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Opinion: Man City’s failure to land £170k-p/w striker puts boundless pressure on 39-cap man

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Germany striker Timo Werner rejected a potential summer move to Manchester City before joining Chelsea from RB Leipzig, according to Sport Bild’s Christian Falk.

Werner was hotly linked with a move to Liverpool before the coronavirus impacted the Premier League champions’ finances, leading Jurgen Klopp’s Merseyside outfit to end all interest in the 24-year-old who netted 34 goals in 45 appearances last season.

A move to the Etihad Stadium now appears to have entered the cards when Werner’s Anfield adventure fell of the table, with Falk stating that Pep Guardiola personally called the attacker to discuss a move to Manchester City.

Guardiola was met with a firm no, however, as Werner instead favoured a move to Stamford Bridge where Frank Lampard’s side would end up paying £47.5million and offer him a £170,000-per-week, five-year contract.

Werner has already gotten off to a strong start for the south west London outfit by scoring their only goal in a 1-1 draw with Brighton and Hove Albion with only his second touch of the game, and continued his pre-season form into the Nations League with Germany’s opening effort against Spain.

Is Jesus the long-term successor to Aguero?

Yes

No

If Guardiola did indeed contact Werner to discuss a move to the Etihad Stadium, it would more likely than not have been seen as the club’s efforts to obtain the long-term successor for Sergio Aguero with the Argentine’s current contract due to expire next summer.

Should that be the case, then it mounts boundless pressure on Gabriel Jesus to deliver this season and demonstrate why he is our next leading striker and efforts to obtain anyone else would simply be a waste of any transfer funds.

Jesus enjoyed his best Premier League season in front of the goal yet last term with 14 efforts finding the back of the net, bettering his 13-goal haul from the 2017/18 season, while also penning a career-best eight assists.

However, the 23-year-old did also feature more often than ever before with 34 appearances and 2,026 minutes on the field, close to double his game time from the previous term. Altogether, that means Jesus’ goal return was actually only his third-best for minutes per successful effort with one every 144.7 in 2019/20 compared to one every 93 minutes in 16/17 and 128.5 in 17/18.

The 39-cap Brazil international further only registered two of his 14 league goals last season against side’s who finished the campaign in the top-six, both against Leicester, compared to striking home 10 against bottom-half outfits and twice against 10th-placed Burnley.

If Jesus is to impress Guardiola and club chiefs this season, improving his output against the top sides would go a long way.

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