Manchester City to Sign Angelino Again

Manchester City have been looking for cover at left back for a couple of seasons and it seems as usual, the answer was apparent all along.

Manchester City signed Benjamin Mendy from Monaco and believed they had put their issues at left back behind them. Yet, the cunning plan executed at great expense by Pep Guardiola unravelled pretty quickly as Mendy unfortunately succumbed to serious injury.

Injury problems have wrecked the development of Mendy at City and have forced Guardiola to source alternatives, some of which have been a surprise. Firstly, he used Fabian Delph as a makeshift left back, building upon the fact Delph had played in that position before at Leeds as a youngster.

Secondly, he converted Oleks Zinchenko from an attacking midfielder to left back as cover, but even Pep must have been surprised at the success of this particular action.

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As the form of Delph faltered during 2018/19, Zinchenko stepped up and made the left back slot his own. Zinchenko became so consistent he enters 2019/20 season on the verge of a new contract and as first choice left back.

However, City have continued to search for more cover. Whether this is because Fabian Delph will move on this summer, or in the belief Zinchenko has reached his peak is not clear.

For most of last season City were linked with the purchase of Ben Chilwell from Leicester City but have cooled on this deal in recent months. The rumoured fee in excess of £60 million became a real sticking point.

The Spanish and Dutch press have reported our interest in another target this weekend, and that has seemingly been confirmed by those close to the club today. This new name will be a shock to many City fans because he was our player until a little over 12 months ago: Angelino.

Angelino was well thought of by many City fans who believed he would become good enough for our first team, and there was some disquiet when he was sold last year to PSV Eindhoven for around £6 million. But it would appear City inserted some buy back clauses into the deal which have to be used this summer.

Angelino joined City at age 15 and played initially for our Youth Development team before spending most of his time on loan at various clubs.

At PSV he has played 43 games, scored 1 goal and assisted 12. These stats have seen him named young player of the year and generated some considerable interest in securing his services amongst other clubs. It seems to be this level of interest which has alerted City.

Apparently PSG have offered £25 million to secure the signing and Arsenal are considering a bid.

Initially upon hearing the news Angelino was back on the City radar, I believed it would be simply to resell him for a greater profit. Now, I am not so sure and it would seem he is being signed to compete for the left back slot.

Where this may leave Zinchenko, Delph and Mendy is not clear but City appear to be involved in negotiating the return of Angelino. This could yet turn out to be a most surprising summer.