With Manchester City looking to chase down Liverpool for the Premier League title this season, we could miss out on one of our high-profile targets during the summer transfer window.
What’s been said?
The 22-year-old Lyon winger Houssem Aouar has been strongly linked with a move to the Etihad Stadium, having performed at an impressive level for his side in Europe and domestically, during a campaign that was cut short.
We weren’t the only side in England to take an interest in the France U21 international, with David Ornstein recently confirming that Mikel Arteta is having a look at the £44.5m-rated middle man.
Speaking on the Why Always Us? podcast, The Athletic’s Sam Lee ruled out any potential move from us for Aouar as other targets are considered to be a higher priority.
“I’ve said before, as far as I know, they don’t want him”, he said.
“They don’t want any midfielders. I checked on Friday night, and the message was the same – no midfielders. I asked about Aouar and my source was like ‘why Aouar?’ and I was like, ‘well, people talk about him loads,’ he was like ‘no, no, there’s no more midfielders’.
“But if you think about Aouar, the rumours weren’t just that City were interested in him, a lot of the rumours from the City end – not in L’Equipe or whatever in France – but the forum rumours and the stuff on Facebook groups, was that it had been done and they were waiting for the end of the Champions League, but patently, that’s not true.”
Phil Foden’s golden ticket
Even though David Silva has left the club, which was an extremely sad day for all of us that we couldn’t be there, there isn’t the need for us to go for any more midfielders right now.
While this could be disappointing news for some, I believe this gives Phil Foden a golden opportunity to continue his pursuit for regular first-team football under the watchful eye of Pep Guardiola.
Should City sign Aouar to succeed Silva?
Yes, get the deal done
No, we have Foden
The lad bleeds blue. I want to see the England international succeed with us more than anybody. But this is not to say that Aouar is a bad player.
He has scored 23 goals and provided 27 assists in 137 appearances for Lyon, which is by no means a bad record, per TransferMarkt.
But I cannot hide my soft spot for Foden. This stance suggests that Guardiola has big plans for him next season, and can hopefully turn him into one of England’s next great players.