Manchester City: Transfer News and Rumour Roundup 7

The Healthy Competition

Geronimo Ruli, 24, Deportivo Maldonado, Goalkeeper

Well here’s an interesting one. Ruli has been the number 1 at La Liga side Real Sociedad for the last two years on loan and there’s conflicting stories about where his future lies. Futbol.as and a number of other Spanish media sites have reported Sociedad had signed him outright last month for a fee somewhere around £7million. Someone updated his Wikipedia entry to reflect this, but without a link.

However, Sociedad themselves never confirmed the signing and just this week The Express claimed he was City-bound for similar money to mentioned above. It would seem to me that while Sociedad may have agreed a fee with Deportivo Maldonado, their negotiations with Ruli never progressed on his own personal terms. Basically, he wants more money.

Whether the Blues really are close to picking up Ruli or not I don’t know, all stories with the Express as its sole source should be viewed with suspicion, but it certainly fits a trend. Since the summer began, City have been linked with a number of goalkeepers including Barcelona phenom Marc-Andre ter Stegen.

Why? Because Manchester City, or rather, Pep Guardiola, doesn’t fully trust Joe Hart to steady the ship this season. Hart had a bad Euros that did little to enforce his reputation as a shot stopper and has a history of somewhat poor distribution, a key factor Pep looks for in a keeper. Indeed, it was rumoured early on that Pep would move to replace Hart entirely, but club ownership identified Hart as a non-mover, saved by his performance last season (alongside Sergio Aguero, Kevin De Bruyne, Bacary Sagna, Fernandinho and a few others).

So what can Ruli bring to the table? Competition. He’s a solid keeper with youth on his side and displays more of the qualities that Pep would like to see from our number one. For this, Hart needs to fight for his place in the starting 11 and you’d be foolish to think he wouldn’t do just that.

Ruli is a good young prospect and could well be Hart’s successor one day too, but whether that’s good enough for him at present is unclear. Being Sociedad’s primary keeper and being good enough to do it for other clubs too is difficult to walk away from, even if it means playing under Guardiola and getting a bath full of cash money. I’m not sure whether he’ll join us, as the Express suggests, but keep an eye on the goalie situation because it’s clear someone, sooner or later, will take the offer.

Next: The Young International