Man City ready to sign a £41 million “engine”

It will be a busy summer for Manchester City.

On the pitch, Sky Blues competed at the FIFA Club World Cup, launching a campaign against Wydad Casablanca in Philadelphia on June 18th, before meeting Al Ain and Juventus.

Meanwhile, citizens were in January, which could make them busy in the transfer market, spending £180 million to recruit Abdukodil Kusanov, Omar Marmash, Nico Gonzalez, Vitr Reis and Juma Barr.

With a clear strategy to make this team younger, is the Sky Blues leading the tracking of another highly rated youth now?

Manchester City prepares for a new fullback bid

According to a report from Spain, Manchester City is “preparing” a bid to sign Benfica’s left-back Alvaro Carreras.

They claim that they are “attracting the attention of the 21-year-old Pep Guardiola,” and he has become a “priority option” as Man City tries to strengthen his left-back options.

Carreras actually spent time at Manchester United’s academy, making 42 appearances in Loan Spell during the season at Preston North End in the EFL Championship, but he joined Benfica for the reported 6 million euros (£5 million) in the summer of 2024, taking the game to a new level for Benfica for 6 million euros (£5 million) after completing his first loan move.

Now, the one-off Real Madrid starlet – reportedly has a release clause of 50 million euros (£41 million) but can move to the other side of Manchester, how well will he fit into Man City?

How Alvaro Carrera improves Manchester City

Football talent scout Jacek Kulig describes Carrera as a “good left-back,” while Portuguese football expert Kevin Fernandez describes him as “defensively solid” who considers him to be the “best” player on the market this summer and enjoys the rise of the “meteor” since moving to Lisbon.

The former United man has also been praised by Kulig for his “amazing engine and quality” at left back, and could prove a solution to Manchester City’s problematic status throughout the season.

Now, 20-year-old inexperienced offensive midfielder Nico O’Reilly is deployed there by Guardiola following a second half of the game-changed appearance from the bench in his FA Cup victory at Bournemouth last month.

Otherwise, Josico Gvaldior appeared to be the uncontroversial first choice for this role, but the versatile fullback Rico Lewis hasn’t started much on either side, and Matthew Nunes is the most common right-back in recent months.

So, let’s assess how the two young people compare, considering that Carrera probably takes Lewis out in a full-backpecking order.

This table is an interesting read as it comes up significantly above both in terms of property and the likelihood that Lewis created the metrics based on statistics since the start of last season.

Meanwhile, Carreras is a very good owner defender, highlighted by his tackle victory, ball recovery and airline duel rates, but the latter is slightly tougher at Lewis.

With Manchester City struggling significantly this season, they’re tasked with doing more defenses and an issue that some advocates couldn’t address, Carrera certainly addresses this issue and makes a great addition.