Transfer News: Manchester City Linked to Paulo Dybala

Stories have emerged in the Italian Press in the last 24 hours suggesting Manchester City have made a transfer bid for the Juventus striker.

There are always health warnings which accompany any transfer rumour. The problem is that stories about transfers can be conjured up by any of the parties for a wide variety of reasons. Sometimes the player’s agent or representative is the key proponent of the story, often as a ploy to gain traction in contract negotiations or improved playing prospects for their client.

There are some transfer stories which seem to be created by journalists in their hunt for news, chasing the all important computer mouse clicks which drive revenue streams and payments for stories. Many of those rumours tend to be based on some truths and the journalists guess at the missing pieces.

The story which has appeared in the Italian press in Tuttosport appears to be the source of a succession of articles detailing the same – Manchester City have had a bid turned down for Paulo Dybala.

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The extent to which this story is accurate is unknown and Tuttosport has a mixed record on similar claimed stories. But let us look at the facts in the story as we know them in order to understand the veracity of the rumour.

Firstly Manchester City are likely to be involved in looking for another striker. Planning will be taking place in recognition that Sergio Aguero is entering the final phase of his contract and has professed a desire to return to Argentina. Securing the services of a world class centre forward will become a transfer priority for City in the next 12 months, to allow any new signing time to adjust to the demands of the Premier League and before any search becomes desperate and inflates the cost of any replacement.

Secondly, Dybala may well fit the bill for the kind of player City are looking for. He is a second striker who may well fit in quite well to the tactical approaches favoured by Guardiola. In 162 appearances for Juventus, Dybala has scored 75 goals and notched up 28 assists. This is an impressive return playing at a high level in a major league.

Thirdly, Dybala may be available. At Juventus the signing of Ronaldo has somewhat pushed Dybala out of his prime role and it is clear the club have gambled a huge amount of money and may need some return to offset their costs. Dybala has this season been forced into playing more of a supporting role and there have been rumours over the last few months that the player may be unhappy.

Finally, Manchester City are likely to have available the kinds of sums of money involved in securing such a high value talent. Indeed, the relative light spending so far may well be viewed as a war chest being built to facilitate a higher profile transfer.

The only real challenges to the rumour are that City may have some more pressing transfer needs to satisfy prior to securing a new striker – mainly a new left back and a defensive midfielder. Logic would dictate a striker would be behind those 2 acquisitions at this time, but it could be the running order of planned transfers may be disrupted by a player becoming unexpectedly available.

The media are reporting through Tuttosport that Dybala would need to realise a fee in excess of 100 million euros for the transfer to be agreed. Stories are circulating which suggest Manchester City have bid less than this and the initial offer has been rejected. Indeed the press are suggesting Bayern Munich, Paris Saint Germain and even Manchester United are circulating and interested.

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Whether this transfer rumour materialises into reality is unclear at the moment but given City are proclaiming there will be no business completed in January, the link alone is likely to generate lots of press stories in the coming days. As a City fan, my biggest hope is that Gabriel Jesus responds to the story on the pitch in the coming fixtures to cement his claim to the main striker jersey.

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