Manchester City Must Keep Leroy Sane

Given his importance to the side, and potential to become even better, Manchester City must do everything they can to keep him this summer.

As the following slides show, Leroy Sane has been one of the most important players to Manchester City’s dominance over the past two seasons.

He’s improved statistically by just about every metric in each season he’s been at the club. His production has also been near or at the top of City’s attacking players as well. Without him, City would not be nearly the attacking side, particularly on the counter, that they are now.

His stats, alone, demonstrate why City should be doing everything they can to keep him.

Another major factor that should shape their thinking, however, is that Leroy Sane is far from a finished product. In fact, Sane may possess the highest ceiling of any player in the world at the moment outside of Kylian Mbappe.

Sane’s strengths as a player mirror those of another all-time great player, one who used to play on the red side of Manchester: Cristiano Ronaldo.

His incredible ability to dribble through tight spaces and with pace are eerily similar to the runs Ronaldo was making earlier in his career. He has a knack for scoring powerful driven shots, including occasionally on free kicks, just like Ronaldo was great at earlier in his career. Sane also has a slightly slimmer, but comparable build to Ronaldo. With additional coaching and focus, it’s not difficult to envision Sane becoming an aerial threat on set-pieces, and becoming even stronger physically than he already is.

The similarities in their physical attributes and style of play, however, only tell part of the story. Sane’s statistical production is quite similar to Cristiano Ronaldo’s production at a comparable age too.

In Sane’s age 21 season last year, he had 14 goals and 19 assists in all competitions (49 appearances). Ronaldo scored 23 goals and assisted 20 in his identical age season in 2006-07, Ronaldo, however, took a huge leap the following year, scoring 42 and assisting seven on his way to winning his first of several Ballon d’Or awards. Sane didn’t, though he maintained a very high level of production this season. Thus, his stats more closely mirror Ronaldo’s age 20 and 21 seasons than they do his age 22.

Given all of this, it should be clear that Manchester City should do everything they can to keep him at the club. Sane is too good, and possesses to much potential, for City to sell him now.

City have already been burned by the departure of one fantastic young winger in Jadon Sancho. They can ill afford to lose another now, especially someone who’s already proven that he’s one of the best wide players in the world.

Finding an adequate replacement for him may prove impossible too. Riyad Mahrez found himself in the same struggle for playing time as Sane this year, but played even less because he was not as good as him. Bernardo Silva excelled on the wing this season, but may be better suited to playing as a central midfielder long-term.

If City were to look to the market, it’s very unlikely that they could land someone better. The few individuals who are better than him right now, like Kylian Mbappe, would cost hundreds of millions of pounds and don’t seem inclined to leave their teams for Manchester.  Instead, they would likely be forced into buying someone much younger and earlier in their development, like Joao Felix (who they’ve been linked with). Even someone in this mold would carry a substantial, and, in all likelihood, club record transfer fee to land.

Given that the team has several other positions to address this summer, like Center Back, Right Back, Holding Midfield, and potentially Left Back, they may not be able to afford a massive transfer fee on a winger. The acquisition costs of the guys in those positions will be quite high. Throwing a winger into the mix, who’s probably going to cost at least 100 million pounds, would likely force the club to change their targets during the summer due to financial constraints, and, in turn, throw their entire transfer plan into chaos.

The club, however, may not have a choice. If Sane does decide that Bayern Munich presents a better career move for him, City may be forced to sell him now. If they are, he’s surely worth more than what Barcelona paid for Ousmane Dembele (estimated fee was 147 million euros). The fee they land would probably be enough for them to find a replacement if they so choose.

However, Manchester City should do everything they can to retain him.