. The German club reportedly wanted €100 million (£86 million) to sell the Croatian.
When comparing the defensive pair’s past individual league seasons, they both managed to win a sizable amount of aerial duels (44 vs. 43), as well as make around the same number of tackles (21 vs. 23).
Mateo Kovacic, a City player, is one who is aware of what the Leipzig great is all about. Back in December, Kovacic called Gvardiol a “phenomenal” player.
In light of everything stated above, we believe that the 21-year-old has what it takes to continue Dias’ excellent run at City in Guardiola’s team.